The Return
Waking up was a bit hard for Mia, or at least it was supposed to be, considering she couldn't see... or could she?
For the past week she's felt like everything was both a fact and fiction with how her life is supposed to be, as her father's alive, and while she doesn't know much about his job other than being an officer of the law, she feels like it's a bit more than that.
Every day he sneaks off to the barn and spends most of his time there whenever Mia doesn't really have anything she's supposed to do for the day or just in general.
Anytime she asks or tries to ask her father about the barn, he just moves the conversation to something else while frantically looking around the house, the park, the school, just about anywhere, which has led him to looking over his shoulder more often than before.
It's a normal sight, or at least Mia thinks it's meant to be, but every so often she gets a headache, and a flash goes through her mind as she pictures her father dying in her arms covered in blood with missing eyes.
Nightmare Dad: "Ru... Runnn! Save. Save yourself!"
He chanted as he reached out and lunged at Mia with all his ghoulish strength, which just caused Mia to duck or run away from her own father, who was just trying to spend time with his daughter or give her something for the day.
Seeing his daughter constantly run from him has caused her old man to cry, as he was certain his baby girl was in her rebellious phase, and he didn't really know how to take it, as it's supposed to be a good and bad thing, but it's still heartbreaking to know his baby girl doesn't need him anymore.
Mia, meanwhile, was just desperately trying to figure out what was going on as the sights, sounds, screams, blood, monsters of the night, and many other scares flood her mind no matter where she goes and only seems to be worse with the people and places she knows really well.
It honestly feels like she's forgotten something very important that was a driving force of her life and had everything reset and changed to be a more idealic fantasy. But if this is paradise, then she's afraid to ever set foot anywhere near what could be considered hell.
Another change that she's been experiencing has got to be the sudden strength change, really impossibly good gymnastics, and sometimes she feels like there's something nudging her to move out of the way of something that quickly turns into screaming red alert alarm bells ringing through her skull!
The only way to stop the mind-crushing, mind-splitting headaches was to move out of the way like her body begged her to; it seems like for most of the time it's always the most minor things, like dodging an innocent prank that'd cover her in paint or other types of things.
If not that, then there's always the classic tried and true making the whole school think less of Mia just because she sat on a whoopy cushion or maybe because someone tied her shoes together or something as stupid as that.
Mia: "Honestly, I wish you'd stop doing things like that, Angelica?"
Angelica: "What? Can't a girl have fun with her best friend?"
Mia: "We're not kids anymore, girl!"
Angelica: "Considering the fact that we just graduated middle school and are about to take the first step of being a 'real adult,' I'm fairly certain there's time in our lives for a little fun."
Angelica Jones a red headed weirdo that Mia couldn't shake off for some reason that loves messing with anyone that dares to befriend her and is the result of all Mia's bullying if not for the fact that Mia knows it comes from a good yet crooked but still as good a place as any.
The school Mia and Angelica were walking towards was the same school as Mia's mentor and role model in life, who was secretly also attending. Aka Spider-Woman/Penny Parker, she was a normal Jr. at this school, as even with all the crap from living in New York, they're still a year or two away from becoming adults.
Well, except for Penny, as considering her alter ego works as an Avenger and her normal self works part-time as a secretary for her best friends' company, she's practically a normal member of society already! Or as normal as a Twitch streamer or YouTuber can be anyhow.
Mia: "Just think in a couple of years—"
Angelica: "You can find your beloved and marry her, becoming the first-ever Spider-Woman's wife."
Mia strikes her friend in a frantic motion as she does harbor affection for the woman who saved her when she was but a child from becoming another statistic on New York's bulletin for gun safety as a guy tried to blow her brains out if anyone got close to him.
Angelica couldn't help but tease her friend about her first love; after all, she loved seeing her at her happiest, especially since she's hiding a secret of her own that might ruin their friendship and her life should anyone ever find out.
When Mia finally got done hitting her friend, she started to wonder just why, out of everyone in her life, she was the only person that she could talk hours with and still be normal, but she spends five minutes with her father and seemingly has a panic attack.
It was the strangest thing in the whole world, as it was a very annoying puzzle, as it just makes no sense on why or how she was the only one; her mind didn't turn into an undead monster begging her for either help or to run or condemning her for one reason or another.
Mia just gave up on trying to figure out this one case in her life, as it wasn't that important compared to everything else in her life, as she'd rather not ruin the one good relationship she still has after the visions started.
Meanwhile, far, far away, Jake was slapping Doctor Strange upside the head for failing to fulfill the wish he was promised as he instead made things far worse.
Jake: "What the heck is that?"
Strange: "You wanted me to fix Mia, and here you go. I combined both the future and past versions together in a way that would help the girls but at the same time act as a time strip that made things easier when pulling you out."
Jake: "I just wanted the older Mia to have a happy life without being blind and having her cybernetic parts forced into her body that was slowly killing her. Especially since I wasn't ever the guy who made her life hell."
Strange: "No, just your skin, bones, eyes, and most of your muscles and organs were used for doing that."
Jake rolled his eyes and walked off the building as he flipped through the air and then webbed the building nearby to slow his descent so as to not make cracks or reveal himself to everyone around, as that's not the way a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent should do things.
Especially when he's stalking a teenage girl to see how well she fairs now that he's permanently changed her life in hopes of helping the one that wanted him dead only to mess things up and possibly make things even worse than before.
At this point in time, it will only tell how damaged the poor girl's life might be thanks to Jake and his act of kindness that, like a Jin Strange, has twisted in ways beyond what he desired and made it so that a new Spider-Woman was slowly manifesting.
Jake: "Honestly, I just hope she doesn't try to kill me."
Strange: "Well, her past and future memories haven't fully merged yet, which is what's causing her problems, and the closer they get to fusing completely."
Jake: "The better she'll get?"
Strange: "No. Far worse, in fact, to the point she might bolt her doors and refuse to leave her home for any reason, as she'll start smelling the iron, the decay of bodies, the piss and fecal matter on the streets, and anything else she might have lived through."
Jake: "Damn. That's harsh."
Strange: "Well, magic isn't some mystic fairy tale where everything just works out the way you want. It's more structured than that, and I found a way to give you what you wanted for helping me fix the world. Anything after that is all up to her mental capacity and strength of will."
Tiring of this conversation, and because he has a test in a few hours, if it's magic or for his doctorate, Jake has no clue but wonders what kind of spell he just used to turn reality into moving bricks that moved out of the way, revealing another place as it connected the two points of space together before closing itself off and becoming normal once more.
From the shadows he watches Mia, and when she notices something, as her senses tell her to be wary, Jake is already gone, as he's moved on to more personal business as after making sure Mia is for the most part alright, it's still time for him to get even and get his stuff back.
As Jake was just plopped in a random alleyway a la Terminator style, Strange was kind enough to give him a tracksuit and hoodie so that he could do his thing without having to truly reveal himself just yet.
Stomping open a sewer grate, Jake dives right inside as it lands and cracks the sidewalk a bit as it titters all around the hole till it finally stops while Jake swings through the sewer right to where he was, as Ekaj never sleeps when he's not in control.
Of course, he wasn't around for when it happened, but that doesn't mean he's as clueless as Jake since there could only be a few areas for the trio to hide that have enough room for their plan to work.
For two hours Jake was swinging around the sewers until he found the room, and inside were many cases of eggs that were just waiting to burst into the creatures he fought in the future.
Jake: "(Hand glows bright red) I think this is just poetic enough to use. Don't you?"
Ekaj: "I mean, it's defiantly ironic, to say the least."
Equipping the broken shield, Jake starts smashing and bashing every single one of the future disgusting creatures with extreme malice and prejudice till every last one of them is nothing more than sludge leaking between his feet and pouring down his hands and chest.
The sounds of the battle royal against the infants in the other room brought all three of them out, and while Doc. Conners, or Lizardman, as this form is more commonly known. Jake, compared to the others, has a bit more compassion since he was the one who helped even if it was just to screw over the others for the battle of dominance over the world.
With a massive smile on his face, Jake throws the shield right at Lizard Man, but because of its new broken form, Jake snaps his fingers, breaking his shield even further as it pierces into both symbiote-powered villains.
Up first was his own personal demon as Jake turned his feet into jets and jumped right at her, and without waiting for her to beg or cuss, Jake turned his arm bright red as he pierced her chest as his own face smiled back.
Maybe she was trying to torment him, or maybe it was her last way of screwing with Jake; either way, he ate his younger self's pieces and got whole once more this time.
Absorbing everything about himself, Jake turned to the red demon, and while he'd love to eat this black king of the underworld, it would just make everything far easier and better for Felica if he were to vanish from this world.
He also felt like it'd be best if she did whatever her rage, sadness, or whatever might fuel her if her father was presented with a black bow and all his bones except his jaw were completely broken.
Feeling the sense of bloodlust coming from the boy, both of them tried to run, but they weren't going anywhere, or rather, Felica's dad wasn't going anywhere as he shot his back with claws and forcibly dragged him back over to him as his screams filled the sewers as Lizardman turned back to Conners out of fear of ending up like the rest.
Doc Conners was confused as he didn't understand why the lizard part of him just suddenly gave up control, but he wasn't about to let this good fortune be wasted and charged straight to one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s many drop boxes to get some help.
Jake, meanwhile, was inflicting all the pain and then some that he and everyone from the future possibly felt because of him and the White-Demon, and since he killed and absorbed every last ounce of symbiote from her corpse, as it was the only thing she was and had left.
First off was the suit, and him sucking out the symbiote like a straw was far, far, FAR kinder and gentler compared to everything he did to get every last ounce of the red symbiote from his body as well as making sure he stopped fighting back.
For twelve hours straight the screams of a main went from anger to sadness to pleading until eventually everything in the sewers was quiet, and that was only because Jake wanted what was left of Felica's father to be able to scream whatever Felica may have wanted.
Or at least that's what he wanted, but upon looking at himself through the dark murky water of the sewage waste Jake dropped the man out of fear and punched himself across the face, as this was the exact same feeling he had when he killed those men surrounding his sister all those years ago.
Jake: "I thought I got better."
Ekaj: "Well, with me around, I wouldn't say you got better. You just stopped caring about the problems you felt with it."
Jake lets out a massive sigh as he collects every last shard and piece he shoved into Felica's dad's body and remade his shield and then reabsorbed it into his body and slit his throat as he realized Felica probably didn't want to see him in this state or possibly ever again.
Making his way out of the sewers, Jake went straight home, and at first his family was scared and angry for him being gone so long, but when they saw the fear and sadness in his eyes as his face was filled with a deep feeling that none of them could even begin to comprehend.
In his family's embrace, Jake felt a warmth he hadn't felt in a very long time and cried himself to sleep for the first time in ages as everyone slept in the same bed, as they all just wanted to make sure whatever Jake was going through didn't follow his dreams.
And that is all for now hope you all enjoyed and until next time stay safe and peace!