Valen: A Collector's Item

McDonald's

"Valen, what did you do?" Peter's hands flew to the sides of his head as he stared at the unconscious man on the floor.

Instead of responding, she bent to the ground and patted his sides and pockets. There was nothing on him. No phone, no weapons, and no ID. But her hand paused in their search as she felt a slight disruption on the inside of his jacket.

Her fingers pulled out a worn-out and bent photo of a young woman with short black hair. There was a slight resemblance, but Valen couldn't make out what she was to him. With the photo being old, it could be his wife or his child. There was nothing written on the back to indicate otherwise.

Valen stuffed the picture in her jeans pocket with the five dollar bill, now that her suit slithered back into her snowflake bracelet.

Just to help Peter calm down, Valen pressed her pointer and middle finger against the guy's neck. His heart was still beating. Part of her wished he was dead, but she shook her head to get rid of that thought.

"He's alive." To Peter, her voice was deadpan, blunt, emotionless. To Valen, she didn't know if the words even came out of her mouth. "He's alive. He's alive? HE'S ALIVE!"

"Yeah, I got it." He responded, upset.

"What?" She shouted.

"You said he was alive four times."

Valen stood up. She snapped her fingers against her ears, but there was nothing responding to her actions.

Peter, on the other hand, grabbed both of the man's wrists to pull him up, then used his back to throw him over his shoulder. "We have got to get out of here. The police are outside."

Valen stared at him. His mask was still covering his face, so she couldn't tell he was even talking. Her confusion made Peter stumble a little. He didn't know why she was now acting strange, but they didn't have time for this unless they wanted to be interrogated by the cops.

"V, please, we have to go." He grabbed onto her arm and started to run out the back of the building.

Valen ran with him, now understanding his urgency when she saw the flashing red and blue lights bouncing off the walls. She turned all three of them invisible as they made their way through the maze of people and parked cars.

Peter didn't know where to go though. He couldn't take him to his place, even if he wanted to. The campus was destroyed. He was not about to take him to Tony's house because he would never put Pepper or Morgan in danger.

His only option for the moment was to sit in a McDonald's booth in the very back beside the bathrooms. Peter was back to himself in his jeans and t-shirt. They put the man's jacket hood over his head and leaned him against the wall. To outsiders, he looked like he worked a long shift and needed a nap. But if they were to peek under the hood, they'd reveal a nasty black and purple bruise along the side of his face. Valen had her hood up as well even though more than half the world knew she was alive now.

The TV in the corner confirmed it as it showed videos taken from people's iPhones of her trying to run away from Peter's apartment. The running tagline at the bottom theorized that she was the bomber. Luckily, the subtitles were on for Valen to catch their evidence. The only thing they had on her was that her hair matched a person's description of the bomber's from a few weeks ago and that she was inside the apartment building when it happened. It didn't look too good for her because another bomb went off after she ran away from the crowd.

In some hope, the news did interview people who praised Valen for her actions. Without her, they'd be stuck inside their homes. The landlord's interview was cut short after they had to bleep out every other word from his rampage. The last thing he got to say was that he'd be waiting for Valen to Venmo him money for the damages, give or take. Add some more colorful wording, and you'll probably be spot on.