#FIVE YEARS OR WHATEVER. AFTER STEVE DOES HIS ENTIRE LITTLE TIME TRAVEL NUMBER TO GET HIM AND BUCKY AND EVERYONE

[tvxcue]

the samsteve meet cute.........”it’s your bed isnt it? its too soft”............”everyone we know wants to kill us” “not everyone”.......................”when do we start”............................AND THEN STEVE JUST LEAVES HIM. TO GO BACK TO PEGGY WHO WE HAVE ALREADY SEEN HAVE A LIFE OF HER OWN AND STEVE HAS ALREADY MADE HIS PEACE WITH LOSING HER AND HAS BECOME FRIENDS WITH HER FOR REAL AFTER COMING BACK.

[sineala]

Captain America Corps

[This is a repost from my Patreon.] An extra review for everyone this month! I wasn't actually planning to write a review of Captain America Corps, but, then, I wasn't planning to love it as much as I did, either. Surprise! This has been the Book Club selection on the 616 Steve/Tony Discord server for the entirety of September, and it took me all month to get around to reading it, and when I finished reading it on Marvel Unlimited I immediately ran to the internet and ordered myself a copy of the trade paperback, because I needed one of my very own to cuddle. This review contains spoilers for the entirety of the series, so leave now if you don't want to know them. (It also contains a few pictures of elements that you may wish to avoid if you are sensitive to body horror in fiction.)

Captain America Corps is a five-issue miniseries written by Roger Stern, whom you may remember from such classics as his Avengers run featuring the Under Siege arc and his short but extremely memorable Cap run with John Byrne. The art here is by Phillipe Briones, who I don't think I've seen in any other book, but it's nice enough, I suppose. Anyway, it was published in 2011 and is also set then (well, sort of) -- so Bucky is still Captain America (though not for much longer) and Steve is Commander Rogers. (It is still available in trade paperback but it is technically out of print, so you should act now if you want a paper copy.) The best way I can describe my feelings about this book is thus: you know how David Michelinie's 1979 Avengers novel I read and reviewed a few months ago, The Man Who Stole Tomorrow, had an amazing premise -- Kang the Conqueror freezes Steve again and takes him to the future and the Avengers have to go time-traveling to get him back -- but it completely flubbed the actual execution of said premise? Well, Captain America Corps is a lot like that, but it absolutely, perfectly nails it. The premise isn't exactly the same, but it is definitely Peak Comics in the best zany madcap way, and the more you know about canon, the more your familiarity will be rewarded. Captain America is being kidnapped. But not just one Captain America -- Captains America across the multiverse are being stolen, and history is changing around their disappearances. A cosmic entity by the name of Tath Ki has made it his business to right these wrongs, and so to do this he kidnaps some more Captains America of his own. He ends up with a team of five: the Captain America of 1941 (Steve Rogers), USAgent (John Walker, from a small but unspecified number of years prior to 2011), the Captain America of 2011 (Bucky Barnes), American Dream (Shannon Carter, from the MC2 universe), and Commander A (Kiyoshi Morales, from several centuries in the future). So you can see already that this is going to be fun. All the Caps, in my opinion, are very well-characterized -- Steve is painfully earnest and a little inexperienced; Bucky is cynical, jaded, and he kind of can't believe that 40s Steve is looking up to him, which is really sweet; and John Walker is, of course, a complete asshole. I wanted to punch him in his stupid face multiple times, so clearly his characterization is perfect. I can't speak to Shannon's characterization because I've never read MC2, and Kiyoshi is new as of this book, but he is also excellent. So, obviously, because this is a Captain America book, there is a terrible dystopian future for them to fight -- and to show them what's at stake, Tath Ki drops them right in the middle of Dystopian Times Square, and they all get rounded up and imprisoned, whereupon they promptly stage a prison break for the various superheroes (Sam Wilson, Luke Cage, Peter Parker...) that they meet, before Tath Ki brings them back to his home base talk about it, now that he's convinced them that this is a future they have to stop.

(The law enforcement of the dystopian future includes several Americops and the Ameridroid. Remember those guys from the Cap comics? I sure do! Whee!) Tath Ki explains the situation here on this Earth, because obviously there has been some divergence. And the divergence point is this: the Avengers never found Captain America in the ice in Avengers #4. Two new women -- Broad-Stripe and Bright Star (why, yes, those are deeply unsubtle code names) -- ended up on the team instead, but, well... the Avengers just didn't work without Steve, and right when they ought to have founded the Kooky Quartet in Avengers #16, they disbanded instead. All because they'd never met Captain America. Thor went back to Asgard. Hank ended up in a psych ward. Tony died during heart surgery. (Don't worry, I'm coming back to this point later. So is the comic.) So the Caps split up to go see what they can find out about the remaining Avengers. Jan is hanging out with Sue Storm but has been warned about Kiyoshi and Shannon by the villain, and she kicks them out. Steve and Bucky break Hank out of the psych ward. And Tath Ki takes John Walker to Tony's tomb... to find that Tony's brain is missing from his body. Uh-oh. That's never a good sign.

And, oh, yes, Broad-Stripe and Bright Star are the villains of this series. And, what's more, Broad-Stripe is actually Superia, whom you will remember from the infamously terrible Cap arc The Superia Stratagem. It was really bad. It was really, really bad. But reading this has now retroactively made reading that worth it. Anyway, they're the ones who have been kidnapping all the Caps, and the Cap Corps here teams up with the local resistance force (yes, of course there's a resistance) to fight their way to the villains' headquarters. And do you know who else is at the villains' headquarters? It's Tony! I mean, it's Tony's brain. In a jar. Alive. And conscious. (And his eyeballs. I don't know why or how he still has his eyes. I'm trying not to think about that.)

The fact that Tony is now a brain in a jar is what the #book-club channel has been shrieking about with horrified glee for an entire month. If you like sad Tonys, there is no sadder Tony than this. You cannot make a sadder Tony than this. He is a brain in a jar. It's like everything about his favorite transhumanism, gone wrong. He's been there for years. He has never known Steve Rogers, and doesn't that just break your heart? He's suicidal. He begs the villain to finally kill him. He begs Hank to kill him, whether or not the good guys win. His life -- or undeath, or whatever it is -- is so awful that death is, for him, the happy ending. (We already know, canonically, that Tonys who never meet Steve are the saddest Tonys. Fantastic Four: Dark Reign #2, the issue that famously gave us Earth-3490, also gave us a look at Earth-1735, in which Steve is found very late in the superheroing game and Tony has clearly spent all the time in which they should have been Avengers together instead drinking his life away.) Sad Brain Jar Tony fills the good guys who find him -- Hank, Bucky, and Kiyoshi -- in on the villains' backstory and plans, which is basically that Superia has been stealing all the Captains America and has joined up with AIM and gotten herself a Cosmic Cube to shove them all into, and I'm sure we all guessed that that was happening because what even is a good Cap plot without a Cosmic Cube? Anyway, 1940s Steve doesn't meet Tony personally, as far as I can tell, but he does get to hear about him being alive over the comms, at least -- although it wouldn't mean much to him then, because at this point he doesn't know Tony. So all the Caps and Tath Ki and the villains end up falling into the Cosmic Cube along with the rest of the Caps that Superia stole, who are already in there. Steve merges with one of his other self, which breaks the Cube, and the alternate dystopian reality basically... vanishes from existence as everyone goes home. And Sad Brain Jar Tony is finally at peace. *sniff* Due to the mysteries of time-travel, Bucky and the two Caps after him -- Shannon and Kiyoshi -- remember what happened, but the two from before -- 1941 Steve and John Walker -- don't seem to. Except when Bucky meets up with his Steve, the Commander Rogers of 2011, it's clear that Bucky's return triggered something and Steve is starting to remember everything. Then Bucky decides to go turn himself in and face justice for the Winter Soldier's crimes. We get a brief look at Kiyoshi's time, where he's helping christen a new aircraft carrier named after Steve. And that's it. So obviously this is a completely wild plot in the way that comics are the best at, and what I really want most in life now is fic where 2011 Commander Rogers -- who we know is not the best at having feelings where Tony is concerned, because his current reaction to Tony is to scream at him about his feelings, in the snow, surrounded by all of their friends -- has to deal with the fact that he remembers being in a world where Tony is a sad brain in a jar and it all happened because he wasn't there to save him. Heroic Age-era (early Avengers v4) is one of my favorite flavors of Steve/Tony angst, as they work out how to have a friendship again (and are so bad at it that it involves a lot of very public screaming fights), and this just piles the angst right on top. (Yeah, guess what's on my WIP list now.) Objectively, it's not a perfect comic -- it's kind of a mess, but it's a mess in that glorious comics way that comics are so good at. I suspect if you're not here for the Steve/Tony you won't like it as much, but if you are... well, please enjoy pondering Sad Brain Jar Tony in his dystopian, Steve-less future.

[rose-gold-romantic]

Whatever It Takes: Epilogue

A Loki x Reader based in the Tesseract fic universe! Avengers: Infinity War follow-up fic. Next in the Tesseract fic series. Links to Tesseract, Lokasenna, What Heroes Do, and Fidelity. Also to my AU Feel You.

I WOULD LOVE FEEDBACK! Want to be tagged in updates? Let me know!

@malignentmac @fandomsfanman @i-am-supermerwholoked221b @markusstrayya @sincereleygmg @pandaqua​ @person-born-winchester

Just a forewarning, this one has a major POV shift from the past entries, since Reader was Dusted at the end of Fidelity! Keeping with my recent trend in fic titles, it’s named after a track on the official soundtrack. I also constantly watch this Video, and recommend it to hype you up!

Tony’s funeral was held at his house, and there was not a dry eye to be seen. Everyone stood silently to watch Pepper put a wreath out onto the lake, Stark’s first ARC reactor floating in the center. Most lingered after the ceremony to show their support for Pepper and Morgan, and celebrate the life that had been given for the universe’s well-being.

It was touching to see just how many lives Tony had directly affected, how many people came to pay their respects.

As some began to trickle out, Bruce and Steve asked for help in assembling a the miniature Quantum tunnel that would take the stones back to their proper timeline. When the work had been finished, Bruce began punching numbers into the console, prepping the tunnel for travel.

“Now Steve, are you sure you want to do this alone?” Bruce asked. “That’s a lot of stones to be carrying around all by yourself.”

“I think I can manage.” Steve responded, picking up Mjolnir and stepping onto the platform. “But I wouldn’t exactly mind the company.”

“I’ll go.” (Y/N) suggested, “I want to see what it’s like!”

“I’ll go with as well.” I said, tossing her a spare Quantum nanosuit. “Many hands make light work.”

“I’ll trust you guys to take back the scepter and the Tesseract then.” Steve said, passing those to us in separate containers.

“Are you guys ready?” Bruce asked, “I’ve got the new configuration all punched in.”

“Go ahead.” Steve said, all of our helmets engaging in unison.

I gripped (Y/N)’s hand, the other holding the scepter that I had to return to the proper Shield agents. (Y/N) and I warped to the alley, and made our way towards the tower quickly. I placed the scepter carefully into the open case it had been taken from, closing and locking the mechanism silently.

“How are we going to get this back there?” (Y/N) asked, “There’s some kind of craziness happening in there.”

“Bruce must have returned us to when Tony and Scott were initially stealing it, or trying to.” I answered. “Our best bet would be to slide the Tesseract as close to them as we can get it, since the case was knocked open at this point.”

“You’ve got it.” (Y/N) said, walking forward before I could stop her, opening the case. “I’ll do it since during this time I’m still a Shield agent.”

“Wait, you shouldn’t-” before my warning could fully leave my lips, (Y/N) touched the Tesseract. Though it did not burn her hand, I could instantly see its blue glowing energy seeping through her skin.

“Oh no.” She murmured, “I have to move, NOW.”

She ran into the tower, nearly throwing the cube across the floor towards the group of Avengers, 2012 Tony still on the ground from the cardiac issue that Scott had given him. The Tesseract slid to a stop next to 2012 Thor, and this time, it was retrieved before my 2012 self could grab it.

(Y/N) gripped her hand, hissing and groaning in discomfort as we hurriedly left the tower.

“Are you alright?” I asked repeatedly, trying to see the damage that had been done to her right palm.

“I’m fine, I think.” She said, gazing up to me with glowing blue eyes.“But I don’t think I’m Tesseract-free anymore.”

“What are we going to do with-” I was cut off by the Quantum tunnel sucking us back in, depositing us back on the platform in front of Bruce.

“What happened?” Bruce asked, worried. “Everything seemed normal, but then (Y/N)’s signature shifted so quickly I almost lost it!”

“(Y/N) is host to the tesseract once more.” I sighed. “Though I don’t know just how much of it.”

“I think she’ll be fine.” Danvers said, having been called over to assist if needed. “I got nearly blown to smithereens by it, and here I am. If anything wierd happens, you can give me a ring, but I think that it’s such a small amount, I doubt she’d even know it happened if it wasn’t for her eyes. And even that’s dimming.”

“It’s because I’m not close to it.” (Y/N) said. “I guess I never will be again, given that the Tesseract is gone now.”

“Then I guess we’re all of it that’s left.” Danvers smiled.

“Where’s Steve?” Thor asked, “Wasn’t he supposed to come back too?”

“Yea,” Bruce agreed, “But I’m giving him a little extra time, since he’s got more stones to put away.”

“Does that even matter, if he’s in the time machin-”

“I’m working on it, okay?” Bruce said, cutting Thor off. “I’ve only got one functional hand right now. I’ll get him back.”

“No you won’t.” Bucky murmured, almost too quietly for me to hear.

“Well, if that craziness is over, I’m ready to go home.” Thor said.

“I keep forgetting that you have a new home here.” (Y/N) smiled softly, “There’s so much for me to catch up on.”

“I’m sure you’re not the only one that feels that way.” Thor laughed, “Five years is a lot to miss. In any case, I have some things to sort out there, and you would love it, (Y/N).”

“Allow me to introduce you to New Asgard, and catch you up on at least a small part of what you weren’t around to see.” I said, taking her hand.

“I can help with that.” Strange said as he walked by, opening a portal that gave a brilliant view of the cliffs that overlooked New Asgard as dawn began to break.

“Thank you, Stephen.” I nodded.

The portal closed once we had stepped through it, the fresh sea breeze blowing in our faces as we approached the cliff’s edge.

We chose to sit down and watch the sun slowly rise into the sky, the gulls beginning to awaken for the day.

“I spoke to mother when I went to Asgard.” Thor said quietly.

“What did you say?” I asked as (Y/N) leaned onto my shoulder.

“Lots of things.” Thor replied, sighing. “I might have divulged our entire plan, and the problem leading up to it.”

“That seems like a risky decision.” I smiled.

“Since when do I make any other kind?” Thor replied, chuckling. After a pause, he turned to look at me. “She was very proud of you, brother. She almost couldn’t believe how much you’ve changed.”

“She always saw the worst of me, and loved me through it.” I replied, squeezing (Y/N)’s hand.

“She also brought it to my mind just how much you’ve changed, you’ve matured.” Thor continued, gazing out to the sun. “How much wiser you’ve become. You’re a real leader now.”

“I wouldn’t go that far.” I said.

“Well Mjolnir seemed to indicate otherwise.” Thor countered, a kind smile on his face. “I suppose I’d better go speak with Valkyrie.”

Thor rose, dusting off himself before turning to walk away.

“Why’s that?” I asked, looking to him.

“She needs to know about the change of leadership that will happen when I leave.”

“You’re leaving?” (Y/N) and I asked at the same time in bewilderment.

“I’ve never been right for this.” Thor said, gesturing to New Asgard below. “You know how much I always want to move, to do new things. That’s not befitting for a King with a people that need his help.”

“Is Valkyrie replacing you?” I asked, “I’m not sure she’ll want that responsibility quite this fast.”

“No, brother.” Thor replied. “The line of the throne falls to you.”

“I beg your pardon?” I stammered. “Thor, I don’t appreciate this kind of gaming.”

“I’m not kidding.” Thor said, “You’ll make a far better king than I’ve been for the past five years. New Asgard will flourish under your leadership. It’s time for me to be who I am, rather than who I’m supposed to be. And the same is true of you.”

“But where will you go?” (Y/N) asked, standing up.

I followed suit, “What will you do?”

“I’m not sure.” Thor answered. “For the first time in a thousand years, I… I have no path. But I will have a ride. Rabbit will be here soon with the Benatar. Wherever we go, I know that it will be the right path for me.”

“Will you ever come back?” I asked.

“I’ll of course visit you.” Thor smiled. “There’s sure to be nieces and nephews in my future, and I wouldn’t miss that for every world in the universe.”

(Y/N) and I both flushed red, the head in our cheeks increasing the more we thought about it.

“And look, brother.” Thor said, gesturing out to the sunrise and open ocean. “You were right all along. The sun is shining on us again.”

“I don’t know what to say.” I said, mind still spinning. “Other than thank you, and I will do my very best to protect Asgard, and help it to thrive.”

“I know you will.” Thor said, beginning to walk away. “You’ve worked too hard, and come too far, to allow anything else.”

Thor walked away, leaving (Y/N) and I alone on the cliff.

“So what now, my king?” (Y/N) said, smiling as she buried herself in my chest.

“We could keep Thor from leaving.” I joked, “Give him that nephew and niece he seems to want so badly.”

(Y/N) laughed, the golden sunlight bathing her skin in a heavenly glow. The sweet sound of her laughter melted me, and my pulse jumped as I greedily took in her beauty.

“Maybe we should finally get married before we jump into starting a family.” She smiled, wrapping her arm around me. “I’m too selfish to share you quite yet.”

“Whatever you wish.” I said, wrapping her in my arms and pressing my lips to hers before whispering into her ear.

“My Queen.”

[missmelpcmene]

The Breaking Point —Chapter 2

Originally posted on Fanfiction.net in January of 2009.

DISCLAIMER: The places and characters featured hereinafter are the property of Warner Bros., Joel Shumacher, Janice Fischer, James Jeremias, and Jeffrey Boam and no attempt is being made by the author to claim ownership or profit from the use of the aforementioned characters. The views represented herein do not necessarily represent the views of the original authors and any character names or places mentioned in the original works belong to the copyright holders and are used in this story for nonprofit entertainment purposes by an amateur writer. The original characters used in this story are the creative property of Miss Melpomene and are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to real persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

"When we recall the past, we usually find that it is the simplest things - not the great occasions - that in retrospect give off the greatest glow of happiness."

"You need some help, sweetie?" Melissa looked up from the map she was reading and found an older man —older than her anyway in comfortable traveling clothes staring at her. The bus station was close to empty at seven fifteen at night. Most people preferred to leave for a trip in the morning, she supposed. This man already had a ticket in his hand, a suitcase in the other. She had been trying to make herself as invisible as possible, hiding her face behind the map and her hair. This man had seen her despite her attempts to shrink through her chair into the floor, she only hoped that he wouldn't find her out.

"No." She told him, trying to put her desire to end the conversation as quickly as possible into her voice. He just smiled.

"Where are you headed?" He asked, and she hesitated. She didn't care where she was going, just as long as there was enough distance between her and Renee. She read once that if you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there.

"Far, far away." She answered after a long moments pause, looking down at her map again.

"Running away, huh?" Melissa tried not to let her surprise show, but the man laughed anyway. "I recognize the look. When I was about your age I was living with my granddad. My parents were in a car accident when I was real small, so I don't even remember them." Melissa was quiet. Her parents may have been gone, but at least she had had the chance to know them. "My granddad raised me, but he started to go a little crazy the older he got. Senile, you know?" Melissa nodded. She knew all about crazy. "Anyway, he started knocking me around and I thought that running away would make things better so I bought a bus ticket and headed west to a town called Santa Carla. I used to go there during the summers when I was little. Granddad used to show me pictures, they have a boardwalk there, right on the beach." Melissa wondered what it would be like to live someplace with a beach and a boardwalk. "You know the place?"

She shook her head. "No."

The man smiled and spoke again. "It's where all the kids who run away end up." Melissa tilted her face at the man with a faraway look in her eyes.

"Like Neverland." She said.

"Yeah," the man laughed. "except when I got there I didn't find no Peter Pan." She looked down at the map in her hands and tried to find Santa Carla with her finger. The man peered over her shoulder and jabbed at a spot on the map with his finger. "Right here." Melissa's spirits rose. It was seventy-two miles south of San Francisco, over eight hundred miles from Seattle and Renee.

"I know what it feels like to feel like you can't run far enough." The man said quietly, smiling at her. "But be careful out there, sometimes there are worse things out there than what you're running from."

She frowned, considering what the man said before she answered him. "Thank you." She whispered. She could do it. She had to do it. Her father was gone and she wasn't go to spend another minute alone in that house with that woman. Whatever was in Santa Carla had to be better than staying with Renee.

The girl working the ticket counter was probably only a year older than her, maybe even someone she went to school with, and Melissa tried not to make eye contact with her as she rapped on the glass separating them to get the girl's attention. "Do you have buses that run to Santa Carla?"

"One way or round trip?" The girl sighed at her, popping her bubblegum with her teeth without looking up from her computer even once.

"One way." When Renee contacted the police, and she would, the police would check the bus and train stations. It might take them awhile, but they would figure out where she went and she would just have to hope what the man said about Santa Carla was true. If there were as many runaways there as he said, nobody would even look twice at her.

"Departure time is 7:30 pm." Melissa glanced at her watch, it was 7:20 now.

"Approximate arrival time is 12:45 am tomorrow. Trip duration will be one day, five hours, and fifteen minutes. You'll transfer buses once in Eugene, Oregon and again in Redding, California. Ticket cost will be ninety-seven dollars."

She couldn't help smiling as she slid a hundred dollar bill under the slot in the glass. Even with the cost of the ticker, and allowing fifty dollars for food expenses during the trip, she still had over six hundred dollars to start her new life in a new city.

The girl behind the glass typed something into the computer and something printed out of the machine beside it. She slid her ticket and her change back to her along with a printout explaining the stopovers the buses would make during a trips for mealtimes and to pick up new passengers. Melissa smiled at the ticket girl and thanked her. The girl waved her off, lifting her eyes for the first time. "Have a nice-" she stopped, giving Melissa a curious look. "Hey, don't I go to school with you?"

"Sorry, I'm not from around here." Was all Melissa said, turning and going out to the terminal to wait for her bus, number 1509 to arrive.

Missy knew after the eighteenth time that she looked at her watch that she was going to go crazy if she looked at it again so she took it off and slipped it in her jacket pocket.

The rain was still coming down hard, and the streets were empty except for the couple of people waiting under their umbrellas for their buses to arrive. She should have brought one, she realized, but it wasn't like she could do anything about it now. The rain poured down the back of her jacket, soaking her to the bone. Her hair was sticking to her face and neck, hanging in front of her eyes like a wet, blonde curtain.

She was about to go back inside and watch for her bus through the windows when the rain stopped hitting her. She looked up and found that someone had come up close beside her, holding a red plastic umbrella over both their heads.

"Ya look like a drowned rat, honey." The woman holding the umbrella was a couple of years older than her, or at least her makeup made it appear that way. Her skin was dark in a way that you couldn't get with time under the sun, and her hair was dry, teased high and framing her head like a black cloud. Her lips, painted bright red, peeled back to reveal a perfect smile and teeth yellowed slightly by the same cigarette she held between the index and middle fingers of her left hand. But it wasn't the woman's teeth she was concerned about, but the dark, heavy bruise that marred the makeup on the woman's right eye. Melissa tried not to stare at it as she reflexively raised a hand to rub the tender spot on her jaw where a telephone shaped bruise would be the next morning. "Nice shiner, huh?" The woman was grinning from ear to ear and Melissa's ears turned red.

"I'm sorry." She said. "I didn't mean to stare."

The woman waved her off with the same hand holding her cigarette. "Don't worry 'bout it, hon. I got this beauty from my ex, Steve. He thought I was fuckin' 'roun' on him. I wasn't, but try tellin' him that. I usually work nights so I get home 'roun' four usually, an' when I got home this mornin' Steve was waitin' on me. Said he would 'beat the whore outta me'." She held her cigarette between her lips and made quotations with her left hand. "So I waited for him to fall asleep an' I got the hell outta Dodge." The woman took one last hit from her cigarette and threw it out into the rain. "A man hits me, he only does it once." Melissa watched the rain kill the fire on the cigarette's tip, thinking about the woman's story. She barely heard it when the woman spoke again. "I'm Eden, what's the name, girly?" Melissa hesitated for a long time and Eden bumped her with her shoulder. "Fuck, I ain't gonna call the cops or nothin', an' we don't even hafta talk 'bout what you're runnin' from if ya don't wanna."

"Mel-" She started to say her full name, but stopped. After her father died, she had stopped using the name she'd answered to since she was small, calling herself by her full name instead. She had wanted to put distance between herself and the pain that hearing that name brought. Renee had never let her forget, and to hear the name her mother and father had spoken with such love spoken with such venom by a woman she hated had always made her sick. She was Missy when she was with her family, Melissa when she was with Renee. But she wasn't with Renee anymore, she was on her way to a new life, and she wanted to be Missy again. "Missy." She said at last, the first time she'd spoken the name aloud since her father died.

"Missy, huh?" Eden smiled. "Nice to meet ya." The bus pulled up in front of them, long and silver, with a leaping dog on the side. Eden folded her red umbrella and the rain flattened her hair the moment it was out of the way. She bent and retrieved the bag sitting at her feet, nudging Missy with her hip. "Ya comin' or what?"

Missy smiled though she was cold and wet, because even if she was those things, at least she wasn't alone. "Second to the right." She whispered. "And straight on till morning."

Missy had never been on a bus before, and when she leaned over to ask Eden if all buses were as nice as theirs, the older girl laughed at her.

"Ya kiddin' me? Me an' my ma took a bus 'cross town once when I was just a little thing. I remember the smell mostly. Fuckin' worse than anythin' I'd ever smelled before or since. Like someone'd been sick on a hot day an' they forgot to clean the shit up. There was this couple arguin' a couple seats away from us, an' the lady sittin' next to me kept fuckin' coughin' on me." Eden shuddered and it was Missy's turn to laugh at her. She couldn't believe she was on a bus, surrounded by strangers, and headed for a town she'd never heard of before today. It was strange, but she felt like she was on the right path. Santa Carla. The name meant freedom to her.

A half hour into their trip, the batteries in Eden's cassette player died and she decided that if she couldn't listen to music, she would settle for asking Missy about herself.

"What do you want to know?" Missy approached the conversation with caution, hoping that Eden's curiosity would not steer the topic toward her parents.

"Where were ya born?" Eden asked her, lifting her legs up onto the seat and tucking them under her body. Missy smiled.

"Seattle."

"Okay, that was easy." Eden chewed on her lip for a few seconds before she spoke again.

"What's your favorite color?"

"Um, yellow I guess."

"Why?" Missy thought about it for a minute before she answered.

"My first bedroom was painted yellow." Eden nodded her head.

"Okay. Movie?"

"Carousel." Missy replied so suddenly that Eden lifted an eyebrow.

"Never seen it."

"It's great. It's about-" Eden cut her off by asking her another question.

"Book?"

"The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde."

"What's your middle name?"

"Grace."

"Sorry."

"It's okay." They covered every topic that either of the could come up with and by the time they reached the first transfer spot in Eugene, Oregon, neither of them wanted to do any more talking. She knew a lot about Eden after a couple of hours of talking with her. She used to live in Texas before she moved to Seattle. She was on her way to Los Angeles now that she'd left her boyfriend. She wanted to be an actress but she was afraid she'd end up a whore instead like her ex had told her she was. She said a lot of the girls who went to Los Angeles to be actresses ended up as hookers instead. Missy hadn't known that. There were a lot of things she didn't know, apparently.

Missy and Eden rolled off the bus and Eden dragged her younger friend by her arm into the diner across the street. "You hungry, kid? I'm fucking starving, could eat the ass end out of a rhino if somebody'd hold his legs." Missy had heard a lot of such language in the hours she'd spent with Eden, and though it no longer surprised her to hear her new friend talk like that, it still amazed her. Eden flopped into a red vinyl booth and Missy slid into the one across from her. "What're ya gonna get?"

"I'm not hungry." Eden nodded her head, barely listening to her as she scanned the menu. When at last she put it down, she stretched up out of her seat, waved her arm and whistled at a girl wearing an apron.

"Hey, doll! Can I get some fuckin' service over here?"

Eden was loud and abrasive, and Missy had never met anyone like her before. That was probably why she liked her. Her father had been quiet and passionate, and her mother had been soft and gentle, that was, when her mental illness wasn't making her throw plates at Missy's father. Missy herself had inherited her father's wordless passion, and her mother's soft, kind nature. She only hoped that that was the only thing she picked up from her mother.

The waitress walked off with their menus and Eden folded her hands on the table and gave Missy a serious look. "What?" Missy asked, eyes wide.

"Are ya gonna tell me or what?" Missy pretended not to know what she was talking about, rubbing at a stain on the table's surface with her thumb.

"Tell you what?"

"Your story. What you're runnin' from. I know ya didn't get that welt on your jaw by walkin' inta a fuckin' door, and don't even think 'bout tryin' to sell me some shit 'bout you fallin' down the stairs." As it had turned out, the bruise from her stepmother's well placed strike had showed up earlier than she'd anticipated, and for a while, Eden had been as careful not to look at it as not to mention it.

"It's a long story, Eden."

"It's a long bus ride, Miss." The waitress came back and set a plate with a burger and fries on it in front of Eden, and a coke in front of both of them. "Ya can't keep that shit bottled up, girl. It'll eat you up."

"I'll tell you." Missy whispered, eyes darting to look at the other occupants of the diner. "Just not here, okay?" The rest of the passengers on the bus would fall asleep soon enough, riding a bus at night had a tendency to make people sleepy, and with them conked out she wouldn't have to worry about them listening in on her and Eden.

"I hear ya." Eden tucked into her burger and Missy discovered that she had more of an appetite than she'd thought and when Eden didn't seem to care after she stole a fry or two, vigorously attacked the rest of the pile. "You know, kid, I got a feeling things are gonna start lookin' up for the both of us. Can't rain all the fuckin' time, you know?"

When next bus came that would take them the next leg of their trip, Eden was still complaining about their waitress' 'shitty attitude' and Missy was nodding along. They rode for the next two hours in silence and Missy thought she'd forgotten about what they discussed in the diner until she started fidgeting again, turning in her seat to face her. Missy was sitting with her head against the cold window, watching the scenery roll by behind the glass but she could feel Eden watching her.

"Hey, Miss?"

"Yeah, Eden." She said, not looking away from the window.

"Ya gonna tell me now?"

"You really want to know?" Eden nodded, and she slid forward in her seat, an eager smile on her face. "I don't know how to start."

"How about 'once upon a time'?" Eden joked, but considering the nature of her story, Missy felt it was appropriate to begin that way.

"Okay. Once upon a time, in a magical place called Seattle," Eden snorted.

"Magic my ass." Missy ignored her, continuing with the story that was painful to remember, let alone share with another person. She talked for a long time about when things had been good, reluctant to go further into what she called The Bad Years. She told her about the time she'd fallen in the lake, and how her mother's illness had led her to believe she'd died that day. She repeated what her father had told her the night of her mother's unsuccessful murder attempt, and how her mother killed herself not long after. It was hard to talk about the years before her dad died, and even harder to talk about the miserable two she spent afterward listening to Renee tell her it was her fault.

"Bitch." Eden had said when she got to the most recent part of her story, wherein she reached the point of no return. She laughed when Missy told her about the vase. "Knocked the cunt out, huh?

She finished her story, and she didn't feel any better for it. Eden said that bottling your feelings up gave them the time to grow angry enough inside you to devour you from the inside out. Of course, the way Eden said it was riddled with poor grammar and swear words, but the meaning was there regardless. She didn't feel any different after telling her tale, just sad, and Eden rubbed her back the entire time she cried into her knees.

Afterwards Eden leaned on her shoulder and fell asleep, snoring a little. Missy took a little longer, grateful to have someone with her who wasn't much better off than her, but mostly she was thankful to have someone to talk to after so long of hiding in her room so she wouldn't have to be around Renee. After a while, she leaned back against Eden, closed her eyes, and dreamed of the beach.

Redding, California was nothing special, at least the part they stopped in to transfer buses for the second time. Compared to the rest of the state, it was pretty commonplace, nowhere near as impressive as Missy had imagined California would be. It was mid-afternoon when she and Eden stepped into a small souvenir shop by the bus terminal, browsing the assorted knick-knacks and tee shirts. Eden was down a different aisle, looking at shark's teeth, when the television in the corner happened to catch Missy's attention. The image on the screen troubled her more than whatever the reporter was saying, because the picture was one of a skinny blonde haired girl with legs that were too long and a miserable expression on her face. It was her, last school year on picture day. What the reporter was saying reached her and her stomach dropped.

"-after she viciously attacked her stepmother, Renee Van Buren, with a vase, Melissa then stole two hundred dollars from her stepmother's purse and left the house. A witness told the local police that he had seen Melissa in the local Greyhound bus terminal. It is not yet known where the bus Melissa boarded was headed, but if you see this girl, please call the number on the screen. Be advised that she may or may not be armed, and should be considered extremely dangerous." Renee's face appeared on the screen, she was crying, holding a handkerchief to her eyes.

"Please, please help me find my little girl. She suffers from the same mental illness that claimed her biological mother's life and she might try to hurt herself, or someone else, if she isn't brought home, where I know how to care for her illness." Missy was horrified, angry tears welling in her eyes. Renee was sitting there, spewing lies to the media that she was crazy and dangerous. "Please, Missy." Renee's eyes stared at her on the screen. "Please, Missy. Come home. I know you didn't mean to hurt me, and I forgive you. Please come home, your mother misses you." Missy turned away from the television, ignoring the cashier's concerned expression as she found Eden and dragged her from the store by her arm.

"Renee put my face on the news. She said I'm crazy like my mom was and that I'm going to hurt somebody." She was crying and Eden all but growled.

"That fuckin' cow. If ya were dangerous ya would've attacked me or somethin'." Missy didn't answer her, her mind was too filled with thoughts of what would happen to her if the police found her and took her back to Renee. She didn't look up from her shoes until she felt Eden throw her arm around her shoulders. "C'mon, hon."

Missy couldn't get back on the bus fast enough, and she didn't relax and unclench until they reached San Francisco. Every inch of the way she felt like Renee was in her head, telling her she'd find her soon. Eden tried to cheer her with talk about her acting dreams and what she would do to Renee if she ever bumped into her in a dark alley. When the bus rolled by the welcome sign, Missy let out an involuntary cry of relief.

"Murder capital of the world? Jesus, Miss, ya sure know how to pick 'em." Missy didn't care what the sign said, the first time she laid eyes on the boardwalk she knew that Santa Carla was the perfect place for her.

"It's perfect." She said, as eager to get out and explore her new town as she was reluctant to leave her new friend. The bus rolled to a stop, and the driver called out.

"Santa Carla." Missy whipped around to face the woman who, in the course of one day, five hours, and fifteen minutes, had become her truest and only friend. Eden didn't look at her, she was fiddling with something on her wrist.

"Here." She said, and dropped something in Missy's palm. It was a rope bracelet, and hanging from it was a wooden charm in the shape of a mask of some sort. "My ma gave me this. She was from some place in Africa and she was always goin' on 'bout evil spirits and stupid shit like that. The neighbors said it was voodoo or somethin'. My dad, he was white, and he used to get real pissed when she started goin' off but that never stopped her. The day that I moved out, she gave me this." She pointed at the charm. "See that? That's Ubuso, he's a guardian spirit. He's supposed to bring good luck and keep ya safe or some shit like that. At least that's what my ma told me when she gave it to me." She tied the bracelet around Missy's wrist and when she was finished, she leaned in and kissed her on the cheek.

"I can't take your bracelet, Eden. Your mother gave it to you." Missy tried to take it off but Eden caught both her hands in hers.

"Leave it, Miss. I don't need it anymore. I think my ma would want you to have it. She would have liked you. You're as crazy as she is." Eden ruffled her hair and Missy smiled. "Take care of yourself out there, Missy. The world's a rough place, and you're a sweet kid. If you're not careful, the world will chew you up and spit you right the fuck out. So watch out for creeps and guys named Steve." Missy laughed. "Be good to yourself and never let anybody tell you who you are. You're a good kid, Miss, and you don't deserve the fucked up life God handed you." Eden was crying now. "Things are gonna change for you, kid. Just so long as you remember that no matter how bad things get-"

"It can't rain all the fucking time." Missy finished, the tears in her own eyes bringing her voice to crack.

"Damn straight." Eden leaned in and squeezed her arms tight around her. "Good luck, girl."

Missy watched the bus drive away until she couldn't see it anymore, feeling like a piece of her heart had been ripped off and was driving off in the bus with Eden. She took a long, shuddering breath and turned around to face the boardwalk. It was alive and crawling with people, even at midnight. Rich, interesting people like Missy had never seen. Boys with spiky green hair and women with tattoos all over their bodies. It was new, it was a little intimidating, but it was home now.

Her home, and as she looked around, she couldn't help thinking that the guy in the bus station had been right.

She wasn't going to find her Peter Pan here.

Thank you for reading.

[legitboom]

Spidey and me

When I was seven years old, my dad came into my room and told me we were going to a Cingular store on the westside of Evansville, Indiana. Just thinking about the word ‘Cingular’ alone is a nostalgia trip. Remember that little orange guy who’d bounce around in the commercials? When cell phones were the fast and exciting future, not the overbearing present? 

I’m getting ahead of myself. The reason we were going to this store was not to buy a cell phone, but to look at a car. I know very little about cars, and they’ve never interested me, but my dad told me this particular car was a Viper. It was very fast, had a big engine or something, I don’t know. Like I said, I could give a shit about the car. What stood out this particular time, however, was that this was a Spider-Man car. 

I don’t remember why that interested me so much. Maybe I had seen some of the episodes of the old Spider-Man cartoon when I was a kid. I think, at some point, I had a Spider-Man video game but I never figured out how to play it. Whatever the case may be, I was very unfamiliar with the wall-crawler when I hopped in our SUV to see this car. All I knew was that it sounded cool.

We got to the store and, sure enough, the car was there - being displayed for promotional purposes: 

That’s what it looked like. 

I didn’t know this at the time, but my capitalism-fueled brain now realizes that Cingular was sponsoring the 2002 Spider-Man movie (trust me, we’ll get to that) and, somehow, that meant that they got to attract customers by traveling this car around the country. Or something. Who knows. 

Their plan must’ve worked though, because my mom went in after a while to look at the cell phones at Cingular. She was traveling a lot back then, so she must have been thinking about getting one. She walked out without a cell phone - but with a large cardboard tube. I asked her what was inside, and she said - a poster.

From what I understand, every Cingular employee at this thing got a free promotional poster. Some woman behind the counter didn’t want hers (I guess it would’ve clashed with her apartment’s feng shui) so she gave it to my mom to give to me, the ‘runt of the litter’ at this event. As I opened the tube to pull out the poster, I figured it would be some corny advertisement for Cingular. Maybe it’d have a little picture of Spider-Man on it.

But, no. No. 

I pulled out this: 

It was an actual, full-sized, theatrical poster. I can’t explain why, but I was hooked. I hung the poster on my wall where it remained for probably five years. I had it up again in a nice store-bought frame when I was in college, though I’ve since retired it to make room-space for a clock. 

Needless to say, for the next two months I asked my parents every single day if it was May 3rd. I had - absolutely had - to see this movie. I think by that point an X-Men movie had come out, but I didn’t give a shit about that. Batman, Wolverine, whatever superheroes were being splashed across the silver screen - they meant nothing to me. They weren’t Spider-Man.

Then, on May 3rd, 2002, I was ready.  

I can’t remember which trailers premiered in front of Sam Raimi’s first Spider-Man movie, but I remember everything else. I could probably write a (very rough) novelization of the movie right now without having seen it in several months. The performances are all so vivid, the colors are so flamboyant. I’ll probably get into trouble for saying this, but the upside down kiss in the rain is, in my opinion, the best scene in a superhero film and, dare I say it, the most iconic film sequence of the 21st century. 

Yeah, it was cool. 

Anyway, I walked out of the theater in a bizarre euphoric state that left me gasping for air. We drove home, I went to my room, stared at that poster, and wondered if there’d ever be more. 

Of course, there was more. Raimi made two more Spider-Man films, neither of which topped the first and one of which was a disaster. Then they remade the first movie and it got a sequel too. By that point, I didn’t really care about the movie Spider-Man. 

See, shortly after the movie premiered I graduated the second grade. I didn’t expect much to happen as a result of that, but something did. My dad came home and brought me this book: 

I didn’t know it at the time, but Tom DeFalco was considered one of the premier writers of the Spider-Man comic series and an expert on all things Amazing Arachnid. I didn’t care about that at the time, though. I had an entire book about Spider-Man and I was going to read the thing cover to cover.

So I did. In fact, I can’t even read the book now because I literally read it to death. I took it everywhere and, fifteen years later, I’m afraid it would not sit well on my lap due to its current condition. 

This book had everything - every tiny little detail about every character was packed into this thing. It made me realize that there was more to Spider-Man than movies or video games or toys (there was an extensive line of Spider-Man toys unrelated to the movie in the late 90′s). There was a Spider-Man world in the comic books that had been around for nearly fifty years. This was the ‘real’ Spidey. He had web shooters, not organic webbing, and his parents were spies for a secret agency called SHIELD. He didn’t wear glasses because he had bad eyesight - he wore them because they made him look smart. 

Needless to say, I had to know more.

Here’s where things get crazy. 

A few weeks later, I asked my mom to take me to the comic book store. There was only one in Evansville at the time. I walked back to where the comics were (despite their name, most comic stores do not specialize in comics, so they’re often limited to a small wall in the back or to the side) and looked extensively for anything that said Spider-Man on it. I saw the first one - didn’t even open it - and took it to the counter.

This was the cover: 

I didn’t know it at the time, but what Marvel Comics had done was take a poll from their readers to determine the top 100 comic books ever released by the company. I thought I was buying issue one of a new Spider-Man series.

Nope, even better. On the inside, it was an exact replica of Amazing Fantasy #15 - the first ever appearance from Spider-Man by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. 

I mourn that comic because, like my DK Ultimate Guide, I read that thing to death. I should buy another copy on ebay one day. 

Spider-Man comics, especially these older ones, were like a drug to my prepubescent brain. I saved up to buy at least half a dozen huge tomes reprinting the old stories. It never crossed my mind that Spider-Man had grown up, gotten married, and joined the Avengers in his current comic.

Years go by, and I stop reading Spider-Man comics. Partly because I couldn’t afford them, partly because the newer movies sort of disappointed me. Perhaps I was growing up and it was time to find a new hobby. So, for a few years, that’s what I did. 

Fast forward six years later. I’m on some website, it’s summer vacation, and I’ll be heading to high school in a few weeks. I’m scrolling, scrolling, scrolling.

And then something catches my eye. 

Amazing Spider-Man #600, out today. I looked up the cover, just because comics that often reach large numbers like that often celebrate with a special cover, and saw this: 

If you don’t think that looks cool as hell, I don’t know what to tell you.

I called up the local comics store and ordered it that day.

Now, unfortunately, that cover was one of many. I did get a swell variant cover drawn by Marvel’s then-Editor in Chief Joe Quesada, but I still wish I had gotten the beauty you see above. 

The story inside captivated me like I was seven years old again. A Spider-Man/Daredevil team-up! The return of Doctor Octopus! Aunt May gets married...to the father of J. Jonah Jameson! It’s all nonsense to a non-fan, but to someone who had spent so long being captivated by the lore of Spider-Man and his amazing friends, this was all I needed to realize that my love of all things Spider-Man was far from over. It was only beginning. 

Six years later, I have yet to stop buying each issue of Amazing Spider-Man as it comes out. That was issue 600, and issue 800 is coming up fast (and the same writer is still following up on plotlines from 600). There’s nothing quite like the twice-monthly thrill of seeing the Webbed Wonder swing into action on 22 pages of pure adventure. Call it whatever you want, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Today, a new Spider-Man movie is released in theaters. How strange is it that when I was a kid, Spider-Man was a role model? He was a ‘big kid’, a high schooler, and now he’s six years my junior in this new film! It won’t be long before I surpass the age of the Spider-Man of the current comics. 

It just serves as a reminder that as I grow up and Spider-Man grows...down?...I will be watching these movies differently than I did all those years ago. I no longer jump for excitement at the prospects of a new Spider-Man movie because there are already so many great stories I haven’t even began to touch, but if this new movie is good and does inspire a generation like that first movie inspired me?

Well, that would be okay.