Noelle - Day 133 (Finale with Finesse)

Hiya!
I'm back with even more RMS!!!  Because reasons.

Random Marvel-based Story (80 & 81)

White fog.  Nothing but white fog and screaming and pain.  Where am I?

I’ve been here before.  Carousels.  There should be a carousel here, like before.  But that was so long ago...so very, very long ago.

And I’m so tired.  I can’t keep this secret much longer.  It's too big, and I’m too small.  And it's hurting them.  It was never supposed to hurt them.

So no carousel.  Just fog and screaming.  And a lot of pain.  And my back tingling like somebody set it on fire.  A nice kind of tingling.

What happened?  The last thing I remember was fighting Shadow, and then Nova blasted a sheet of glass and -

- “Let me go Daddy!”  I scream, struggling against ropes so tight I could never move again.  “Mommy’s going to find out.”

Like rolling thunder, another voice pours into my mind, filling up everything.  “Hold still,” It commands, and I instantly obey.  I can feel the sting of a whip on my back.  I don’t want to feel it again, so I hold still.  “You insolent little child, I’m not taking away your world quite yet.  No, that can wait till later.  Just your little friend Cece.”

“NO!”  I scream again, but I don’t move a muscle.  I can hear the breaking glass, hear him coming closer, closer.

“Leave her alone!”  Cece.  Little Cece.  I smile a tiny bit.

The smile leaves my face like a passing butterfly.  “Get out of here Clea!  Go!”

Everything's getting really fuzzy and white and wrong again.  The ropes ripping my skin, the dripping voice of Father, and Clea’s little scream...”Nooooo!”

*******

“I think she’s waking up.”

“Shh, she’s still Shadow, remember.”

“And she’s still Jess!  And, on the plus side, she didn’t beat you up when she had the chance.”

“Jess has had a lot of chances to beat us up.  That is her general greeting to people, remember?”

Finally!  Jess recognized one of the voices - Spider-man’s annoying voice Jess could recognize anywhere.  Everything else slid into place with just that one thing.  What just happened?

Jess didn’t realize she had said it outloud until Nova snapped, “You apparently met up with your doppelganger and decided that you had to fight to the death, Shadow.”

Shadow?  Jess didn’t know where that name had come from, but she decided to deal with that later.  For now, she focused on the doppelganger part.  “I don’t have a carbon copy of me, Bucket Head.  Are you sure you saw what you saw?”  She started to get up, then realized she was webbed to the ground.  Nice touch, Spidey.

“Oh sure, still trying to play your mind games again?  Not cool,” Ava yelled angrily.

Jess pulled with all her remaining strength against the webs, but if they gave way, it was only by an inch or so.  “I don’t know what you guys are talking about,” she panted.  “Y’all have problems.”

WHAM.  A fist slammed against her face like a bag of bricks.  Power-man.  “We have problems?  You make me sick Jess.  I don’t know how you hid your powers from us for so long, but the longer I think about it the more it makes sense.”

Jess winced, wishing she could rub her face (or keep the sparks from flying behind her eyes).  She struggled against the webs in a daze, then gave up.  “Something’s wrong,” she said suddenly.

“No kidding!”  Power-man said sarcastically.  “I had no idea!  What could possibly be wrong with ya, Shadow?”  WHAM.  Something slammed onto the ground, just barely grazing Jess’s shoulder.

That was all I needed, Jess thought and broke her left arm free.  In an instant, she was standing.  “I don’t know what Mystery Gal hammered into your thick skulls, but something is seriously off here.”  She slid under Spider-man’s angry punch and dodged Ava’s kick easily.  “Since when do you guys attack moi?  Isn’t it usually like I attack you because you’ve been prying into my past again?”

Nova blasted at her.  “We don’t want to hear from you, Shadow.  Just stay still and this will only hurt a lot.”  She flipped out of the way and did the exact same move that she had used on him in their first fight.  Power-man and Nova landed in a clump against the crates.

Silence.

Then Spider-man came slinging out of what seemed like nowhere, slamming against Jess’s back and pushing her into the ground.  Webbed to the ground again, Jess thought.  At least last time my face was free.  “Let me go!”  Jess growled around the webs on her face.

“Um, no way.  Why in the world would I do that?”  Spider-man laughed.  Apparently he thinks I’m down for good, Jess thought.  She tugged at the webs - her hands were free.

“Oh goodie,” said a voice, surrounding them like a loudspeaker in an empty football stadium.  “You pinned the only person that could stop me to the ground.  How clever of you.”

The team glanced around them, then backed up into a circle, looking around frantically for the source of the voice.  “I’m sure that she’ll get out of your webs soon, Spidey, but for now...”

“Who are you?”  Spider-man called into the foggy darkness.  When did these docks get to be so creepy? he wondered.

“It doesn’t matter who I am,” Said the girl’s voice, echoing strangely off of the crates around them.  “But - I’ll humor you, because this is your last night on the face of the earth.  My name is Jessie Willow, and you’ve had the wrong girl all along.  How very nice of you.”

“Yay!  We’re going to the moon!”  Spider-man shouted.

“Really?  Now, the jokes now?”  White Tiger whispered from his left.

“I’m trying to figure out where she is,” He whispered back, then fell back sprawling on the ground as an invisible fist slammed into his face.

“Gedoff me, you Spider-freak,” the girl webbed to the ground said angrily, doing an awful good impression of Jess.

“Fine fine, I’m getting up,” Spider-man hissed, suddenly aware that if this wasn’t Jess, then he was sitting on a random girl.  He rubbed his jaw where the fist had hit.  Sure felt like Jessie had done the punching.

“I feel like playing with my food tonight,” Jess said, her laughs ringing through the empty docks.  “Anybody up for a game of cat and mouse?”

“Sure thing,” Ava called back, “I call cat.”  She turned a tiny bit, and whispered to Spider-man, “Good idea, trying to figure out where she was.”

“Oh, you wouldn’t stand a chance against me,” Jess said from everywhere around them.  Her laughs peaked at a shriek, then Ava shook like she was being punched repeatedly in the chest.

Luke dove in front of her, but Shadow was already gone.  Ava slid cartoon-style to the ground before anybody could stop her.  “Face us like a man!”  Power-man called, standing over White Tiger protectively.

“Do I sound like a guy?” Jess said with her classic exasperation.  “Do you even have ears Luke?”

“Uh, yeah, I do.”  Luke called back, but he still winced at his real name.  “Call me Power-man,” he said angrily after a second of thought.

“Ok, I’m getting a little bored of this bantering,” Shadow/Jess said from somewhere to their left.  They spun that way, only to hear her crazed giggles on the other side of them.  “Who wants to die first?”

“How ‘bout, no,” Spider-man said, trying to keep Shadow talking just for a few more seconds.  “Who votes for living to see the morning again?”

“Let me up,” the girl on the ground demanded suddenly.

“No can do, random civilian,” Spider-man whispered back, “Things are about to get messy, and I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“Let me get up right now or the secret stash of twinkies in your locker will make a very good birthday gift for Agent Coulson,” the girl snapped.

Spider-man’s eyes widened.  “Wait a minute, you’re Jess.”

“Glad the light bulb finally lit up, now, can I get up?” she said edgily.

“Uh, no,” Ava said, standing wearily.  “I still don’t trust you.”

Jess sighed and slashed the webs open with knife.  “I was asking to be polite,” she growled.  She shoved past Power-man, her newly-blonde hair swishing behind her, and called, “Hey Shadow?  You want me - come and get me.”

More info on RMS and stuff...tomorrow. :)