The Revenger (Part 1)

Mia opened her eyes. This is what she had been waiting for. This was the day she began working on what she planned out for the past decade of her life. She worked hard for it, and now, the 17-year old just had to execute her plan. She was ready. Nothing could stop her from doing what she wanted, and truly, nothing could. Her plan was fool-proof.

After getting ready in her rental, she walked into the hustle-bustle atmosphere of MIT. No matter how well thought out her plan was, MIT admissions were the one thing it all depended on, and she had got in. Anyways, she moved towards her first class and saw a bunch of people. 

‘I have to find him’, she thought. Her face seemed expressionless, yet her heart almost skipped a beat when she realized that her future depended on everything she did from this day forth.

Almost sleeping her way through the first lecture, it didn’t even take a second for Mia to walk out when the professor said, “Class dismissed.”

She found some students, college-mates walking together. Seemed as if they knew each other. Yes they did. From her research, and from what her drowsy brain could recall, this group of students were definitely friends with the guy she was looking for. 

She walked up to them and said, “Hey! I am Mia. I am a fresher here.”

“Hi!” Said the girl, her face seemed solemn and her body language matching her face. 

The other two just smile. Mia continued, “You guys seem to know each other. I am new here, can we be friends?”

One of the boys spoke up, “We’re all new here?”

“Oh, yes! But I am new in this country, the general area. Everything is so different for me and I feel that since you all were talking to each other in class, maybe, maybe we could be friends?” Mia’s voice faded out towards the later part of her sentence. She was feeling disheartened. If this didn’t work, she would fail. And she couldn’t fail, no matter what.

The girl spoke up again, “Oh of course! Don’t mind Flash. He is very uncordial with people. Guess he never took the ‘politeness’ class. I’m MJ. Where are you from?”

“I am….well, from….” Mia said after a pause. Why hadn’t she thought this part out before? Her ‘plan’ was clearly failing.

“Nevermind where you are from. What’s your major? I am Ned by the way.” The shorter boy said. 

“I’m majoring in computer science. What about you guys?”

And with that, it was the start of a new friendship. Sure, Flash was a pain sometimes, but MJ and Ned were the best people Mia had ever met. The girls had their conflicts too, but everything panned out well towards the end. 

In the same campus, there was a boy, unknown by anyone, trying to find his friends. He had sacrificed everything and was now back to being the ‘invisible person’. He was waiting for the right time. Then he’d tell them. Till then, Peter studied during the day, and was the good ol’ friendly neighborhood Spider-Man during the night. 

. . .

Days passed, there was nothing much that happened. Mia was happy with her new friends, her new life. MJ, Flash and Ned were cool with everything. On the other hand, Peter was still looking for the ‘right time’. Something that might never come, unless he worked on it.

One day, during free hour, Mia was sitting with her friends in the campus park. They were talking about this silly thing and laughing. Suddenly she saw Peter. Quickly, she got up and said, “Hey! You! The boy in the blue shirt! Yes, you. Wait up.” 

Picking up her pace to catch up, Mia started talking with Peter. “I am Mia. I saw you in some of my classes.”

“Hello. I am Peter. Nice to meet you.” Peter said, sounding confused.

“Well, I know you, Peter. And I know that you want to meet MJ and Ned. I can help you.”

Peter’s eyes shot up. Nobody knew that, not even Happy, one of the only people he had really seen and ‘connected’ with after…Well, after the ‘wipeout’, as he liked to call it.

He ushered Mia aside, in the alley between the buildings so that nobody would eavesdrop on their conversation. Before he could even speak again, Mia said, “I know that you are Spider-Man. If you want to be able to talk to Ned and MJ ever again, well, come to the Statue at 7 today. Don’t ask me any questions, and don’t you dare follow me. You must know very well that whatever happened with Mysterio can happen again, and this time, no Doctor Strange will be able to save you ‘cause you are smarter than that, I think.”

With this, Mia left. She thought that Peter was smart enough to tell which statue she was talking about. She went on her day as normal, while Peter was confused. His ‘tingle’ was telling him to follow the mysterious girls’ order, but his mind was somewhere else. He wanted to apply logic. How would a stranger know something that only he knew about? He had tried his best to keep everything a secret, and Strange could never be wrong, could he?

. . . 

As his phone rang for the fifth time that hour, Peter looked down from his webs onto the bustling New York city. It surely had been a huge task getting from MIT to NYC in less than five hours. He was exhausted, but in the end, he followed through what his ‘tingle’ thought. If the girl wasn’t talking about the Statue of Liberty, then it would definitely be a longer day than Peter had thought, and the days these past few months had been longer than ever, at least since the ‘wipeout’.

At seven sharp, Peter saw a figure on the top of Lady Liberty. It didn’t look like Mia at all. In fact, it looked a lot like…it can’t be.

“M-Mr. Stark?” Peter said, tears almost forming in his eyes. 

“You thought I was Stark? Funny. No, I am not Peter. And don’t you call me ‘Iron Man’ either. I think I’d prefer to remain anonymous for now. Well, anonymous as a super. Now, I believe you have some questions?” Mia said through the Iron Man suit.

“As a matter of fact, I do. Firstly, how do you know me?”

“I can’t tell that.”

“Okay, why are you here? Why are you trying to help me?”

“Can’t say any of that either.”

“Why are you wearing Iron Man’s suit?”

“Well, that’s one thing I can tell you. But you need to give me something first.”

“Go on.”

Although Peter couldn’t see it, Mia had a sly smile on her face. Her plan was working. She continued, “You know that fancy pair of glasses Tony Stark left you, EDITH? I want that.”

“No way.” Peter got ready to attack her, when she showed him something he thought he’d never see again. MJ and Ned, hanging on the Golden Gate Bridge. She had to work the whole night yesterday to get the illusion working. Thank goodness it was working alright. Mysterio’s legacy worked well.

“Give me EDITH, and I’ll let go of your friends. This time.”

Peter was not ready to take the risk. Not again, not after what happened last time. He would do anything to protect his friends. Besides, she was asking for EDITH, not the controls for it.

“Ok, ok. Take it.” Peter threw the glasses from where he was sitting towards Mia and she caught them, laughing. She then said, “Make sure that you keep an eye on your friends. They are gonna need all the help they can get. Something might happen.”

Parker turned to leave, when he heard that shrill, weird voice of Mia again, “And yeah, if you want them to be safe, make sure that the Avengers are at the Oscorp building tomorrow. All of them, at least those of them who are left.”

“The Oscorp building? You mean Norman Osborn’s building? Are you from his universe?”

“Yeah, the….oh! It’s the Avengers tower now, yeah. The Avengers tower.”

Peter swinged out of the city, and into the night sky. He didn’t know why, but something seemed off. He didn’t think that he would ever do this, but he backed off, without a fight. Something was truly wrong.

. . . 

The next day, he went about his day normally. Whenever he glanced at Mia, she was talking and having fun with friends – his friends. Even Flash behaved well around her! He couldn’t do anything, it felt that everyone was in a trance around her. Then, as the group passed by Peter, Mia intentionally said in a loud voice, “So guys, let’s go to New York this weekend. And no, you can’t say no. I’ve already booked the flights. I really want to see the Avengers tower, after all, that’s where the people who saved my life from the blip work.”

Flash laughed and said, “You really think that the Avengers work in the Avengers Tower? You’re crazy.”

Crazy or not, Mia got the message across the person she wanted to, and he understood the assignment well.

. . .

Hours later, Mia was standing on the sidewalk in front of the Avengers Tower. Peter didn’t come, and so did the Avengers. She had to do this. Mia changed into the suit and got ready. She was going to do it, she was ready.

Soon enough, all the news reporters, including J. Jonah Jameson, the legend himself, were looking up at the NYC skyline through the skyscrapers. Surely, there was Iron Man himself, flying past the people, grabbing their attention. It seemed as if Tony Stark himself woke up from the dead to come and meet the people of the city.

Suddenly, it seemed that all the speakers in NYC were turned on to their maximum volume and there was a female voice speaking through it, “Hello citizens of New York. I am one of you only. A few years ago, I was rescued by the Avengers when they brought half of the world back from the blip. But I lost someone important in my life that day. And now, when I asked to meet my ‘rescuers’, they refused. Isn’t that rude? Now you all are good people. I know that. So, will you help me? I’m giving you two hours, after that y’all gotta stay in your homes, your apartments, your buildings, your offices, anywhere. But after eight, if I see anybody walking round the streets, you will be taken away, NOT to a good place. And the Avengers will have to come rescue you. You know that they won’t come for just a bunch of you weeny people. Just for security, I am going to take these three kids to the Avengers Tower. Your time starts now.”

The ‘Iron Man’, or Mia, took her friends with a quick snap of her fingers and teleported them to the tower’s control room. She had already taken care of the guards there. They would love waking up on top of Lady Liberty.

. . . 

The whole of New York was in a frenzy. There was chaos, there was hoarding and there was a total mess. Everybody wanted to be in before eight, and that’s what caused a whole lot of drama. Some people were going to the grocery stores, buying necessities, some were trying to get on the bus, some were hailing taxis, and some were just trying to get a call from their loved one about their whereabouts.

The anxiety among the people was building up. Nobody knew the strange ‘Iron Man’ and honestly, nobody wanted to know. It was all too stressful for the common people, especially in a city as hustling-bustling as New York.

Finally, the clock struck eight. Most of the streets were empty. The people that remained, disappeared. ‘Iron Man’ had done what she had promised. She had erased the traces of any stay person roaming around. 

At 8:05, Mia got out of the control room of the Avengers Tower. She suited up and got ready to face the Avengers, if they had come.

She flew into the New York night sky and dashed into the sky. There, waiting for her were the Avengers, as promised. As Mia looked closer, she could, however, see that there were just three of them that were present, only Spiderman, Doctor Strange and Thor. Quickly, Mia said, “Doctor Strange, please open the mirror dimension for all of us, if you don’t want the common people to see you struggling. Besides, they never did anything wrong, so they shouldn’t suffer. Let’s all talk there.”

All the Avengers looked at Strange. He sure was in a dilemma.

Mia continued, “If you will, please.”

Strange opened the mirror dimension. After waiting for a while for the rest of the Avengers to settle, Mia opened her suit to reveal just her face. ‘No wonder it is the mystery girl’, Peter thinks.

“Hello! I am Mia. I am here to talk to you guys. I don’t think you remember me, do you?” She said in a cheerful voice, like that of a five year old girl. Something felt familiar about her to the older Avengers.

Everyone looks at each other, perplexed. Finally, Thor spoke up, “Mere mortal who acts like she is Iron Man, who are you. We don’t know you, and we don’t want to. Just leave the hostages and we’ll be on our way.”

“Okay, Mr. Thor, don’t you take that tone with me. Remember that I still have the hostages and YOU are the ones who haven’t met my demands. Do you know what will happen if you don’t listen to me? Lemme show you.” Mia said, agitated.

She snapped her fingers and MJ appeared in thin air. Peter was about to come forward and hurt Mia when an invisible force stopped him. ‘Strange’, Peter thought, angry.

“You see her? She’s not ‘here’ here. She is an illusion. But what is going to happen now, can happen to her with a snap of my fingers.” Just as the words escaped Mia’s mouth, MJ started shaking and her limbs started folding at weird angles. It was way too much for Peter to watch. He stepped ahead and shot a web, trying to strangle Mia.

But she was quicker.