By Sunlight (P.P + M.J)

37. Bus Ride Back

*MJ's pov*

The unveiling was amazingly cool. All MJ could think about was how much she wanted to sketch the sculpture as soon as she got home. But the whole thing was cut short when their art teacher got a call and his features went from awed to worried instantly. After hanging up, he hastily ushered the students out of the exhibit's room and into the lobby, where he started making a few more frantic calls. Everyone was more than a little confused, murmurs being passed around the small group of students.

"Guys, come look at this!" A student called out, holding up his phone. Immediately, a swarm of kids surrounded him as they all struggled to look at the small screen. Because of her height advantage, MJ had no trouble seeing over their heads, and she was able to see a video playing that showed two figures fighting over the heads of a bunch of pedestrians. It had obviously happened within New York City, and when MJ looked closer, she could see that the figures were the white-clad guy from the other night and a wolfed-out Jack Russell. She had to physically hold back a gasp as she watched the man throw Jack into a building, sending brick and debris down on the people below.

"When did this happen?" Someone asked.

"It got uploaded a few minutes ago," was the reply, and a series of exclamations followed it as Werewolf lunged at the white-caped stranger, catching onto his hoverboard and dragging it down to the street below. They continued to make noise until a museum worker had to shush them, but that did little to stifle their excitement at seeing the canine superhero fight.

"Alright, kiddos! Let's get on the bus!" Their teacher called, and he herded them all through the doors and onto the sidewalk. A bus was waiting parked on a sidestreet next to the museum.

"Dude, where'd the guy Werewolf was fighting go?"

"I don't know. Probably crashed somewhere."

"But where was Spider-Man? They're usually together when they fight bad guys."

"He might of had to take care of some other crime happening."

MJ had to think hard about that. Slowly pulling her knowledge together, she started to think everything over, and try piecing it together. The guy in white had been after Jack when he'd kidnapped her, and he must have found him. But Jack had been in school when MJ had gone to the MoMA, so something must have happened to draw him out. And if something drew him out, it would've drawn Peter out as well. That boy couldn't turn a blind eye to danger even if he was actually blind. Thinking about the video she just watched, she saw that Jack had taken off when he had bested the white-masked guy and caused his weird hoverboard to malfunction. Where had he gone? And where was the guy in white?

The bus door had opened and, much to MJ's surprise, Gwen Stacy jumped out, wearing her usually black-and-white hoodie, saying, "Y'all ain't gonna believe what just happened."

But before she said anything, the blonde's blue eyes scanned the crowd, as if looking for someone in particular. When her gaze landed on MJ, she breathed a visible sigh of relief and gave her a cheery thumbs-up, which left MJ really confused. Not knowing exactly why she did, MJ closed her hand around the watch Peter had given him, her palm flat against the screen. It lit up once and a little white spider appeared. It vibrated against her wrist until the screen went black again. She didn't know if that was a good or bad thing.

As everyone filtered onto the bus, Gwen waited until everyone was settled to launch into the whole story, about how a van had slammed into her bus and sent it into the river. Spider-Man and Werewolf had showed up and gotten everyone out, then a guy in a white cape and armor had come out of nowhere and started fighting Werewolf. Spider-Man had gotten caught in the bus when it sank into the river, but Werewolf had eventually come back and rescued him. She even mentioned Iron Man showing up and carried Spider-Man off when he appeared to unconscious. MJ had tried to appear disinterested in the tale but had visibly flinched when she mentioned Spider-Man. Gwen, who was sitting next to her, must have felt it, and made her voice louder so as to keep everyone's attention on her rather than ask MJ what her problem was.