jessica drew / spider-woman (venomblast) wrote in thedoorway, @ 2013-05-29 02:59:00 |
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Thank god for actually having a job, Jess thought, paying the vendor money for the ice cream (two scoops in one). Okay, so she wasn’t really working that much right now because despite having skills, having a teenager around SHIELD that was already emotionally unstable before becoming a teenager, that put a damper on her skill sets. But at least if she needed to whoop anyone’s ass right now, she could still do it. The chances of anything happening at a zoo, though, were nil; at least she hoped because six-year-old Ben was probably not going to provide much of a backup. “Alright, just as promised. Two scoops of ice cream. For saying that I’m your favorite and actually escaping the tower with me.” This week was hell. And as much as she loved her friends, they were all still their same age. And she wasn’t about to go hunt down this world’s Bruce or Clint when the best thing for her was to just stay away from men altogether. Well, Ben was an exception. Because Ben was a little kid. Ben carefully licked at the ice cream around the cone. Careful. Careful. Lightly. The words constantly streamed through his head. They had been since the start of the week. Aside from the size difference, the powers had been the most stressful part of this whole fiasco. But hey, second childhood, or first depending on your point of view, so it wasn’t all bad. Mostly. “So is this where I say you’re my favorite again to guarantee that toy?” he teased before shrugging. “Need to make the most of this, right? And yay! Zoo! Plus ice cream.” He took another lick before glancing around. “And really, you should be getting all the thanks. Me wandering ‘round the big scary city like this isn’t the best idea. Even if it’d be hilarious to watch anyone try and catch me and drag me back home.” Jess just had a visual of Ben accidentally shooting his web at a lion and getting dragged along with the scared animal. Yeah, that would not have been good idea in terms of public relations for all the refugees. "Hey, listen, I'm just glad you didn’t tap on the glass of all the snake and spider exhibits. That would have definitely made news." Like it wasn't bad enough that Jameson constantly made Peter into a menace. "For that, you can definitely have a toy." She frowned slightly, looking around the area. All day, she'd gotten someone pointing in her direction or snapping pictures. It hadn't been bothersome before because oh my god animals! And.... making sure Ben didn't break anything. Now that it was the end of the day, it was hard to notice anymore. "Huh. My hair can not be this fascinating. Unless it is then I should have bought that hair dye on Sunday anyway." “Got to give them love too,” Ben said with a shrug and a smile. “Everyone’s always giving their love to the mammals. Plus they’re all nicer when they’re not... y’know... attacking you.” Glancing around, his brow furrowed slightly as he took another bite of ice cream. “It’s a nice look. I like it, but I’ve already told you I’m biased. Redheads. Gotta love ‘em.” Jess gave him a half smile as she shook her head. She had the urge to mess up his hair right there and then too but she thought better about that. Instead, she leaned back and licked up some of her own ice cream before talking again. “Yeah, I know. You and red-heads. It’s a good thing you didn’t become a hormonal teenager yourself.” She paused momentarily to grab a tissue from her bag and wipe off a part of the ice cream that had accidentally melted off the rim of the cone and onto her finger. “I can’t do it,” she started saying. “I can’t go back to being a red-head. I mean this is something else and hoping we change back soon but...” Jess sighed, and shook her head. “I dyed my hair black to hide myself from an organization that brainwashed me from when I was young, when I came out of a freaking decade-long coma.” This wasn’t something she normally talked out. She probably hadn’t even said this much to Tony or Steve although chances are that they would have found out about her past anyway. The only other person who knew was Carol. “The red? Just reminds me of what I was trying to get away from so. I prefer black.” “I think Petey might have locked me in my room with a twenty-four hour guard if that were the case,” Ben said with a snort. “Because, yeah, total teenage stud. No way you would have been able to resist me.” Looking over at Jess, he gave her a sympathetic nod. Because, yeah, he got that. Got that a bit too well. “Hey, I like the black too. You look good with the black hair.” He offered her a reassuring smile. “So, when we get turned back, if our hair isn’t all back to normal again, we can have a hair dying party. What do you say? I’ll even let you toss in painting my nails if you really want to girl it up.” Jess laughed, because the idea of being attracted to him was... well... okay, Ben was good-looking but it felt weird to even think that when he was six years old right now. And in that instant, Jess suddenly realized how Tony must have felt whenever she said something full of innuendo. Sheesh. “You would do that for me? Aww. Keep that a promise and we can go get a stuffed spider right now. Well... after you finish your ice cream.” And she hers. “And you know what? If we’re not back to normal by prom, we are going to go ahead and dye our hair anyway. Hair dye is safe for children, right? Because I rather think of that than think ‘oh god my powers are gone forever’.” “Yeah, of course,” Ben said with a shrug as he paused to take another lap at his ice cream cone. “I mean, hello, I kinda get where you’re coming from and all. Might not be the whole hiding from a brainwashing organization thing, but...” His small shoulders lifted in another shrug. “I get it. Even without the bribery of a toy.” He puffed out a sigh, his long bang fluttering up with the action. “I don’t know. I don’t really check ages on hair dye. The bleach can’t be that good, but then that’s bad for anyone if you leave it in too long. So here’s hoping my first prom won’t be while I’m six.” He took another bite of ice cream as he studied Jess, wondering the best angle to go with and settling with the straight forward one. “Ok. So. The flying stuff isn’t working how it was before, yeah, but are all your powers gone? I mean, I haven’t really gotten to do the Avengers’ origin story share time, so... Ben’s in the dark again. He’s there often.” Jess, in the meantime, was pretty much licking off all parts that still had sprinkles on them. You could never enjoy sprinkles too much. She wiped one corner of her mouth with her thumb before looking over at Ben. “Hah, well. Interesting story behind that one.” On instinct, she glanced around the area before continuing. “I still have most of my powers. The only reason I don’t have my flying power was because I didn’t have them with the rest of them. I got them from the Skrulls.” She let that sink in for a bit before continuing. “Like, you know... they take my face, they take a good chunk of my life, and in return, they give me a power that I become so dependent on that it’s the first thing I panic about when I realize I’m a teenager again.” Okay, it had been more than that. She got her flight power but she had known she was going to get it thanks to Fury who had convinced her to play double agent with HYDRA. And it had turned out that hadn’t been HYDRA after all. “I went in for one operation and came out... stuck in a ship for days. With the ability to fly.” Ben stared at Jess, piecing what she was saying with the slow but steady history lessons Peter kept giving him. Which, geez, it was hard enough keeping track of everything when he was in New York, let alone years of history. He blinked out of his processing when cold drips of ice cream oozed over his fingers. He wrinkled his nose a moment before licking around the cone and then trying to clean off his fingers as well. “At least you got a consolation prize? Yeah, doesn’t make the situation any better, but look on the small bright side?” He made a slight face. “That sounded better in my head. But yeah understandable freak out considering, but at least you’re not powerless, right? Not that I know how you’re part of the big spider family other than the fact that I’m pretty sure we’re not related because pretty sure Peter would have mentioned that. Maybe. He can be forgetful in his old age.” Jess let out a snort and rolled her eyes. “Oh, yeah, a consolation prize. Good way to look at it.” Yeah, that had done wonders for her self-esteem. Jess reached back into her bag and pulled out an extra napkin, holding it up for Ben to take. “Don’t worry, sweetcheeks. If you’ve had dirty thoughts about me while you were still twenty-six, it’s not like you were having them of your cousin or something.” She sighed, tilting her head back, reliving everything she knew about herself. It wasn’t the complete story. There were bits and pieces that she couldn’t remember herself and had to find out from another source. Sometimes it was hard to tell what was real or not. “The rest of my powers? I was born with them. Freak accident. My father experimented on spider DNA and I was exposed when I was still a fetus. And so from the moment I was born, I was probably never his daughter at any point, but just another... test subject.” She shrugged. This was a bit depressing. Or actually, it would be if there hadn’t been ice cream. That made it better. “Just our luck that it had to be spider DNA, and Peter and I met and then you and I met. Destiny! Or something. Okay, you have the gist of my story. Anything I can know about yours?” “Hey, got a chunk of my life taken and gifted someone else’s face and didn’t even get a T-shirt, so flying powers sounds super positive to get out of the deal.” Ben made a face as he took the napkin and wiped his hand clean as best as he could. “Not that I want extra powers. I’m fine with the ones I’ve got, universe. No need for burning hands over here.” Test subject. He knew how that felt in theory. He had flashes, dreams, of life before, but there was no telling how real they were. The Jackal had played with both of his and Peter’s minds enough. Implanting memories. Who knew what was actually real with those. He worked on his ice cream as he thought because she gave him a really good out. He didn’t have to talk about it, but she’d answered his questions. Even if all the openness threw him off and was still a little freaky, it was also... a relief. Freeing. Not having to hide and lie all the time for once. His tiny shoulders lifted in a shrug. “Professor Warren didn’t like Peter, so he made me in order to torment him.” Oversimplified. Without the reasons, but Ben didn’t want to go into Gwen’s or Osborn’s role in the matter. “He programmed me with all of Peter’s memories, made me believe I was Peter Parker. Like completely and utterly convinced on the matter. Dumped us both together for your typical fight to the death. I lost.” He wobbled his head back and forth. “Not really like Pete beat me, but there was an explosion, I was dead, but not. Woke up confused, only to go home and...” He shrugged again. “Game of musical chairs is over and the one chair’s taken. So I left.” He tilted his head to the side as he looked down at his hand and flexed his fingers. “It’s weird still having powers. I’ve got all these memories ‘bout being like this and they don’t match up. I keep feeling like I should be pushing up my glasses and I got to try real hard to get something done, but instead I’m knocking my head on the ceiling and breaking everything. It’s freaky.” Jess was like someone devouring popcorn while watching an intensely dramatic movie. Except this time, it was her ice cream she had managed to lap up quickly while she listened to him. Well, fuck. Seriously. It was one thing to have a clone or be a clone and another thing to have your mind completely fucked up like that by someone all thanks to the cloning thing. “And this is your first time being six.” Jess frowned. No one should ever be allowed to take anyone’s childhood like that. It was a bit complicated though with Ben and Peter but... still. That shouldn’t have happened. “So whatever happened to him? Warren, I mean. Did either of you beat the living shit out of him? Because that’s pretty much what I would have done. Is that why you were beaten up like crazy when you came here? And if that part’s been mentioned already, the only reason I’m still clueless about that is because I was distracted by recently discovering that my then boyfriend cheats on me.” Ben was doing fine until the whole beaten up part. He tensed. He couldn’t help it and, really, it shouldn’t have been a big deal. A little tension, that’s it, no biggie. Make a joke to cover it up and brush it off. Except that as soon as he tensed, his grip tightened around the ice cream cone. Yeah, not the most stable of structures to begin with. He started as the cone shattered and splattered ice cream over his hand and clothes. He blinked a moment before making a face. “Shit. Sorry. Um... Probably should’ve gone for a cup instead, right?” he said with a touch of a nervous laugh. “Well, that’s a waste of ice cream,” Jess said wincing. She would have raised an eyebrow at his reaction, but she was too busy pull napkins from her handbag and placing it in his hands. But that didn’t seem like it was going to be enough because this was ice cream. Sticky fingers, galore. “Alrighty, Benjy, you’ll get two scoops when we’re back to normal.” She started to get up and at the same time, reached over to grasp Ben from under his shoulders and hoisted him off the bench. “Restroom. Let’s go. Keep your hands up. Uhh, nope, not that way. I don’t trust you not to break the faucets so we’re going in here.” She pulled gently at his arm in the direction of the ladies’ restroom instead. There was not a care in her head that the boy she was taking in there with her really had a mind of a twenty-six-year-old. That seemed trivial next to a kid who might just break things that a kid his age should not. They’d laugh about this afterwards, she was sure of it, anyway. “What? You mean ice cream lotion isn’t the next big thing? I really thought I was onto something,” Ben shot back before he leaned back against Jess’ hold. “Oh no. I’m not going in there. You all go in packs to the bathroom for a reason. I know it. There’s more in those machines than just tampons.” He only resisted for a moment though. Fighting back, not such a good idea now considering how he’d just pulverized an ice cream cone without even trying. All they really needed was for him to break free and tumble back into something. Or someone. So, instead, he put on a grade A pout. “Man, this is so humiliating. Like, really, really humiliating. Are you sure I didn’t get stuck as a teenager, because I’m pretty sure this is getting on level with teenage humiliation moments.” Jess rolled her eyes. “What? You mean you’re not the type of guy to think we have sofas and back-massaging chairs in there and that’s why we spend so long in the bathroom?” The restroom was... well, somewhat crowded. A small line of older women with their children and teenagers waiting to use the next free stall. It was Friday. Not surprising. But that was not where they needed to go and so Jess pulled Ben over to the faucets and proceeded to dampen some paper towels and wash off the ice cream. “Actually, you being a teenager would have been better,” she mumbled low enough for just him to hear. “Then you wouldn’t be so small.” That was the fortunate part of de-aging to this age. At least she didn’t have to worry too much about her clothes... her height hadn’t changed (and neither had her cup size but that was besides the point). Once she was done cleaning what she could off of his clothes, she turned him around and scooped him up from behind, holding him directly over the faucet. “Wash your hands,” she directed, ignoring a woman behind her cooing at how adorable they looked. Really, lady? Like no big sister has ever had to take care of a younger sibling? Ben’s jaw tightened and he rolled his eyes. “If I was a teenager, we’d be having other problems, Ms. Handsy-in-the-ladies-room,” he pointed out in the same quiet voice. ‘Carefully’ repeated through his head again as he put his hands under the faucet. Restraint and careful, especially since he wouldn’t mind breaking something right now. He didn’t like this part of this whole de-aging thing. Being tiny and weak again, except not really weak, but it wasn’t like he could just climb up the wall to wash his hands here or perch up on the counter. “Ugh this is so embarrassing,” he grumbled before looking over his shoulder at Jess and putting on his best innocent look. Might as well go with it. “Did I do good? Do I get to ride the camels ‘gain like you promised?” Jess let out of a snort at the teenage comment and had half a mind to make a comment back but then decided to wait till they were outside. Here, the sound echoed. Not a good idea. Instead she lifted him higher, tucking him under one arm. “Yes, you did! Let’s go see the camels! Time to make like a plane and jet out of here!” Still carrying him horizontally, she rushed out of the restroom with him, making airplane noises, and forcing people to one side. It was corny, and probably cringeworthy but damned if it didn’t have her cracking up as she got out and swung him down to the ground in one motion. Ben laughed as a wide grin spread across his face. Ok, yes, it was another possible level of embarrassment and horribly cheesy, but it was fun. And other than spidey-backing Peter, about the closest he could get to ‘flying’ right now. “Where’s a camera when you need one?” he giggled as he shifted his weight to get solidly on his feet. “And you made a pun. Just for me. I feel special. I might even start tearing up. But only if it means I’ll get more airplane rides. Sure you haven’t looked into giving up the superhero thing and going into babysitting? ‘Cause you’re doing an A+ job right now on it.” “Babysitting. Yeah, okay.” Jess ruffled his hair a bit before falling into step with him, her hand on his shoulder, as they headed in the direction of the zoo’s gift shop. “If only because I know you have a mind of a 26-year-old in there. A 26-year-old who apparently wants a stuffed spider toy.” She was tempted to go back to the topic that was being discussed before but this... this was too much fun to spoil. And considering his reaction, it didn’t seem like it was something Ben would have been ready to discuss. Jess could understand that. “And I was going to say back there that if you were a teenager, I am pretty sure we wouldn’t be at the zoo together, handsome.” She gave him a wink and two thumbs up at the same time as she said that. Which... would have been much more weird if she hadn’t known he still had his adult mind in there. “Yeah, pretty sure we’d never be leaving our rooms if I was a teen. For one reason or another,” Ben said with a laugh. “Although you know there totally would’ve been some action in the reptile room. Make those snakes jealous.” He wrinkled his nose as he tried to straighten his hair out. “I could go for the science kits instead, but betting they cost a whole lot more.” He tilted his head as he looked up at Jess. “So... discovering that your boyfriend cheats on you? Um... what did I miss there?” "Oh so it's really snakes that get you off, is it, Ben? Damn you find out something new about your partner in crime everyday." Or every hour as it seemed today. And then they were to a discussion that she wasn't all too sure she wanted to have. But she had asked him a pretty sensitive question back there as well. Jess shrugged, releasing a heavy sigh. "I woke up with a brand new set of memories thanks to the Tesseract. Apparently it does that to keep people up to date on what's going on back home and to fucking torture us." She wrinkled her nose a bit before continuing. "Woman shows up at the mansion, kisses Clint, asks for help, I find him later at his apartment -- that I never even knew about, mind you, and -- and yeah, he cheated. Had a bit of a good time." She shrugged again before reaching up with one hand to scratch the back of her neck, her copper curls falling forward as she ducked her head. "He swears it won't happen here but I remember it clearly. Also remember the whole slew of insecurity issues that have always been between us and I just decided I can't do this. It's really me, not just him." Ben made a face as he listened to Jess. “Man, that sucks and kinda makes me glad I at least don’t have that torture waiting in the wings for me.” He blew out a long breath. “That’s hard really. I mean, even if he says he won’t, you know that there’s a situation where he might. How far in the future is this thing? I’m kinda really bad with timelines here other than being pretty sure all of you are years ahead of me.” “Within six months after I came here. That’s not... as far as anyone thinks. Six months can pass pretty damn quickly.” As they approached the gift store, Jess felt herself relax a little more. This topic? Bit unnerving although it wasn’t the worst thing she could talk about. It was probably because the break-up had been a lot more recent then, well.. her childhood and Hydra. “Alright, kiddo. Time for a hunt for that spider plush? What if they have none, what’s the next thing you’ll get?” “Oh don’t I know it. Six months flies and what? Eight apocalypses in that time? Time moves fast and is full to bursting.” Ben shrugged as he covered a big yawn with his hand. He shook his head before bouncing forward a few steps. Bouncing carefully. Carefully. All he needed was to go through a shop wall. Or ceiling. “I don’t know.” He smirked mischievously. “We’ll just have to see. I’ll try to not go for the most expensive thing there. Try being the key word.” |