Talons of the Bird || Spiderman Fan Fiction

Chapter 22

In her mind, Emily could see Martin stood at the end of her mother's apartment. His colours were inverted like when she first saw him on the news, and the apartment was left a mess, papers and furniture scattered everywhere. "You could be just like your mother!" He could be heard yelling, without his mouth moving. He just stood there with a nasty grin across his face. "I am like mom! I would stay the hell away from you!" She tried to yell back, the sound of her own voice rang in her ears. He was suddenly stood behind her in a blink of an eye. "Too bad you didn't" He whispered, causing Emily to spin quickly around to face him, causing him to vanish. She looked around the room in a blind panic, scanning for him. Suddenly a silhouette could be seen outside the window. A woman with wings. With a loud crash, the woman broke through the window and flew at Emily, pinning her down to the floor. She could see now, It was her mother. Her colours were inverted, but she knew it was her mother. The woman stood over Emily, a wicked grin across her face. "Fight with me, darling," Her gentle voice could be heard, despite her mouth not moving. "Mom, stop!" Emily cried out, protecting her face with her arms, bracing for a hit.

"You would make your father so proud!" Elizabeth shouted back as her wings arch backwards, ready to striker her in the chest. "I don't want to!" Emily had fear in her eyes as she could see the sharpness of the tip of the wings, threatening to come down. "You don't have a choice!" Elizabeth laughed before sending her wings down, aimed for Emily's heart. Emily threw her arms forward in defence, throwing her mother off her and colliding into the wall behind then falling to the floor. "I have a choice, mom," Emily got up from the ground and slowly approached the woman as she rose to her feet. "I want to make you proud," She said getting closer. Elizabeth readied herself to fight, only to unexpectedly receive a tight hug from her daughter. Emily let a tear slip down her face as she squeezed tightly, while Elizabeth's expression dropped. Emily opened her eyes as she could feel her grip loosening, only to see her mother had vanished. She now stood alone in the apartment. The breeze passed through the broken window, scattering papers across the room. Some of the paper caught her eye when she saw a few of them gather in a circle around a particular floorboard in the centre of the room.

Before Emily could walk forward to investigate, she woke up. Peter was seen standing over her and she could take in from her surroundings that she was back in the Avengers Tower, Tony and Natasha could be seen by their desk. "Pete..? She asked weakly, squinting her eyes as she could feel her cheeks wet from tears. "You're back!" She yelled, springing up to hug him, catching him by surprise. "Well, you were right, kid. She managed to fight it, this time," Tony called over from his desk. Peter laughed as he closed his eyes into the hug, letting her let go when she was ready. "We need to go to my old apartment," She said as she fell back onto the couch.

"Woah, calm down. What are you talking about?" He asked.

"I had a vision. There's something hidden under the floorboards!" Emily jumped from her seat, stretching as she did.

"You had a vision?" Tony scoffed from his desk.

"Yeah and were fighting a bad guy who has the ability to mind control. Are you seriously still getting surprised by this stuff?" Natasha chuckled in reply to him, earning a smirk from Emily. "I trust the girl. If she's on to something, it could help us," She continued.

"Alright, go with the kids, then," Tony waved his hands to dismiss her. With that, Natasha dropped her arms from her chest and walked over to meet with Emily and Peter.

They arrived at the apartment block to Emily's old address, now out of their hero gear and in their casual clothes to blend in with the crowd. They took the elevator up to the correct floor and made their way down the hallway to the apartment. Emily knocked on the door, unsure of what to say if and when somebody may answer the door. Natasha bent down to look through the keyhole, seeing that the apartment had been left empty. "There's no one in there," She confirmed, stepping back to kick the door down. "Woah, don't worry about that, Nat. I've got a key," Emily joked as she reached into her pocket. "Why do you still have the key?" She asked, stepping forward again.

"No reason, don't ask," Emily shrugged as she dismissed the question. She put the key in the lock and turned it, hearing the click as the door opened. It felt very strange for Emily to see the apartment empty again. Although she didn't live there for very long, she had made the place feel like home very quickly when she first moved in. She learnt to adapt very quickly when she moved a lot as a kid, so this move she didn't think would be any different. "So what are we looking for?" Peter asked as he stepped inside behind her. "There's a loose floorboard in one of the rooms," Emily replied, walking further inside. Both Natasha and Peter looked down at the ground in search of the loose floorboard, while Emily kept her vision up, looking around the empty apartment. After a few minutes of searching, Natasha thought she found it, stomping hard on the ground. after the third stomp, the floorboard came loose. "I've got it," She exclaimed to the other two. "It may have not been loose when you started stomping at it," Peter joked as he was the first to get to her. Emily came out of the other room as Natasha lifted the floorboard, looking underneath. Below in the dust was another small book, similar in appearance to the diary that May had found before the eviction. The leather-bound book was covered in a thick caking of dust and had seen better days as the leather was slightly eroded. Natasha lifted it out carefully, wiping the dust off the cover.

"A diary?" She asked, looking up to Emily. She came up to the woman and took it carefully from her hands. She was just about to open the cover when Peter rapidly turned his head to the doorway, sensing that somebody was coming. "You alright, Pete?" Emily asked, noticing his reaction.

"Somebody's coming. We should move," He stated, turning back to the two girls.

"He's right, we should go. You can read it at the Tower," Natasha stated, making a move towards Emily's old bedroom. The two teenagers followed the woman into the room as she opened the window to the fire escape. Peter waited for the two girls to get through the window, keeping his head around the door to watch. Soon enough, the landlord of the building stomped his way in through the opened door, seeing Peter looking out for him. "Hey! Kid, stop!" He shouted angrily, running towards the bedroom. He turned the corner to see the window left open, leading out to the fire escape. By this point, the two girls had reached the ground and started making their way down the alleyway, while Peter made a quick getaway by web. The landlord looked outside confused at the disappearance of the random kid in his building, but he grumbled as he shut the window and left the room, allowing Peter to drop down to the floor and continue walking with Emily and Natasha with the book in hand.