Chapter 693 - Exposed Adventure (1/2)
From Anna, Nik heard that Harry had officially left the school. He had partnered up with a brilliant scientist, Dr. Otto Octavius to— quoting Harry in a press release— reform the way of science. The only thing that bugged Nik was that all of it happened in the week he left. However, Anna still kept that there's a big surprise in the school and once he reached Midtown High, he was a rather familiar figure with deep red hair walking into the hallway.
”Mj?” Nik looked at Anna for confirmation for he remembered clearly that Mary Jane didn't want to continue school. A rather poor choice, Nik thought, but he refrained from opposing her views directly. After all, when she decided to not attend school, Nik had just gotten rid of her 'blessing' that forced her in a ridiculous bikini with a slightly sentient bloodthirsty sword. Not only that, Mj, for the most part, was relieved that her family wouldn't be targetted by the Hand once again.
”Yep!” Anna grinned as Mj turned back, slightly startled by Nik's voice before looking away.
”Glad you're back,” Nik smiled and waved as Mj walked a little closer before hugging her books a little closer.
”Ray... talked me through things. He can be pretty convincing,” Mj awkwardly smiled. Whenever she felt that she and Nik were getting over their previous break-up, one look towards Anna would extinguish a bit of these feelings. However, not minding Mj's presence at all, Nik thought of a troubling notion.
'Ray convinced her... and he said he would meet me in the morning even when I'm here...'
The moment Nik felt a cold breeze, a hand spanked his butt from behind rather harshly with force that he felt even with his enhanced physique.
”Look at you! Well-rested, eh?” A sweet voice entered Nik's ears as he stood stiff. He was familiar with the scent and the voice as he sighed deeply.
”Surprise!” Anna cheered, attracting a few gazes from around her while Mj blushed at the action. Meanwhile, Nik slowly turned back and matched Ray's unusual pink-colored eyes. In fact, Nik's and Ray's pupils never seemed to attract the attention of viewers, rather their natural charm conquered the viewers' attention.
”A surprise would be Brian suddenly breaking through the ceiling with his spaceship,” Nik conveyed to Ray as his smile grew brighter, ”You...” recalling that being mean to Ray would accomplish... basically nothing, Nik sighed, ”You're like an unwanted child, really.”
”And I know plenty fathers who love such children,” Ray grinned.
---
”So...” Nik sat on one of the tables. A white, palm-sized figure sat on top of his head, in fact, Gwenpool laid face first on top of Nik's head with her head resting on her palms and her calves swinging in the air as she enjoyed the awkward atmosphere. Gwen glanced around for a moment and seeing Spider-Gwen laying on the table with a rather dull gaze, the blonde regained her confidence. She looked at the new transfer— Ray. Then his gaze fell on Cindy and Anna who were coming towards the table while chatting with a gleeful expression. Mj was already sitting with Ray on the opposing seats to Nik while Flash was dawdling around to try and have a chat with Mj.
The main attraction after Ray's appearance in Midtown High was Flash and Mj's fight. After Mj returned, Flash felt that he had been too foolish in breaking things off with Mj and tried to win her affection back by... bullying another student in front of her to be 'funny'.
Well, in conclusion, Flash didn't even have the courage to sit alongside his 'previous' group anymore.
In fact, the surrounding students considered this to be a group of rather well-renowned and pretty girls pulling Nik in their circle.
Quite conveniently, Ray decided to leave his real gender out of the equation.
”Ahh, I have a soft spot for persistent guys,” Ray idly hung his face on top of her hands while winking at Gwenpool. The two consciousnesses fell stunned for a moment before Nik retorted with a sigh, ”Should you really be here, sitting with us?”
”Where else will she go?” Mj spoke up while Cindy and Anna finally sat next to Nik.
”Hey, guys,” Cindy smiled.
On the table, everybody had their inner circles already formed. Some were revealed to others while some weren't. For instance, Gwen's relationship with Pool and Spider. Nik's relationship with Cindy and Anna. Mj's professional partnership with Ray. Ray's and Nik's friendship.
Needless to say, there were plenty of suggestive glances on the table but Nik took his time to focus on his meal. Every meal was important to him as of this moment. In less than 3 weeks, according to Loki, she would let loose an army of something called Chitauri upon the world and Nik had started to imbued his meals with spiritual energy every single time. The progress was slow and steady but it showed effect.
”So? You still haven't told where you were for the week,” Gwen coughed while Pool grinned and gave a thumbs-up.
”An adventure island. There was this... event. A group of people needed to complete the tasks and they would win the entire island,” Nik smiled.
”Woah,” Spider mumbled as Gwen looked towards Anna for confirmation.
”And he won!” Anna suddenly cheered, making Cindy stifle a chuckle while Mj's eyes widened slightly, too.
”You... won an island?” Mj inquired in disbelief as Nik shrugged, ”Something like that. But what's more important is that I had fun.”
”Screw that!” Gwen blurted as all the eyes focused on her, ”Ehm... I mean... surely, you can invite us to your island, right?”
”Of course,” Nik smiled. In the group, everyone knew that he had superpowers even if Gwen didn't know that he was Vanish. So, it was easy for him to take there but as things stood, he had to defend the territory from incoming attacks being planned by the government presently.
”Give me some time to... you know, get help and make the island, or at least, a part of it presentable. Then, I'll take all of you there for a ride.”
---
”Are you blind?” Tigra screamed, ”That blink means that an aircraft is approaching!”
Vertigo snorted, ”I'm just as much in charge as you. Don't try to undermine me!”
”Oh, you s.l.u.t!” Tigra glared while baring her canines as Vertigo's eyes glowed with psionic energy, too, ”shove your ego up your pretty brown ass and get out of my way.”
The apartment had a small control room for the ease of understanding the various controls of the temple and its ability to affect the Savage Land. With the approaching aircraft shown on the temple's radar, Tigra was already ready to mobilize her team. Well, the slightly psychologically suggestive group of agents came under Tigra's command while the remaining tribals including Shanna and Ka-Zar came under Vertigo's command.