Tangled Web - 6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

::Red::

* * * * *

“Now Benny, I want you to try to keep me out of your head,” Miss Frost instructed. I didn’t like the way she said my name. She was trying to sound friendly, but it just wasn’t working. I don’t know what Mr. Summers sees in her.

“It didn’t work,” she glared at me, “And what Mr. Summers and I do is none of your business.”

I blushed, and made every conscious effort I could to not think about Mr. Summers’ butt. I started to feel a bit of a tickle in my head, just behind the eyes. I concentrated, focusing on the sensation, and then trying to will it away.

“Wow,” she said, seemingly impressed. “That was a low level intrusion, but no one but telepaths should be able to block it.”

The tickle returned, slightly stronger than before. I had to focus really hard, but again I was able to will it away.

Miss Frost frowned, and then stared intently. Pain exploded in my head, and I cried out, holding my forehead.

“I’m sorry,” she said, without a hint of sympathy in her voice, “but come on, let’s see if you can block this.” The pain didn’t ease up, so I knew I’d have to give it a shot.

I fought through the pain, intent on shutting her out. At first, nothing happened. The pain stayed in place, and it was as if I wasn’t even doing anything.

I was more determined than ever, sick of having people rooting around in my head. I got angry, cried out, and it was as if a wall slammed shut in my head. The pain ceased immediately, and Miss Frost jumped back in shock.

“How did you do that?” She demanded.

“I don’t like people in my head!” I yelled at her. She frowned again, and the look of arrogant determination reappeared on her face. Nothing changed in my head. No tickle, no pain. Only that wall.

“I can’t get back in…” she leaned forward, astonished. “Tell me how you’re doing that!”

“I don’t know…” I said. “Am I psychic?”

“Definitely not. I know for a fact that your abilities have nothing at all to do with telepathy.” She was looking at me as if I were some kind of insect. Maybe she just had indigestion, who knows with her? She kind of always has a look on her face like she just tasted a fart. “There’s something almost… familiar feeling about this. Have you had any training to block telepathy?”

“No,” I pondered. “I think I’d remember something like that.”

“Unless the person who trained you didn’t want you to know that you’d been trained,” she contemplated.

“Okay… Who would go through all that trouble? And why?”

“That’s a very good question. Now Benny, I need you to let me back inside,” she explained with a false look of reassurance.

“No,” I stated, frowning.

“I just want to–” she started, but I cut her off by standing up.

“We’re done here,” I decided, “Like I said before I don’t like people in my head, and sorry if this is disrespectful, but I don’t trust you.”

She looked like she wanted to kill me. If she’d been a snake I have no doubt that she’d have struck. As it was, I wasn’t convinced her bite wouldn’t be venomous.

I walked out of the room, and to my surprise Miss Frost didn’t try to stop me. As I left the room, I nearly crashed into Peter.

“Whoa! Slow down there, Red!” Peter called as he stepped back, giving me room.

“Red?” I asked.

“Well, your code name is Scarlet Spider,” he grinned. “And it’s also the color you turn when you’re embarrassed.”

“Hey!” I exclaimed as I completely proved him right. “That’s not fair! I just had to go through ‘Happy Fun Headache Time’ with Miss Frigid-Bitc–”

“I heard that!” Miss Frost yelled from the other room.

Peter was about a half step from literally rolling on the floor.

“Did you come here for something other than making fun of me?” I sighed, exasperated.

Once Peter caught his breath, he giggled and explained, “Yeah, I was going to let you know that Alexandra was looking for you.”

“Alexandra…” I was a little confused. I never was very good with names. “She can see a few seconds into the future, right?”

“That’s her,” he said. “Don’t worry; you’ll remember all of us eventually.”

Peter and I walked together to the activities room, where we found Kyle, Alexandra, and Josh, as well as a few others I hadn’t met. There were six people in all, sitting around a table with a large mat that had been spread out on top of it. The mat had a grid of one inch squares printed on it, and someone had drawn what looked like a floor plan on it with dry-erase markers. There were little pewter figurines of fantasy characters in certain spots.

“Inside the throne room, you find a gigantic web has consumed most of the room. Near the ceiling, you see a huge spider, with three others behind it. It begins moving toward you. Everyone, roll for initiative,” Josh expressed in a voice that was similar to one you would use to tell a scary story around a campfire. He really seemed to be getting into the game, but Kyle looked incredibly bored.

“What is that, Dungeons and Dra–” I started to say.

“No, it’s a similar game though,” Peter explained. “Path… something. It’s based on the same rules.”

I raised an eyebrow at him.

“I used to play, but I really sucked, so they kicked me out,” he shrugged.

“Hey Alexandra, Peter said you were looking for me?” I was behind her now, wondering what she wanted with me.

“Not right now,” she spoke in a decidedly cold tone. I was confused; she was really nice to me the other times we’d hung out.

She settled back into the game, along with Josh, but Kyle kept looking at us and it was clear he really wasn’t interested in the game.

“Josh, I think I’m going to sit this one out,” he said, starting to get up from the table.

“No you aren’t,” Josh commanded, and Kyle started to sit back down. I couldn’t believe that Josh was using his powers on his friends like that. I wondered if most of them would even be his friend without his influence.

“It sounded like Kyle doesn’t want to play,” I said coldly.

“I think you need to mind your own business,” Josh snarled, and I felt only the faintest touch of his power in my brain. It was funny, in a twisted way, after dealing with Miss Frost’s telepathy, Josh wasn’t challenging at all.

“I don’t think so,” I said. “Haven’t you figured it out yet? Your power will not work on me.”

It looked as if Kyle was seriously conflicted. Sweat had broken out over his brow, and he seemed to heavily concentrating.

“Why don’t you go back where you came from?” Josh demanded angrily. “Things got along just fine before you!”

I grabbed Kyle’s shoulder.

“Come on, you don’t have to deal with this.”

Kyle started to get up, but Josh wasn’t going to allow it.

“No! Stay where you are!” Josh yelled, obviously losing control of the situation. He was the type of person to throw a fit if he didn’t get his way. He leapt out of his chair, and came toward me.

My fist collided against his face with a sickening crunch. Pain exploded from my fingers, but I didn’t care. Someone needed to put Josh in his place. I hated how he was manipulating his friends like this.

Blood poured from Josh’s nose.

“You broke my nose!” he yelled. “I’ll kill you!”

Josh dove at me, and would have taken me down if it wasn’t for Peter’s quick reflexes. Peter shoved me away from Josh at the last second, and took the full force of the impact.

“What is the meaning of this?” I looked up to see Dr. McCoy holding Peter and Josh apart.

“Nothing, Sir,” Josh said, glaring daggers at me.

“Nothing,” Peter agreed. No one wanted to get the staff involved. At the Xavier institute, you were seen as weak if you always had to get help from the teachers. Looking at the blood on Josh’s face and shirt, I did feel a little bad about what I’d done. Only a little bit, though.

“Josh, come with me,” the blue, furry man said while leading Josh away by the elbow. He was probably going to bandage up his nose.

Kyle came over, and helped me to my feet.

“Thanks, Benny,” Kyle said, cheeks reddening. “That’s twice now you’ve saved me from mind control, you know.”

I laughed. I hadn’t thought of it that way, but he was right. I just thought it wasn’t right for someone to invade your private thoughts. I didn’t care if it was Josh, Mrs. Daniels, Miss Frost, or the Easter Bunny, I didn’t want them in my head.

“I seem to make enemies here just as fast as friends,” I said, and Kyle playfully punched me in the arm.

“Is it bad that I don’t really feel that upset that you punched my boyfriend?” he asked, his brow scrunched into a thoughtful expression.

“Josh is your boyfriend?” I asked, a little disappointed, although I had no idea why. “What do you see in that creep?”

“To be honest, now that I think about it I don’t really have strong feelings either way for him. When I’m near him, it’s different…” he said, trailing off.

“He’s forcing you to be with him, isn’t he?” I stated to Kyle, not really asking.

“I don’t think so…” Kyle said with a faraway look in his eyes.

“That son of a bitch!” Peter exclaimed. He had come over when I wasn’t looking. “It all makes sense now!”

A tear rolled down Kyle’s cheek, and it was clear to me that he knew the truth. He looked away from us, shoulders slumped. He looked absolutely defeated. I touched his shoulder, but he pulled away from me.

“Guys, I think I’d like to be alone,” he said through sniffles. He walked away and my heart broke for him. I couldn’t believe that asshole had used him like that! He was such a nice, caring guy. No one deserved to be treated that way.

“What’s with him?” Peter asked when Kyle was out of earshot.

“Think about it, genius,” I said in a huff. “Figure it out.”

I left Peter and walked across the room, taking a seat at one of the many empty tables. I put my head in my hands, and felt my fingers were still throbbing with pain. I didn’t really care. I didn’t know what had come over me. My father had always taught me to try to avoid a fight if possible. He always said to use my head, to talk my way out of a bad situation. Yet here I was, throwing the first punch. My father would have been ashamed of me.

I heard a chair squeak across from me and looked up to find Alexandra sitting in front of me.

“What do you want?” I asked grumpily. “I’m not really in the mood.”

“Shut up, Benny,” Alexandra said. “Remember how I told you I was working on extending my power? Expanding it so that I would be able to see more than a few seconds into the future?”

“Yeah, what does that have to do with me?” I said, a little miffed at being told to shut up.

“I had a vision of you,” she said matter-of-factly. I raised an eyebrow and waited for her to continue, but she closed her eyes.

For what seemed like a long time she just sat there with her eyes closed. I was about to poke her when she opened her eyes again.

“I see you, Benny,” she began. Her eyes clouded over, becoming a milky color as she spoke. It was disconcerting. “You’re in pain. Surrounded by death. Destruction… blood is everywhere. You’re simply covered in red.”

* * * * *

Her words haunted me for the rest of the week. Who wouldn’t be bothered by a warning like that? For the next few days I kept to myself more often than not. I went to class, participated as much as was required, but I didn’t go out of my way to play nice. My friendship with Peter was strained, to say the least. It didn’t help that I’d been essentially ignoring him.

“Come on, it’s time for Team Skills,” Peter said, sounding more cheerful than I deserved. I expected him to be angry with me.

“Hey Peter,” I began. “I’m sorry I’ve been such an ass lately.”

“It’s okay Benny. I know you’ve had a lot on your mind lately, but we need to get moving. Professor Logan won’t appreciate us being late again.” I wasn’t convinced. Something seemed strange about the way he was acting.

I joined Peter and we walked to class together. Things were starting to feel like they were normalizing, and I thought that maybe Alexandra’s vision was wrong.

As we got to class, Professor Logan was waiting outside the room.

“Get in there and suit up,” he grumbled. I idly thought that his mood had to be permanently set to ‘grouch’.

At our lockers, Peter was grinning like an idiot.

“What’s with the smile?” I asked. “You’re making me nervous!”

“I got you a surprise!” he exclaimed. “Open your locker!”

I turned the dial, quickly putting in my combination. I hesitated for a moment before I opened the locker. I half expected something like a weasel, or maybe a small alligator to leap out at me when I opened the door. Knowing Peter, it actually was a possibility.

I opened the door, and my stomach dropped. My blood ran cold, and for a moment I felt like screaming.

Peter had gotten me a new uniform. It was very similar to the normal one, but it had a mask with it as well. A mask similar to the one my father wore as Spider-Man. But the biggest difference was that instead of the normal blue and yellow of the Danger Room attire, Mine had two shades of red. Alexandra’s warning rang in my ears.

You’re simply covered in red.