Stella's POV
Do you know how weird it is to whisper into a branded letter E on your wrist whenever you need help? Is that what I have been reduced to? My boyfriend disappeared into an alternate dimension and I'm calling on the god of love and sex to go and rescue him. My life had become so insane. And for some reason I had the urge to call my brother. Genuinely what was he going to do? If I couldn't figure out how to help Peter what was Louis going to do? Sing into the void and hope that brings in him back?
"When's Eros going to be here?" Flash wondered.
"I don't know Flash, it's not 2 way type of thing." I said, trying to answer as gently as possible because I knew it wasn't his fault he had no brain cells, but my brain was working in maximum overdrive. I didn't like that Peter was gone. I didn't like that Ava was mad at me. I didn't like that this little Spiderman, the one who had not that long ago rescued me from a burning building, was now looking at me with these big expectant eyes like I was supposed to figure this whole thing out. The truth was, I didn't know how Eros operated. I couldn't just expect him to be listening all the time for a distress signal from me, a random human. He had other things to do, right? Like love. And sex. Important things. Peter was smart though. He'd figure it out. He just had to.
Maybe Ava was right to be worried.
"I'm gonna go find Ava." I sighed, getting up. There had to be something we could do. We could figure it out together.
If I could find her.
"Did you guys see where Ava went?" I sighed. There was a few walls used for display kind of just standing in the middle of the room, so I checked around those corners to see if she was behind there having a mental breakdown or something, but she wasn't. No matter where I looked, she was nowhere.
"I could check the cameras, but I don't see where she could've gone. This is the only exit." Flash said, referring to the opening we had all gathered in front of.
"That sounds like a fire hazard." Little Spider-Man said, getting up. The three of us left the room and crossed the museum to Flash's office. Crazy how the guy who tried to shove me in a locker once now had an office. Crazy how life works. Peter used to say Flash would end up nowhere, because that's what everyone says about people who are mean to you, but Peter didn't have an office now did he?
Although Flash's office was about the same size as my closet.
Little Spider-Man and I had an awkward exchange over who got to sit in the one single extra chair he had in there (the one with the cracked vinyl looking like it was made in 1984, you know the ones) that eventually resulted in neither of us actually sitting down because we were both to awkward to take the seat. Meanwhile, Flash pulled up the cameras from the superhero room and went back to when Ava got up and left the group. She went around the corner of the big display wall so we couldn't see her and started pacing. Then, in her path, sparks flew out of nowhere. The sparkly gold light that came out of portals. It wasn't a full circle, just a little slash like the world had just been cut open a bit. She paused, staring at it, then looked like she was going to go get us, but shook her head. Then she reached up and the second her finger touched the sparks the video went fuzzy for just a split second. When it stabilized, she was gone.
//
Ava's POV
I was dead. I had to be dead. When I went into the portal last time it was like stepping through a door, but this time was different. It felt like... it felt like the first time going down one of those enclosed slides on the playground when you're like 3 years old and don't know how the world works. Everything is dark. Your brain doesn't process where you're going, only that you're moving, and moving fast. I was moving so fast I couldn't tell whether I was up or down or sideways, and when I finally made it all the way through, I crashed onto a hard surface, the wind knocked out of me. I had to blink like a hundred times before I realized I wasn't in hell, but very close. The Midtown Science boys' locker room. Don't ask me why I know what that looks like. I could hear a sound like a shower running, but when I looked around the room seemed to be empty. The lights were on but flickering and some of the bricks from the walls were crumbling. Peter had been here. It seemed like that man left disaster everywhere he went when he was Spider-Man.
