trans_9 | My friend Goo

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My friend Goo

There's a familiar sight in the sensoriums. New York stretches out underneath Peter's feet, starting with the Baxter Building. Perched on the roof with a beer and a ghettoblaster playing Strangers, he picks out his old house in Forest Hills with Aunt May and MJ's next door; his inner city apartment with Harry. Out in the Village he can make out ESU, where he met Gwen and the Bugle building where he met his first love and his greatest nemesis. Doc Conners' lab and Ryker's Island.

It was all gone. And despite what his 'saviours' had assured, he feared that those people were gone too.

Being here on this ship, it was too much. He'd exchanged one war for another. He hadn't seen his friends and family in so long, and he'd never had a chance to say goodbye.

S.H.I.E.L.D's helicarrier hums to itself as it hovers above the city. Peter screams and hurls the beer bottle. His augmented strength is enough to pitch it into the carrier's hull, where it shatters and in pieces tumbles into the streets below.

He screams again, his face in his hands, and a voice speaks up. One that he hasn't heard before. One that would send a chill down his spine if it weren't already occupied.

We have each other, Peter.

And the Kinks play on, "Strangers on this road we are on, we are not two; we are one."

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Nanoha entered the Sensorium for her usual daily training, and... stopped as she found a city. Not her training city, nor any city she'd ever been to. Obviously, someone was in here, but she couldn't see anybody... well, she couldn't see anybody who didn't look like they weren't part of the simulation, anyway.

The wings fluttered into life at her heels and she took to the sky to look around - here, she was able to identify where she was: The Empire State Building and Statue of Liberty in the distance left no doubt about that, even if she'd never been to New York before (though she's fairly sure that the gigantic flying structure in the sky shouldn't be there...)

Nanoha felt a twinge of sadness at the sudden realization that this might be as close as she'd ever get to visiting the actual thing, and as she swoops lower, flying through the skyscrapers of New York to explore it, she wonders if maybe whoever was using the Sensorium set it up for that exact reason.

While it's not exactly easy to spot someone sitting on a rooftop in a place as big as this, once you've found him, there's no mistaking the guy in the black bodysuit for another simulated bystander. Plus, thanks to the sensoriums, his stereo can be heard all the way across town.

He looks up at the soaring figure, putting the voices in his head back in there for the moment. That was something he missed. The liberation of a city like this. The sight of Thor or Wasp streaking across the skyline, the exhilaration of rapelling from building to building.

Sure, there's the City, but it's a ghost town. It's not the same. Not to him.

She heard music, and even if she didn't recognize the song, Nanoha instinctively veered in its direction - and hadn't been flying for more than half a minute before she spotted its source and the man sitting beside it. He was obviously no simulation, though he was wearing a very interesting-looking outfit.

Nanoha swooped down to hover in the sky nearby him, and even though she couldn't see his eyes through the suit, it was a good bet that he'd noticed her. "Ah... I'm sorry, I hope I'm not interrupting anything," she called out.

Peter calls back, "Nah, you're good. I was just... Hanging out."

"I'm Sp-- I'm Peter."

Nanoha flew over to the roof and touched down, the shimmering wings on her heels fading from sight. "If you're sure, then," she smiled. "I'm Nanoha - it's nice to meet you, Peter!"

"It's nice to meet you too," and just to show that he means it his mask retracts, seemingly of its own violition, to reveal the slightly gawky young man underneath.

He gestures out across the city, "You ever see it? Did you even have a New York in the world where you came from?"

She followed his gesture, her smile fading slightly - her initial guess seemed to have been on the money. "We did have a New York, but... this is the first time I've ever seen it in person - I grew up in Japan."

Her voice quieted a bit. "It's really something."

"She's a beaut," he says, nodding in agreement, "Y'know, I lived my whole life here. Never even travelled. I can only have left city limits about a half dozen times. The thought never really occured to me."

He rocks slightly, "Funny how you never notice these things until they're gone."

Nanoha's face falls. "I'm sorry," she says quietly and sincerely.

"It doesn't... feel real, does it."

"It never has," he replies mutely, "I've been waiting months to wake up. Now that I know that's not going to happen, I-- what are we even fighting for?"

"We're doing it to make sure that other people don't have to go through the same thing... aren't we?"

He doesn't say anything. Of course, that had been why he does what he always does. Swings around, foils crimes, making sure people stay safe.

But that was when there were still people he knew. Good people who made even the worst of people worth saving.

He always thought this small. The universe never really existed for him, despite being sent out into it a couple of times. His universe consisted of about a dozen people, most of whom had died already, casualties in his own personal war. If the rest had died... he wasn't sure that he even had a place in that big, scary new universe.

"I don't know. I'm not sure of anything."

"I think we're all a bit confused. There's nothing wrong with that." Nanoha moves, brushing the ground off and sitting beside Peter. "Didn't Stacy say that there was a chance what they've done could be undone? Maybe that's worth hoping for."

"Yeah, but it sounds a little too convenient. Like she could smell a riot and came up with some half-baked failsafe."

He shrugs and sighs loudly, "Sorry, I'm not usually this pessimistic. Right now, I'm just going to hope for something more than circumstantial evidence."

Or a familiar face.

"There's no way to know unless we try." Oh, believe her, Peter, Nanoha could really, really use a familiar face right now.

"It's all right. ...it's tough to be alone here."

He simply nods, though Nanoha has actually helped him feel a little better. It was that gentle nudge that he'd always needed from time to time, to push on, no matter what he's lost.

Peter looks back down on the city, transfixed as lights begin to flicker on in windows as the sun wanes.

"Just bricks and mortar."

"And peoples' hopes and dreams." People that probably no longer exist.

"Somehow I don't think either of those things were present when it was destroyed," despite the sentiment, he smiles for the first time in a while, "Hopefully we brought them with us."

"Well, the people here have hopes and dreams of their own. So do the people still asleep in the cavern, don't they?" She returns it. "So in a way, we must have."

"Where do you get these reserves of sunshine and rainbows?" Peter grins, "Is there a fountain of it somewhere on the ship that I haven't visited yet?"

At that, Nanoha can't help but laugh. "If there is, I haven't found it yet."

As she stops chuckling, though, she looks a little sheepish. "Sorry. I guess I've just had a lot of practice with being the upbeat one."

"Don't apologise." he replies insistently, "Seriously, we need as much of it as we can get right now. Even if none of us sound grateful for it."

"I know, I know - don't worry, I don't plan on stopping anytime soon. We're all in this together, right? If being cheerful helps keep peoples' spirits up, how can I not?"

Even if her loved ones weren't there with her, that didn't mean she could just call it quits, right?

"Penny for your thoughts?" She had noticed the skyline before she ever spotted Spidey on the roof, and had taken the time to fly around the city, walk through the helicarrier, and even zoom off to see the Avengers mansion. But her curiosity got the best of her, and she had to find out who had made this place.

That was when she found Spidey. Instead of landing on the ground, she hovered in front of him, her Ms. Marvel costume over riding her plant suit for the time being.

"I feel like it ought to set you back a bit more than a penny. Try fifty bucks." zings Peter, rolling up onto his haunches.

"It's gone, Carol. All of this is gone."

"Fifty huh? That's pretty steep. How about an IOU?" She tried to laugh, but it came out hallow. Seeing the city was starting to upset her again. And as Peter seemed to be feeling about as crappy as she was.

"I know." She looked around at everything, and finally settled her gaze on the helicarrier. "I think a part of me is still in shock."

"As long as it's not written on a hunk of Stacy, I'll take it."

His eyes wander on an altogether lower plane. They pass over Brooklyn Bridge. Where Gwen had-- now, it was as if she'd died a second time.

"Yeah, no kidding," he replies, "I just hope that when they say our loved ones were saved too, they mean it. Or at least that I could believe it."

"I'll have to get back to you on that one."

She frowned a bit and shook her head. She didn't like Peter being this depressed. It didn't seem natural.

"The problem with having our loved ones in the pods, is they aren't awake right now. And I know I could really use some more familiar company." She moved to sit down on the edge of the roof and stared off into the horizon. "I'm always hoping that the next time theirs a pop, Tony or Steve will appear. Or Jessica and Clint. Maybe even Sim... well maybe not Simon." She shook her head and looked back to Peter. "I hope Jarvis is in there too."

"Actually, those are the people I can believe are in there," he scratches his head, "I mean, look who's been revived already-- we can all do something, we can all fight in some way. D'you honestly think that when they were picking soldiers for an interdimensional war they'd take me over Cap or Tony or the F4?"

His head sags a little, "It's the people that can't that I'm worried about. My friends, my loved ones... They're just people. Good people, but not the first people you'd think about conscripting."

Mostly, he's thinking of Aunt May. For her, would this be any better a fate than death? Hell, the shock might kill her anyway.

"I just-- I guess I don't believe these Daligig guys would have the time or the inclination to save just anyone as long as they know the right people. I mean, where's the motivation?"

"I would." She doesn't look over to him, but she is smiling slightly. it vanishes quick though.

"Ever war needs regular people. Cooks, medics, entertainment for the soldiers. If these guys knew anything, they'd know that."

"That's because you're a sucker for the underdog," he quips, though without the usual Spider-Pep.

"I really hope you're right. 'Cause my Aunt's cooking?" he kisses his thumb and forefinger, "Perfection. Though I guess with the local slop as the only point of reference, pretty much anyone's would be."

Then, he smiles too and looks down on the city.

"Thanks, Carol. Really."

"I am. Or maybe I'm just a sucker for Spiders." She gave a small smile, and then sighed.

"Maybe we could have a petition or something. 'People who demand good home cooking.' And then change the headlines to 'People who want Peter's Aunt May here' and see if Stacy bites." She was trying to cheer him up. If one person in this group could help cheer up the masses, it should be Spider-Man. They needed him to be happy.

"She doesn't seem like the petitionable sort, but I'm sure even Stacy would appreciate a once over from May Parker and her mad spring cleaning skills."

He's starting to feel better, all right. But some still nags at him. That quiet, hissing voice. The one calling for him, nursing his ego. He's careful not to show his concern.

"I should get out of here. Wallowing's not doing me any good."

"Wallowing does no one any good." She smiled a bit, glad that he didn't actually want to just sit there are and be depressed, even if it was what she wanted to do. Peter was different, he was carefree and happy. He was suppose to be the happy one anyways. The one to keep all the Avengers from sinking into the darkness.

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My friend Goo

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