December 15, 2025: MIT Dorm
Michelle dreamed about that moment again. That boy entered the shop, took a deep breath, and said, "Hi, my name is Peter Parker and..." He seemed to look over at her, and Ned then sighed and said, "And I would like a Coffee."
"OK, Peter Parker, one Coffee coming up," MJ said before giving a free donut to Ned.
"Are you both excited about MIT?" Peter asked.
MJ said, "Yes, kind of," pushing her hair behind her ear and exposing her bandaid.
Peter just looked at her bandaid, losing his nerve. "Thanks for the coffee," he said, running out of the store.
Michelle watches him leave. Her heart started to ache, and a tear came down her cheek. "What was that? Why did he make me feel so..."
She walked over to Ned, who said, "Never seen you get all misty-eyed over a customer before."
"I was not misty-eyed," she replied with annoyance.
"You were totally giving him your comeback here face," Ned said.
Michelle slapped the back of his head and went back to work.
Michelle woke up as her cell phone beeped that she had an incoming text message. She decided to check it later as she wrote in her dream journal when suddenly Ned Leeds entered their co-ed dorm room.
"Are you still dreaming of a past you can't remember?" He asked her.
MJ nodded and replied, "Are you?"
Ned nodded in return.
"I keep seeing the two of us hanging out with that weird boy who came into the coffee shop I worked at last year," MJ said.
"The one that introduced himself with his full name to order a cup of coffee?"
MJ nods.
He replies, "I have dreams about him, too, we are building Lego sets and watching Star Wars, and there are ones with me feeling like a third wheel while you two are making out."
She laughed and rolled her eyes, "You need to stop dreaming about me making out with random strangers." But the thought of that puts a sad smile on her face. "It's too bad we never got a chance to get to know him before..."
Ned nods, "Maybe he could have told us if we knew him or if we just randomly dreamed of a life with him."
MJ turns to a newspaper clipping she kept from a year ago and had placed on their dorm wall for reasons she didn't understand. It had seemed significant to her, but she wasn't sure why. The headline read, " John Doe Commits Suicide" Unknown seventeen-year-old is found in East River after he jumped from the Brooklyn Bridge. When authorities fished him out of the river, the autopsy showed that he was very malnourished and had many injuries on his body."
"I wish I had stopped him that day at the donut shop, "MJ said. "Maybe we could have been his friend and helped, but now it's too late. And these weird memory dreams will be just that, just dreams,"
"Maybe not," Ned responded. "I found a flyer in the common room. They are looking for volunteers to help test a memory device they created."
She looked up, "Do you think it can help us figure out which memories are real and which are not?"
"It's worth a try," he said.
She checked her phone, "Someone wants me to go find Kurisu Makise."
Ned said, "That's freaky; that's the person in charge of the memory experiment."
MJ said, "This can't be a coincidence; let's go."
They both grabbed their jackets and headed for the Neurology department.
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December 15, 2025: MIT NEUROLOGY LAB
When Ned and MJ arrived in the Neurology lab, a young girl of what looked like sixteen greeted them. "Tu Tu Ru!" She excitedly shouted at them.
"Tu Tu Ru?" MJ asked, confused.
"It's just her catchphrase whenever she says hello." Someone else came from another corner of the lab; another girl came over. "My name is Chihiro Fujisaki."
"You're so pretty!" Ned said.
"Um..... Thanks," Chihiro stuttered, and Ned internally kicked himself for making things awkward.
Another taller female came over next: "I see you meet my partner; he's kind of timid but very smart."
"Yeah, we've met and..." Ned stopped and turned to look at him. "You're a dude?"
MJ smacked him, "Be nice," She turned to Chihiro. "I apologize for my friend's rudeness," MJ cast a meaningful glance in Ned's direction. "I'm sure transitioning is very hard. What pronouns would you like?"
"I am a guy," he said sadly. "I just wish I was a little buffer."
"My name is Kurisu Makise," the taller girl said, and you met my lab partner already. Over there is our friend, and I guess lab assistant, Mayuri Shiina."
"Juicy Chicken number 1?" Mayuri asks, putting a box of chicken in front of them.
"Maybe later," MJ responds. "Ned and I would like to volunteer for the memory project."
"May I ask why?" Kurisu asks.
MJ says, "We both have flashes of memories we don't remember, and we were hoping to see if they were real or just in our imagination."
Kurisu nods, "OK, I think our program can help. We call it Amadeus, and it can put your entire memory on these computers where you can access it via an app on your cell and then sort the memories out."
Ned's eyes lit up. "Kind of like files on a computer."
"Yes, that's a perfect analogy," Chihiro said.
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They brought them into another room, and Kurisu took their cells and plugged them into the devices. "We need a cell number to deliver the memories to once they are downloaded and copied."
Chihiro attached the nodes to their heads to get a reading of their brains. "I'm not hurting you am I?" He asked.
"No, I'm fine," MJ said. "Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Michelle Jones, but my friends call me MJ."
"And I'm Ned Leeds," Ned said, "But my friends call me Ned."
"Well, Ned, Michelle, I hope we can help," Kurisu said and started the machine.
"The Chicken is a little cold," Mayuri told them. "I will warm it up for you all." She said, starting the microwave.
"Mayuri, No!" Chihiro shouted, "Not when the Amadeus app is running."
Michelle noticed sparks coming from the microwave then everything got blurry.
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One Way Home: Michelle Jones & The Multiverse of Madness (ReMix) (EARTH 1998)
FanfictionMichelle must find a Earth where she can get Peter Back
