You didn't quite return home, not properly. The implant hacking story seemed to satisfy Nat and Clint, who just promised they'd be keeping a closer eye on you, and when you got home you had a very easy cover story that would keep your mom distant enough to make sure your alien guest wouldn't try anything; May had given you covid.
You... weren't proud of that excuse, but it was the most plausible. It was just a miserable flu now, mostly, but it was the reason you didn't have grandparents, so, uh, she took it seriously. You felt a little bad manipulating her like that, but honestly it had begun to get weird you
hadn't gotten it at any point since you got bit, so this would probably deflect some suspicion. You just hid in your room for a few days and wore a mask, and it meant there was never any danger of getting close enough to her to hurt her. Now all you had to do is figure out your approach into the Life Foundation headquarters to sort this out, a surprisingly daunting task.
May was unsurprisingly upset (she was
terrified, even with Athena prepping her for the news) but you kept talking to her every day online to keep her fears in check and she soon began to relax. The next week was a strange one, but it fell surprisingly quickly into a routine. As much as he complained about every little indignity and imperfection of your human body, he was keeping to his word well enough. On Friday, you woke up and thought
something was wrong before realizing it was the unfamiliar
absence of phantom pain, at least until you moved.
"
A lot of damage. Not going to be able to fix it all," he muttered. "
Your mother has left you food. We need it."
"What time is it?" you asked, rolling over to stare at your phone. Past noon... you'd been sleeping it a lot this summer. No real reason not to, really. "Okay, Athena, I was thinking about maybe working on an app? Finally doing that Trackmerge slash Remixatron mashup-" You stopped, feeling something through your digital link. "Athena?"
"
Sorry, I'm on a call with Justine-"
"WHAT IS JUSTINE. IS IT EDIBLE."
"No, we are not-"
"
She is cute."
"Shut
up!"
"
That is not what I meant," the symbiote said seriously.
"But I understand, a human."
"Okay, what's going on though?"
"
Well, whatever it is, she wants Arachne there and doesn't want to talk about it over the phone," Athena summarized. "
Which-"
"If it's got her taking information security that seriously, it's gotta be bad," you agreed, grabbing your spider symbol off your table. "Best behaviour, right."
"Eat first, or I can make no promises."
---
You landed softly against the wall outside the listed address, a very nice twelfth-story apartment in Manhattan whose monthly rent probably exceeded your mother's annual income, and sent a ping to Justine's phone. A few seconds later, a door cracked open and Justine, in civilian clothes, emerged out onto the balcony. She was dressed really,
really nice, like... you felt guilty about it but this was a good... good dress, very...
"
If you do not find her edible, why are you staring that way."
"
Best behaviour," Athena warned. "
Earth to Liv, she's straight, you're taken, think now gay later."
"Hey Justine. Kind of a downgrade costume-wise?" you said, desperately deflecting.
"Hey, I think it looks good," she said, shaking her head. "Thanks for coming, though, I haven't got a lot of time thought."
"What's going on, you okay?"
"Oh, I'm
okay," she assured you, with some kind of meaning you were missing. "Thing is, uh, remember how I told you about a friend from California who's really into Wakanda shit?"
"Oh, yeah, uh... Erik?" you recalled, definately not scanning through compressed memories for the name.
"Yeah, so he's visiting for NY AnimeFest..." she started, looking a little embarrassed. "And, look, my parents are out of town and he's uh..."
"
High-five her," Athena suggested. You stuck your hand out without thinking and she broke into laughter.
"Okay, yeah! No, serious though, this is serious," she said. "Alright, no other way to say it. I think he has a Wakandian artifact."
"Wait,
what?" you exclaimed.
"Yeah, that was my reaction, followed by
oh fuck," she replied. "He showed me it on the way back, he got it through airport security and I don't want to know how."
"Where the hell did he get it?" you asked.
"This is gonna sound insane, but he said he found it going through his dad's stuff, locked in some kind of crazy heavy chain-link suitcase," she explained. "His dead-for-ten-years dad who got him hooked on the whole thing in the first place, which... okay so I thought he was crazy until you told me that Wakanda was real, but turns out he's actually really-"
"Hold on, back to the artifact. What is it?"
"It's like, a little silver ring, but, uh... it does stuff. He changed the lights at the intersection by waving his hand. It's... it's really cool, and it's going to get us killed by, uh, how'd you put it?"
"Laser poisoning," you said.
"
About that, we're getting a call from the SSR," Athena chimed in. Justine's phone chimed, presumably with the same message.
"Yeah, I don't want to get lasered," she said. "I told him I didn't want that freaky shit in my parent's place, so he left it in the car. Is this... gonna be okay?"
"I dunno yet," you admitted. You'd have to take the call. "Look, just keep him distracted, we'll deal with this."
"... I can do that," she said with a smile, and stepped back inside. You switched your line to the SSR call.
"Wakandan artifact, right?" you asked.
"What the hell did you do?" Clint replied, sounding
deeply panicked.
"I'm already on it. What's the situation on your end?"
"The situation is that a ninja in an animal mask just appeared in SSR's HQ demanding to know the exact whereabouts of... they called it the 'Royal Ring of the Pretender' so-"
"Wait, what?"
"Yeah, apparently it was taken out of the country during some kind of royal drama, I don't know the details. You know where this ring is?" he asked.
"I've got a lead," you hedged.
"Good. I'll send meetup coordinates, there's an Osprey on the way," he said. "You need backup?"
"... I think I can handle it, we'll keep you posted," you said. "Wait, they don't know where it is?"
"I guess not. It's been a bit of a different, uh, tone. No threats, just... a demand."
Interesting. The other artifacts, it seemed like they could see from orbit, but not this one... not only could they not find it exactly, it sounded like it could be shielded from view outright pretty simply.
"Hey, Athena, how fast could we make a faraday cage?"
---
[ ] Let's not fuck around. Snatch it and hand it over. You don't want to get involved in laser regicide.
[ ] Build a faraday cage and hide the ring. Whatever technology is inside, it must be incredible. Once you've taken a quick look, you can work out what to do with it.
[ ] You getting involved could make this your problem in a way you really, really didn't want it to. Just tell Justine to warn Erik that he's in trouble and to put the ring back in the box!
