It Starts with a Spark

Chapter 17
You know how people use the saying “rude awakening”? I really think that they should meet Tony Stark.
“Hey! You two! Wake up!” Tony shouts at us, as he hip-checks the bed, nearly sending us flying. I glowered at Tony,
“Morning Princess!” Tony says, faux-sweetly.
“Whatever.” I grumble as I climb out of the be, leaving a very bedraggled Peter in my wake. Steve bonded into the room, looking, well like he had a job for me to do.
“The girl you guys took down last night is awake. I thought you might want a few words with her.” Steve says, looking at me and frowning. “Oh and Anna,” Steve calls as I leave the room,
“Yeah?” I ask, “Your actions last night, have you in some deep waters. So be careful.” He says sternly.Oh, that’s right the reporter.
“She deserved it.” I call as I leave the room.
Veronica was in the first interrogation room. Well the first power-dampening interrogation room. When I walk in we both have a bit of surprise.
She recognizes me, I realize; I’d forgotten to change out of my tattered clothes from the night before and I’m still wearing my cloak but the hood is down. My surprise is how sad she looks.
I don’t mean sad, as in she feels sad because she dropped her ice cream cone. Sad like, it hurts to look at this girl she looks so pitiful.
I’d never spoken to Veronica, but I’d seen her in the halls, and I she was a cute kid. I guess. She was the type of girl to pay close attention to her appearance and yet she looked like she hadn’t seen a mirror in months. If ever. Her once elegant brown hair was limp and hung about her face in ugly clumps. Her face, which was always so open and innocent is now pale and horrified; jumping at every noise. She flinches away from me when I sit down.
“You’re the girl who stole Mary-Jane’s boyfriend, Peter.” She states simply.
“Is that really how everyone sees me? A home-wrecker?” I ask, she nods. “I didn’t steal Peter; he’d broken up with Mary-Jane for a while. She just didn’t accept it until she saw him kissing another girl.” I defend, Veronica just looks at me blankly.
“Why are you here?” she asks
“Well that’s a long story, one I’m not sure I want to tell you. So why don’t you tell me what happened to you?’ I ask. She shifts in her chair, not meeting my eyes,
“It started with this guy online, he was older, eighteen, nineteen. I don’t know. He was sweet, he told me I was beautiful, and we could talk for hours. He listened to me, about anything. We talked for months, and then he told me he was coming to New York. That he had a job interview here and he asked if I wanted to meet up somewhere. I said yes.” She pauses for a second, her face faraway and distant. “We were supposed to be going to see a movie, but he stood me up. Texted me later and said that something had come up. Asked if I would come to his hotel room. I went, and when I got there he let me in. That’s the last thing I remember. Before, the labs. He was in on it. Them taking me, whoever they were. Those people drugged me, experimented on me. They made me want to do things I didn’t want to do. Things I knew were wrong. I hurt so many people, I did a lot of bad things. I- I tried to kill Spider-Man.” She sobs, just as Peter (costume and all) leaps into the room, startling both Veronica and I.
“Were you two talking about me?” he asks as he slips into the chair beside me. Veronica doesn’t reply, just sits there looking from me to Peter and then from Peter from me.
“I- um. Peter Parker is Spider-Man?” she asks dumfounded. Peter falls out of his chair, nearly taking the table down with him.
“Um…” I say, unsure of what to say exactly. We can’t deny it. But we also can’t confirm it either. Veronica rolls her eyes,
“It’s quite obvious that you, Anna are Red Hood. Red Hood is with Spider-Man. EVERYONE has seen the pictures. Anna doesn’t seem like the type of girl o two-time a guy, so Peter is Spider-Man.”
Well this just got fun.

Notes