New Identity ~ MCU/SWCW Story

|<Chapter Twenty-One>|

Hey guys! It's been a while. There might not be some things that make sense later on in the chapter since there are things I'm changing in the earlier chapters, but I'll try my best to explain everything. However, it's important to know that Ashley and Spider-Man are close friends. Ashley doesn't know that Peter is Spider-Man, but Spider-Man knows of Ashley's abilities.

    When customarily put into words, the awakening of protagonists after they've blacked out is brimming with dramatic description. Smothering darkness, drowning, burning with pain...

    Such examples were simply not the case for Ashley Tanner. She couldn't have described it to you if she wanted to. She was merely unaware of her surroundings—a blissful ignorance—until she could feel her eyes flutter open. If she was being candid, it wasn't too unlike waking up in her bed on a late Saturday morning.

    Except, as she very suddenly discovered, her surroundings were certainly not that of her bedroom. As the confusion and distress settled into her veins, her mind began replaying what it could recall as its most frequent events.

    A man... the alley...

    There was something more that she felt like she was lacking in her memory. A minuscule, but highly important detail. When it didn't come to her, she decided to write it off as paranoia.

    Her hands immediately flew forward to test the strength of the bonds that would be restraining her. Were they rope? Hopefully so, considering that her session of slipping out of rope knots with Natasha was still vivid in her mind.

    The flustered mess of thoughts that were swarming Ashley's head was abruptly slammed to a halt. Her hands had freely flown forward, indicating that she wasn't tied down in the slightest. From there, she proceeded to test out every other portion of her body, but the outcomes were the same.

    She happened to be lying on a plush, comfortable bed with sheets and blankets altered on top of her limber frame. Surrounding the bed was a nightstand, wardrobe, tidy and modernized desk, and wall-mounted television. She assumed the alternating photographs of nature on the screen were supposed to compensate for the lack of windows in the room. The absence of windows and the imposingly large metal door were the only things that seemed unordinary for your average American bedroom.

    Ashley swung her legs over the side of the bed and eyed the door. If it were to miraculously be unlocked, what would be waiting for her beyond it? Where even was this building located?

    Before she could put an answer to her questions, the handle rattled and the door flew open.

    "Good morning, Ms. Tanner. I hope you slept well," the first man to emerge from the doorway greeted. His head was cleanly shaven, and he sported a neatly pressed grey suit. A smile, which she couldn't tell if it was fake or genuine, was displayed across his pearly white teeth.

    Behind the man stood a brunette male and female, both of which donned black medical scrubs. Ashley tried to make eye contact with them, but the pair's gaze refused to leave the ground. They looked meek, almost, and something more... but the bald man stepped in between Ashley and the people before she could scrutinize them any longer.

    "I don't want you to be alarmed," he soothingly said to her. Every word that trickled off his lips was honey, and his relaxed posture made Ashley feel more at ease. "We don't mean you any harm. We just needed to bring you somewhere that we could talk without drawing too much attention to ourselves. Spies... they're everywhere nowadays."

    Ashley absentmindedly nodded at his words, but her mind was swirling with fighting sequences and escape routes that she could implement if what he said wasn't true. Oddly enough, the door was propped open, and not even a guard stood place by the doorway.