chapter twenty-nine
in memoriam 

     THE BUS WAS slow.

     Achingly slow.

     The traffic was heavy, making it painful to travel across the bridge. Nina set her head against the back of the seat, huffing up at the ceiling. She had already counted the stains in the seats, dared Ned to count the gum underneath them (to which he was so bored he actually did), went through her study notes to prepare for this new term, set MJ plenty of Snapchats to try and keep her busy━but it was true, Nina was doomed to boredom this entire trip to the New York Hall of Science. 

     Let's sign up for this excursion, she had said, It will be fun, she had said. Obviously, Nina later figured out she had been lying to herself. 

     But so far, her junior year had been crazy. First, they tracked down the last of Vulture's crew: including the Tinkerer and his crazy technological schemes. Peter Parker, her best friend, who Nina figured out to be Spider-Man halfway through Sophomore Year, took him down in a workshop, battling his lasers and left-over equipment to leave him webbed up for the authorities. Then, it was the high-speed chase across Manhattan after the Shocker decided to steal from the National Bank. He didn't take the fall out well: he had received this awesome shocker gauntlet, and barely had any time to use it! Obviously, as most super villains believe, the best option afterwards was to cause as much havoc as he possibly could. And, of course, there was the mediocre encounter with the villain who deemed himself the Human Fly━so small that Peter simply swatted him their first fight during lunch. Not to mention that day they spent trying to catch runaway pigeons and children's balloons. But then emerged the world of organised crime. Nina had started to hear rumours of gang fights between notorious leaders Hammerhead and Tombstone, and how arguments have turned into deadly fights in the streets over stolen artwork and black market goods. Naturally, one blamed the other, and it was more than once that Peter showed up at Nina's window bruised from breaking up fights━and the worst of all, a bullet wound to his leg. Nina forced him into her father's car, and somehow she managed to both steal her father's car and illegally drive Peter to the hospital without getting caught. 

     There was that time they thought Peter somehow got cloned at reports of another Spider-Man running through the street but nope, just an impersonator trying to be just like his favourite superhero until he got caught in an armed robbery and Peter had to swing in to save him. Nina couldn't forget when some D-list villain tried to get revenge for his embarrassing take down by trying to break into Nina's apartment, somehow finding out she knew Spider-Man, only to arrive at the same time as Peter outside her window. Nina wasn't sure whether to be horrified or amused at the sight that occurred. "Hey, do I know you?" Peter had held out his hand to shake the villain's hand before webbing him straight to the next fire escape. "Oh, that's right! How's your head? Is it out of the gutter, yet? You know, because you tripped over the gutter━"

     Needless to say, Nina was hoping that this small trip could be a break from the none-stop Spider-Man adventures. Would be a break from constantly lying to MJ about what she was doing instead of school and work━especially when she always seemed to be suspicious, like she secretly knew all along (and that was stressful!). Would be a break from the broken friendship that had become of Nina and Felicia━constant missed calls, constant short, tense conversations and pull-outs to hanging out. Since her father died, all Felicia seemed to be doing was gymnastics, and her new hobby: martial arts. It was great to see her so driven by something, but Nina rarely saw her anymore; rarely talked to her. She was scared she was losing her best friend. 

     She let out another sigh, rubbing her eyes. "How long have we been stuck on this bridge?"

     Ned slumped against the back of his seat behind her, too, "Ugh, forty minutes at least."

     Nina glanced down at her phone, and threw her head back again, complaining, "And MJ stopped texting me━why did you guys agree to come with me? Why didn't you persuade me against it?"

     Ned gave her a look, "I don't know━I think I lost the chance after you wrote our names down for us."

     "Oh, come on, guys," spoke up Peter, stopping his music to turn around and talk to them. "It's not that bad."

     Nina and Ned just arched their brows. 

     "Dude," Ned said, "I expected that we'd be looking at the exhibit by now. Actually, I expected we'd be doing that forty minutes ago."

     Peter shrugged, a little sheepish, "I ... actually like the quiet, long bus trip."

     Nina leaned forward to prop her chin on her hands on the back of his chair, peering up at him. Coming past halfway through Junior year, Peter's face had slimmed quite a lot. He was starting to let his hair just fall naturally over his head, leaving the curls that Nina admitted, she quite liked. "Are you just playing with us?"

     He frowned at her, "What?" he chuckled. "No━I like it. I like chatting to you guys."

     "You've been on your phone the entire time," Ned rebutted.

     Peter opened his lips to say something, but held back. He glanced down at his phone at the same time as Nina, and she gasped, pointing at it, victorious. "You've been checking the traffic and travel time!"

     "Uh, n━no," he quickly turned off his phone. "No, I haven't."

    Ned raised his hand as if they were in class. "I nominate we blame Nina for this. This isn't the first time she's dragged us into━"

    "Oh, my god, are you seriously talking about that?"

    "━You and I know," Ned pointed at her, "we would have never had to deal with Overdrive if you didn't drag the two of us into going to a Spider-Man fan greeting."

     "How was I supposed to know he was a crazy fan with a crazy car?"

     Peter made a face at her, "Well ... you have to admit ... the I'd kill to see Spider-Man should've been an alarm."

     Nina shrugged, "And I'd kill to see Thor, but it's just an expression, I━Ned dragged us into helping Howard the Pigeon Guy." She pointed back at the boy sitting behind her. 

     Peter agreed with that, too. He met his best friend's gaze and said, "Yeah, dude, why would you do that to us? I'm still cleaning out pigeon poop from the suit."

     Ned balked, "He just seemed so sad!" he defended himself. "He lost his pigeons! MJ says that's the only group of friends he has!"

      Nina slumped again, chin still on her hands on the back of Peter's chair. "This trip is going to make us kill each other like in Lord of the Flies."

      She caught a smile from Peter, and Nina bit back her own, looking away to hide her blush amongst her hair. She felt like she had gotten to get to know Peter all over again━just as friends, and it's been amazing. Things were different now; they weren't the same kids as they were, but that didn't mean that made those different things horrible. In fact, Nina loved it. She loved the small stolen glances, and the chats they had at night when he climbed into her room. She loved the chance they have to start over and see where it took them, if it took them anywhere, because now, she knew, that no matter what, they were still going to be friends. Peter Parker and Nina Hart would still be a team. 

     It made the things in Nina's life that have gone downhill recently seem easier. 

      Especially how long this stupid bus trip is taking. 

     "What is taking it so long?" she let out again, frustrated. Peter chuckled at her (at least she was glad her misery was making someone happy). Annoyed, she went to grab her phone, until━all of the sudden, Peter stiffened. 

     He stared at his arms━the hair had gone on edge, lifting up stiff and rigid. Peter's breath hitched, and as if he knew exactly where to look, he turned to gaze out the window. Nina frowned, but followed, and her eyes widened. 

     Her stomach dropped. 

     "Oh, my god," she whispered.

      Breeching down from the sky, billowing newspapers, clothes, even trees and cars up into a tornado above Manhattan, was a sight that made Nina cower in her seat. A large━colossal, even━metal ring; a wheel of machinery and metal, hovering over New York with the power of blasters rimming its base. Inside, the wheel spun━over and over again in raging rims of bright red and orange. The nose of it was pointed, guarded with something other than iron that shined in the glare of the sun like a deadly blade. 

      It was a spaceship. 

      An actual spaceship.

     Peter spun back to Nina, meeting her gaze. She knew that look upon his face amongst pale cheeks. She had grown used to it by now. 

      She knew she had no way of making him stay, and so she nodded and spun around to smack Ned lightly on the face. "Ned, Ned, cause a distraction." He frowned, confused and miffed at her sudden attack, until he, too, saw what was descending down onto their home outside.

     For some reason, his face lit up with excitement. "Oh, my god━WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!"

     The students of Midtown School of Science and Technology all looked up from their books and their phones at Ned's outburst. He leapt up off his seat, rushing to reach the back of the bus to see, "THERE'S A SPACESHIP!"

     Immediately, the rest of the students followed, lighting up with shouts and cries of alarm. No one screamed, they all wanted to see the moment of their possible death before the Avengers would save them all. 

    Nina hadn't moved, she turned back to Peter. Her hand gripped the back of the seat, feeling something rise up her throat. She didn't know what it was, but there was something telling her it was important to take a moment right now. 

      "Stay safe, Tiger," she whispered to him. 

     Peter unzipped his bag. He pulled out his web cartages and with a flick, they wrapped around his wrists in perfect movement, letting him spin his hand and shoot a web to the emergency window, tugging it open. 

     He crouched up onto his seat to leave, but met her gaze one final time to promise, "Keep your window open."

     And just like that, Peter Parker, Spider-Man, grabbed his bag, leapt across the aisle and crawled out of the window.

     Nina returned her gaze back to the spaceship over Manhattan, feeling sick to the stomach.

     From the front, their bus driver was furious at their outbursts. "What's the matter with you kids!" he let out. "You never seen a spaceship before?"

     Nina arched a brow at him ... has she seen him before? 

      Outside the bus, Peter pulled his mask down over his face and sprung up into the air. His web attached to the top of the bridge and just like that, Nina could see Spider-Man swing all the way around, heading straight towards the danger without a second thought. 

     "Go get 'em, Tiger," muttered Nina to herself.

     Little did she know, no one would be there to knock on her window that evening━and no one would be there to open it. 

      Despite there being a spaceship in the sky, and imminent doom for all of them, education was a top priority and they continued to the New York Hall of Science. Though, no one really was paying attention to the worksheet they were meant to complete, nor were they paying attention to the exhibits. They were all on their phone, watching the battle against the spaceship, and the aliens that arrived down from it with growing interest and anticipation. 

     Nina clutched her workbook, tapping her pen against her cheek so much she had started to mark it with dots of blue ink. She wasn't a stranger to waiting for Peter to come back━she wasn't a stranger to stressing over whether he'd get hurt, or what she'd see when he appeared at her window late at night. She wasn't a stranger in accepting that was a part of him now. But that didn't change how much that didn't matter when she saw that spaceship in the sky. Fighting bad guys on the streets, stopping some gang fights, a heist here and there, or a mediocre human fly, that wasn't the same as an Avenger level threat. There was something about today━about the shouts in the distance and the gasps coming from her fellow students watching news and Instagram videos of the fight on their phones━that made her feel like this was something bad. Something terrible, even. 

     "Yeah, Peter just kicked the alien guy's face!" Ned let Nina know, but her next words weren't excitement, nor were they applause. She turned to Ned beside her as they stood by a momentum exhibit to say:

     "This seems bad, like really bad."

     "What?" Ned met her gaze. He shrugged, trying to reassure her. "No, it's nothing. The Avengers stopped the last alien invasion, everything's going to be fine. Whoa━look at this, that's so cool! Is that Doctor Strange? Oh, hey, wait, breaking news━Bruce Banner's back? Didn't he go missing like a few years ago? Dude, so cool..."

     They were so used of invasion, of near death experiences that they don't even realise, because they're saved before they notice, that no one seemed to feel the same dread Nina did. It made her feel like she was going crazy. Of course, they'll be okay, she chided herself. The Avengers will save them. Peter will save them. 

     MJ started texting her again, showing her snapchats from one of the Midtown physics classroom. She had a great view of the spaceship lifting back up into the sky. People were cheering on for the Avengers, thinking that it was over. Ned shook his phone at Nina, telling her: what did I say, huh?

     Nina's heart lifted a little in relief. She checked her phone, quickly moving onwards to message Peter: Looks like you got them, Tiger ;). 

     She didn't expect a reply back straight away. Nor did Nina expect him to return straight away. And yet, her heart still didn't lift completely━like there was still some dread weighing it down, expecting something horrible to happen. 

     Most students were too excited to work still, but some of them managed to write a few things. Nina went off on her own, chipping away at her worksheet and constantly checking her phone for messages. Ned kept sending her Snapchats from across the building of news, videos of clean up and of dead aliens in thick armour with messages alongside it like: dude! gross! and dude! so awesome! 

     The spaceship had completely disappeared up through the atmosphere now. Crisis had been adverted, but Peter still hadn't messaged her back. Avengers were not seen in the surroundings. It seemed too quick of a resolve━too quick of a morning. 

     Nina distracted herself in her wait for Peter to reply. She completed her worksheet━perhaps one of the only of her classmates to do so. She chatted with Cindy Moon at the cafe where they all got some lunch. She texted MJ and texted her parents to let her know that she was okay after such a crazy morning. She texted Felicia, wanting to know whether she was okay at school. If she was even at school. She received no reply, which made her turn her phone off and press the edge of the case against her lips, trying very hard to not let it get to her. 

    Felicia has shut her out before when things got hard, but never like this. And it was tearing Nina apart to not have her best friend right beside her. She gained a lost friend back, only to lose another━it didn't seem fair. 

     After lunch, there was still no text from Peter (or Felicia). Nina was getting worried again. Even if Peter was occupied, he had started to send quick messages━whether it be an emoji or a quick sentence after a fight or between swinging through the city, he always would send one, just to let her know that he was still okay. He would've sent her one by now. 

     Nina was back to distracting herself. She asked MJ to let her know how the Decathlon presentation at the assembly went. She went through Instagram and Pinterest, looked at Snapchat stories and called her boss to check whether she was still going to work this afternoon. She double checked her work as the afternoon came around and they were almost ready to go back to school. She let Ned compare their answers and he fixed up some of his own while she quickly notated his extra engineering notes. He was starting to get worried about Peter now, and she knew, then, that she wasn't going crazy. Something bad had happened. 

     She couldn't distract herself any longer. 

     Nina pursed her lips, sighing after the third text she sent Peter. She shook her head at Ned and he slumped, playing with his paper bag that had once contained chocolate chip cookies from the cafe. On his shirt, he had a badge from the gift shop. Nina had bought a book on marine biology. 

     "Maybe try and call him?" offered Ned.

     Nina frowned, "What if he's in a fight?"

      "There's no fight here right now," said Ned. "Unless he's in Wakanda━there's rumours about a battle there."

     She knew that even if he was in Wakanda, he would've found a way to send Nina a text to let her know he was okay. She knew that. And so, she nodded and pressed his contact. She placed her phone against her ear and waited for it to ring. She expected it to ring out━but instead, it went straight to voice mail. It didn't even ring once. 

     Where was he? 

      Nina hung up, meeting Ned's gaze, stressed. He went to say something, but Mr. Dell spoke up from where he sat at the cafe table━he had been sitting there this whole time, on his phone or reading about strange things, like witches. "All right kids, time to head back." He hadn't looked up from his phone. "If you want a bathroom break, go now. There's a heck amount of traffic on the way back to school. Go Avengers."

     Nina stood up. Pocketing her phone, she said, "I'm going to head to the bathroom. See you on the bus."

     Ned waved, "Save you a seat?"

     She nodded and left him there, walking across the tiles towards the girls' restroom just by the gift shop. Nina stepped inside, sighing out a long sigh in the empty room. She stopped by one of the sinks, staring at her reflection in the mirror, and hoped that whatever Peter had gotten himself into, that he was okay. At this point, she had a feeling that all she could do was wait by her bedroom window. He would always come back there, in the end, no matter how long it took him. 

     Nina heard a buzz in her pocket. Her heart jolted. With a gasp, she reached to grab it.

     Her fingers brushed through her jeans. 

    Nina frowned. She went to try again, but she couldn't feel her fingers. She couldn't feel her arm. Nina's eyes widened, and she screamed. 

    Right before her eyes, her arms were turning to nothing━flaking away like dust and sand. She lost the feeling in her toes, Nina's heart pounded, continuing to scream for help as it travelled up to her shoulders and up her knees. 

     Soon, the scream in the bathroom of a terrified young girl cut off. Someone had tried to reach her, but they broke into a cloud of dust just as they grasped the door handle. By the school bus, students shouted in alarm, cried out in horror as half of their classmates were disappearing right in front of them, drifting off into the wind and then into nothing. Ned had tried to go searching for Nina, but he didn't even reach the bus door, crumbling just at the steps. Cars crashed, people's screams could be heard all across the city and over the water. 

     All that was left of Nina Hart in the girls' restroom was her phone, still ringing with a name: Felicia Hardy. 

     FIVE YEARS (SECONDS) LATER

     NINA WAS still screaming as she saw herself reform. It hitched to a stop in the back of her throat as she saw her hands and her legs again. She looked into the bathroom mirror, and there she was, as if nothing had happened. For a moment, she thought that she had imagined it. Her heart continued to pound, but slowly, it started to come to a gentle pace. She took a deep breath. She took another. What just happened? Had she just imagined it? She felt her stomach━it was there, and it was real. Her arms were solid, her cheeks squished. Nina was okay. She was okay. She was alive. 

     What had just happened?

     Ned, she thought of, and like that, went searching for her phone again. It wasn't in her pocket. Perhaps she dropped it? Nina glanced down at the tiles around her━if her phone had dropped, surely it would be by her feet? Nina frowned. She crouched down, peering under the sinks and around the waste bin. Her phone didn't seem to be anywhere. 

     That was strange...

    Nina stood back up. As she did, she noticed something on the stone, just above the sink basin. She leaned in close to read it━a slight bit of vandalism, a name and a year scratched: Penelope Ganes was here (2022)

     2022? Nina's heart sped. 2022? Why would someone write 2022? It wasn't━it was still 2018. Last time Nina checked, it was 2018. 

     Someone must've done this to play some sick trick. 

     She took a deep breath, cursing for letting herself fall for some laugh some kid created after she was bored here in the bathroom. Nina turned away. Someone probably found her phone instead, and took it to lost and found. She could just go up to the front desk and ask. (And maybe ask if anyone else had a strange hallucination of turning to dust for five seconds━perhaps Nina would finally listen to her father and keep it to two hot chocolates a day). 

     When she opened the door of the restroom, she saw that outside was chaos. 

     People were running around in a frenzy. A mother was calling for her son, frantic. A young boy was being shoved as he searched for his older sister at the front desk amongst at least twenty others, all bombarding the girl at the desk who looked as though she was seeing ghosts, trying to answer all of their questions at once. Nina could barely hear what their questions were, they all spoke over one another, but she heard things such as: "I was here with my wife━where's my wife━", "━Please, my daughters name is Cassandra! I came here with her today to see the exhibition! I need to find her━", "━What just happened?! I was━for five seconds I was━something happened, I like turned to dust━?!", "━Please, I need a phone to call my Dad!"

      Someone grasped Nina's arm and she jumped, spinning around with a short yelp. A small girl━barely even six years old━was sobbing and tugging on her arm, asking, "Have you seen my Mom? I can't find my Mom."

     "I━is your name Cassandra?" Nina asked weakly, confused.

     She wailed, "No! My names Anna! I want my mom, have you seen my mom?"

     Nina held her hand, feeling her heart grow faster and faster. Outside, she saw cars swerving around people just standing in the middle of the street. Someone crashed into the sidewalk. There was smoke from fires in the city, and one the bridges. It was chaos━absolute chaos. 

     "We━we'll find your Mom, Anna," Nina tried to stay calm for the little girl sobbing at her side. "It's okay, Anna. It's okay. Just ... walk with me, okay? It's going to be okay, I got you, Anna. It's okay..."

     Nina led Anna through the growing crowds. People were coming in off the street, asking for help. Sirens wailed, people were screaming, a fire had started in an apartment over the river━Nina could see the flames break through an open window. 

     "Hello?" she called out through the crowd, clutching tight onto the little girl's hand beside her who was hiccuping through her sobs. "Hello? Please? Is there anyone to help?" She saw a tour guide and gasped. Rushing over to them before anyone else could with Anna tagging along, Nina grasped his arm much like Anna had hers, taking him by surprise. "Oh, my god━please, you have to help me. I━I was here with my school group: Midtown School of Science and Technology━my teacher is Mr. Dell. We were here just━we were about to leave and, and I was in the bathroom for five seconds and I can't find my phone and Anna here is looking for her mother. My names Nina Hart. Please, can you tell me what's going on?"

     The tour guide was staring at her, shocked and pale. Nina frowned, very confused. Slowly, he turned around to the plaque he was standing by. A list of names engraved into a memorial wall. Nina stared at it: 

IN MEMORIAM

VICTIMS OF THE 2018 DISAPPEARANCE

Here are the names of those who disappeared on this sight 5 years ago:

     Below was a list of names, and Nina felt her entire blood-stream run ice cold when she saw, near the middle, her own: Nina E. Hart.

*ೃ༄

     a/n: here we go guys ... act two is here!!!!!! 

      I'm so excited lol, I have so many ideas and so much to cover. this is sort of an infinity war interlude. I didn't want to completely gloss over the blip, but I also didn't want to make a separate part just for a movie to which Nina would only be in one scene. so I created this. I hope you guys liked it <3