Chapter 114 - 114

If you want to read ahead by 20+ chapters from here you can visit my Patre-on.

[P] [A] [T] [R] [E] [O] [N]

[email protected]/Yggdrasil_Loki

….

"Okay..." MJ glanced at her glass of wine and emptied the vessel in two gulps. "Let's assume I believe you. What do you want from me?"

"It has to do with how I got here," I told the girl. "It happened when I came into contact with Peter's blood. And the very first thing I learned about this new world is that Spider-Man just died under some highly mysterious circumstances, linked to equally mysterious earthquakes. Since I have no other leads, I have to suspect that my arrival here is somehow connected to your husband's final case. That's why I wanted to ask: what exactly was he working on before he died?"

"I'm afraid I can't help you there." She sighed. "Pete tried to keep me out of his 'work.' He always said it would just make me nervous and worried for no reason..."

"That's bad..." I leaned back in the armchair, anxiously drumming my fingers on the shaft of my cane.

The thread had led to a dead end. Now I'd have to look for Spidey's other contacts, some Dr. Connors or whoever else he had, anyone he even partially let in on his affairs. Black Cat?

Actually, finding Felicia Hardy is a good idea. True, only if she even exists here and hasn't run off somewhere with some Morbius...

"But Aunt May might know!" MJ brightened up, having evidently spent a very insignificant amount of time on my inner musings.

"Aunt May?" I raised an eyebrow.

That little old dandelion of a grandmother who stood behind the podium through the whole press conference without uttering a single word?

If Parker didn't want to involve his wife in all this, he certainly wouldn't have involved his beloved elderly aunt.

"Yes. After Uncle Ben died, Peter told her everything, and she decided to help him. Even his 'Spider-Base' is located in her tool shed."

"Ahem... okay," a Spider-Base? Seriously? And Grandma-Helper? This world has a knack for original solutions. "Well then, I shall pay her a visit. Thank you very much."

"I'm coming with you!" the girl declared, rising from her chair.

"Why?" I raised an eyebrow, stopping my own impulse to stand right in its tracks.

"Someone killed my husband. Before, I knew there was nothing I could do about it, but now that there's hope, I have no right to stay on the sidelines!"

"As an Asgardian God, I approve of your impulse. No joke, avenging a loved one is noble and worthy. That is exactly how anyone with pride and true feelings should act, but I must warn you..."

"I'm not afraid of danger! I've survived over thirty assassination attempts in the last two years!" The redhead flared up and even flushed, which made her look considerably prettier.

"That's not what I mean," I gave a short shake of my head. "You just need to understand that I am not a superhero like your husband was. I'm not a savage, of course, and I understand the realities of the modern world, but if things get serious, I won't hold back for the sake of legality and procedures. And this is serious, it's not every day something can yank a God out of his native universe and kill Spider-Man. And no, I'm not trying to talk you out of it; all I want is to avoid misunderstandings, where you expected one thing and I acted differently."

"You don't need to talk about misunderstandings," Mary Jane said, looking me firmly in the eyes.

"You are speaking to a woman who has just lost her husband, Loki."

"Alright," I really had no intention of arguing, nor did I intend to put the lady to sleep. Besides, why would I turn down the company of someone who knows her way around this world and is motivated to help me?

And so, after a twenty-minute drive in MJ's car, we pulled up to a modest little house.

A whole memorial of candles, lanterns, and flowers had already been laid out on the path leading up to it.

Along with a few sad... hmm. What to call them? Not gawkers, surely... Mourners? Yes, a certain number of mourning citizens.

Parker's wife parked the car, headed for the poor old woman's house without hesitation, and rang the doorbell.

"Listen, this is all very nice, of course, and I'm grateful, but how much is enough?" The door swung open with exactly those words, and we were met by the "little old dandelion of a grandmother"... wielding a baseball bat and... is it just me or are there actually traces of something red on it?

"Aunt May..."

"Oh, Mary, I'm sorry," the bat was tucked away in a corner, "it's just these fans, expressing their regrets and sorrow... I've had it up to here. But why am I keeping you on the doorstep, come in! And who is this with you?" The woman stepped aside and let us pass.

"This is... kind of..."

"A Peter Parker who arrived from a parallel universe?" the elderly woman inquired, as if casually. "And the first thing he did was head to you..." Now strange notes sounded in her voice, something like a little dissatisfaction mixed with relief. "And he's normal..."

"Ahem," I cleared my throat, mentally doubling down on my thesis about the originality of twists in this universe, "I like you, Mrs. Parker. But no, I am not Peter; I am simply a passing God who was sucked into a space-time rift due to an anomaly in your universe. I just wanted to find out what's what here."

"Oh, I see..." the elderly woman was embarrassed, "I apologize."

"It's nothing, occupational hazard."

"Um, Aunt May. Doesn't this seem strange to you?" the redhead inquired cautiously.

"Well, various strange things have happened to Peter before, I've seen it all over the years, besides..." the woman sighed, "he's already the fourth."

"What? The fourth God?" the girl didn't understand, and I confess, neither did I.

Actually, I had this weird feeling in my stomach from all this, something between a tickle and the feeling that you sat on an already lit firecracker.

Not that I've ever sat on firecrackers before, but for some reason, I was sure this was exactly it.

"No," the elderly lady shook her head, "the fourth guest from another universe who has come to my doorstep today. Let's go..." But then the doorbell rang again.

"Oh, if it's the fans again, I'm definitely going to whack one of them! Please wait a minute!" And the old woman left the room where she had managed to escort us, heading back to the hallway.

"Yeah, feisty grandma."

"Well," the young Mrs. Parker smiled, "she raised a guy whose hobby was jumping off skyscraper roofs and punching huge thugs in the face..."

"Actually, you're right..." I looked after the pensioner with a new feeling.

I'll have to keep an eye on our variation of Aunt May, what if she's the same? She'd make an ideal teacher for the junior group at the school! Although no, ours is a little over twenty, and there's no sign of any upbringing skills there yet.

And anyway, ours is the Cinematic Universe, and in it, Peter is not a Genius and Hero with capital letters, but a juvenile idiot with superpowers, whose entire canonical genius and technical savvy went to his chubby friend, whose main purpose for existing in the plot is to fulfill the quota for chubby guys and geeks.

Yes, Cinematic Universe, I despise and hate you even from here! Even when I'm talking to a drawn Mary Jane in Aunt May's house with a baseball bat!

Yes, you are exactly that much of a failure, just so you know!

"Oh, and they just don't understand how out of place they are," the hostess returned to us, shaking her head. "Come on, I'll introduce you to the others."

…

If you want to read ahead by 20+ chapters from here you can visit my Patre-on.

[P] [A] [T] [R] [E] [O] [N]

[email protected]/Yggdrasil_Loki