~New Home~

°2018°

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"Well, it's nice." Arianna commented once they entered the new house. It was two stories with a spacious basement and pretty comfortable. There were some elements that could use a fix up, primarily some stains on the walls and a leaky faucet. Though, compared to some of the other places people had to live, it was extremely homey. On the long drive over, Maya couldn't help but notice the hastily constructed shacks out of sheet metal and old camping tents.

New York, once an epicenter for luxury and finances, had been reduced to a slum state with the Royal Palace in the center built upon the suffering of others.

"It could be worse." Maya said, voicing her thoughts compared to what she had seen on the long drive over.

"I call the basement." Daniel said, slinging his duffel bag over his shoulder and carrying a box of his clothes down the stairs. Maya rolled her eyes and pulled one of her boxes up the stairs, claiming the empty room to her immediate right. Arianna took the room across from Maya while their parents took the master bedroom on the main floor.

They spent most of that day assembling bed sets and cleaning the house up a bit. Maya's dad even managed to stop the constant dripping of the faucet.

"Well, the circumstances aren't great, but I really think we did a good job with this." He said as the family gathered in the small living room. Maya's mom passed everyone plates with piles of Ramen noodles for dinner.

"We'll go to the store soon." She said as Maya absentmindedly wove the noodles on the tines of her plastic fork. Daniel flipped the TV on as they all sat on the sofa and arm chair in relative silence. A local news station flashed on and so did a reporter with an almost too fake smile. It was almost as if someone was pointing a gun at her from behind the camera and threattened to shoot if she broke her facade.

Well, actually that wasn't that far off.

"...Twenty-seven traitors were executed this morning as a result of the failed assassination attempt." The reporter flipped to a new page of the papers in front of her. "Doctors Banner and Stark would like for it to be known to the general public that some of one of their experiments escaped. There's no need to be alarmed, but if you do find one of these radioactive spiders, proceed with caution and carefully catch it with a glass jar and contact the local authorities to have it returned. Should you get bit by one of them, it's reccomended that you go to the Palace immediately for evaluation. The side effects are unknown as of now, so be cautious. Now to Todd for the weather-"

"Alright, I think that's enough for now." Maya's mom switched the TV off. "Once you finish your dinners, I want you guys to get washed up for bed. You have school tomorrow."

"Alright." Maya said as she tossed out the half eaten noodles. She didn't have much of an appetite anyways.

The reporter's use of the word "evaluation" stuck out to Maya. There was just the slightest pause before she used the word. Of course, Maya could only assume evaluation was just a nice way of saying you would either be imprisoned or killed to 'keep the peace.' "Keep the peace," of course, was also a nice way of saying "Keep people from causing a ruckus that could jeopardize the balance of power..." If one could even call it a 'balance.'

As Maya put her pyjamas on, she looked out her window at the buildings around the house, some with lights in the windows, others without. A little bit too close by for comfort, Maya also got a nice view of the Palace in the middle of Manhattan Island. It used to be Stark Tower before everything went to shit. That was a long time ago and now Tony Stark was just a lackey. An "experiment jockey," as Jessica had once put it.

Maya continued to look out at the Palace, seemingly glowing from an unknown light source. She wondered what was going on in there at that moment. Was someone being sentenced to die, another martyr to add to the list of hundreds of thousands before them? Were servants slaving away to just stay alive one more day? What about the King and Queen themselves? Relishing in the misery they had wrought that day? Did it even bother them?

Maya assumed probably not, since this happened every day, it seemed. Being as imaginative as she was, Maya thought that maybe the screams of the damned were what her Asgardian overlords enjoyed listening to as they got their spa treatments or whatever they did. Or maybe they just liked rain noises like normal people.

Then again, there was nothing normal about them.

Maya finally climbed into bed and stared at a medium sized water stain on the wall across from her as she fell asleep. She'd have to cover it in drawings soon. That'd start to make it home.

***

Midtown High seemed like it was a decent enough school. Large student body that seemed very sociable. The school year had barely started, just a month or two, so a lot of people were new to the school like her. She was determined to make the best of her Freshman year, even if life in general just really sucked.

Actually, she had already made a friend, her lab partner in Chemistry. Betty Brant was her name, a reporter on the school news team. They hit it off pretty much right away. Betty's mother was actually the news reporter Maya had seen the previous night, so they lived in one of the nicer areas of town. When Maya explained her situation, Betty seemed really empathetic. She felt the same way after her mother had been promoted to the head anchor on the late night news. One wrong move and well...

Betty and Maya had agreed to eat lunch together that day and talk a little more about what their lives were like. The cafeteria food at Midtown was a bit better than that of her old school, but the meatballs on the meatball subs still tasted like plastic.

"Hey, Betty. Great report today." One new face complemented, accompanied by someone else.

"Oh, thanks, Ned. Maya, these are my other friends, Ned Leeds and Peter Parker. Peter's aunt works with my mom at the news station." Betty introduced. "Guys, this is Maya, she just moved here from Cali."

"Nice to meet you." Peter greeted, shaking Maya's hand. "It's hard to get used to living out here, but you sort of get used to it."

"Thanks."

"Mind if we join you?"

"It's a free country."

"Actually, it's a monarchy occupied by foreign invaders." Peter corrected with a lopsided grin.

"Figure of speech." Maya chuckled, moving her backpack off of the seat next to her. Peter claimed it while Ned sat next to Betty.

"So where do you live?" Ned asked.

"Eh, about 10-11 miles away." Maya shrugged.

"But that's the middle of Manhattan, really close to the Palace." Peter said, confused.

"Believe me I'm not too happy about it either. The whole reason we moved out here is because my dad got a job there. Managing finances no one can have or touch. No offense, but who would voluntarily move out here?" Maya replied glumly.

"Point taken. Still, that really sucks."

"I know. I'm afraid that one wrong move would lead to my dad's head being mounted onto a spike."

"Where'd you hear that?" Betty asked.

"The further away, the crazier the rumors. People in California are happy being as far away as possible, but that also means the rumors are bigger and weirder. My friend Jessica told me that servants have died because of "accidentally seeing the frickle frackle" as she put it. Then my friend Jamie said the Queen has a dragon at her disposal. Then Jessica countered with the ability to bend the elements Avatar style. Crazy stuff." Maya explained.

"Well, we can neither confirm nor deny the first one, I don't think they can bend the elements, but sometimes the Queen does fly around on a dragon. An ice dragon, to be specific." Betty said. Maya paled.

"They have dragons on Asgard?" Maya squeaked.

"That's the thing: no. At least, not how we usually imagine dragons to look like. Among other things, the King and Queen can shapeshift. If the Queen is riding a dragon, she's really going on a joyride with her husband in an act of intimidation as well as for her enjoyment. It's really scary, but it's also very rare."

"That's why you sometimes see ice patches in the middle of the road in July." Ned added.

"Ha. And I thought that was the least believable one I heard." Maya said weakly.

"You'll find that a lot of things here are weird." Peter said.

"But, you know, it gives a sense of togetherness to everyone in their fear. People are less inclined to be rude to-" Ned was saying.

"Ow!" Peter exclaimed, smacking his hand. "Something bit me."

He pulled his hand back expecting to see a squished mosquito or some other type of bug. Really, it was a spider about the size of a quarter surrounded by some sort of greenish goop.

"Peter, oh my god, are you okay? You're pale as hell." Ned asked.

"I'm fine." Peter replied, before leaping out of his seat and running to vomit in the trash can. "Or... Maybe not."

"Peter, what is it?" Maya asked, rushing over with her new friends.

"Spider bite." Peter showed Maya the squished arachnid on his hand.

"Why is it green like that?"

"Oh... Oh no." Betty said.

"What?"

"The mutated spiders that got loose." Betty said. Maya then remembered the news report from the previous night.

"Oh, that's bad." She said.

"Ya think?"

"Don't make me go..." Peter groaned, vomiting again.

"Go where?" Ned asked.

"The Palace. We all know what evaluation means." Maya said.

"No way we'd do that to you, man."

"Wipe the goop off and then go to the nurse. Say it was food poisoning." Maya said, grabbing Peter's things. "Go home and we'll be at your house after school."

"Thanks." Peter mumbled, going with Betty to the nurse.

"Where does Peter live?" Maya asked Ned. He gave her the address and cleaned up his lunch with Maya. They met back up with Betty at the front office to go to their next classes.

***

Maya had texted her mom saying she was going to some new friends' house. Her mom said it was alright as long as she was safe.

So Maya, Ned, and Betty all walked over to Peter's apartment after school got out. They climbed a few stairs and Betty knocked on the door.

A woman answered with an apron on and a tired look in her eyes.

"Oh, hi guys! Peter's inside. He told me you would be coming." The woman said, letting the kids inside.

"Thanks, Ms. Parker." Betty said.

"You must be Maya. I'm Peter's Aunt May, he told me you just moved out here."

"Oh, uh, yeah. Yesterday, actually." Maya said.

"Well, we know it's a bit scary, but you eventually get used to it... Sort of. Just as long as your dad stays out of trouble he should be fine."

"Thanks, Ms. Parker." Maya said, smiling.

"You can just call me May. Peter's room is down the hall and to the right." May said, pointing in that direction. The kids heeded May's directions and knocked on Peter's door.

"Peter, it's us!" Betty called.

"Oh! Uh... Hi guys." Peter said from inside.

"How are you feeling?" Ned asked.

"Uh..."

"Peter?" Maya asked, opening the door.

"Well, I don't think this was supposed to happen." Peter said, sitting on the ceiling of his room. They all stared at him in utter shock.

"You're like... Like a spider!" Ned said.

"A spider man!" Maya said.

"No one had better find out about this, else I'll be taken in for sure." Peter said.

"Don't worry, your secret's safe with us." Maya said, smiling in wonderment.

***