Midtown School
After the weekend, school started as usual. Students met their friends and shared stories about how they had spent the past two days.
Among the crowd, Jack walked toward his classroom, lost in thought.
"I hope they stay at home and don't pull any more stunts like last night."
After yesterday's incident, Red Queen had immediately informed him about what happened. Because of that, he didn't allow Emma and Morgan to stay alone in his hideout today and left them at home before coming to school.
"Jack."
"Hey buddy, what are you thinking about so seriously? You didn't even notice me calling you."
Peter walked up beside him.
"Nothing."
Soon, Peter started talking about a funny incident that had happened at his house involving Uncle Ben as they made their way to class.
A few minutes later, Gwen entered the classroom. After seeing Jack, she hesitated for a second before walking over and sitting beside him.
Jack noticed that she didn't say good morning or even give him her usual hug.
"Are you still angry about yesterday?" Jack asked.
"I'm sorry," she said very quietly.
"What?"
After using the X-Serum, Jack could hear even the slightest sounds from far away, so he had heard her clearly. He just pretended he hadn't.
"I said I'm sorry."
Jack wasn't really angry to begin with, and seeing her apologize, he accepted it.
"So what made you change your mind so quickly? I thought it would take you longer to understand."
"Are you calling me an idiot now?" she asked, pinching him lightly.
"Ouch, hey."
Jack didn't actually feel any pain. He was just acting.
"Don't act. I can tell you're faking it."
"Okay, okay."
"After leaving there, I thought a lot and understood what you were trying to tell me. Since our future selves were able to do it, we can do it too. We can save people."
Hearing her words, Jack didn't say anything more. Even he wasn't completely sure how the timelines worked, and if something went wrong, he had no way to fix it.
It seemed he should meet the Ancient One. Only she could answer the questions he had about time.
Still, he guessed Emma's situation was similar to Kamala Khan's in Ms. Marvel. Her actions in the past had already become part of history. It was a loop.
The morning passed quickly.
After using the X-Serum, Jack could feel how much smarter he had become. Questions that would normally take him some time to understand now seemed much easier.
Jack noticed MJ sitting in her seat, lost in thought. She didn't even notice that class was already over.
"Hey MJ, class is over. Are you daydreaming or something?" Jack joked.
"Where are Peter and Gwen?"
MJ looked around the classroom but didn't see them. Usually, they all went to the canteen together.
"They left together. Peter seemed to want to talk to her about something."
Hearing that, MJ looked at Jack. After hesitating for a moment, she asked a question.
"Jack, don't you think they're hiding something from us?"
MJ looked directly into his eyes. Before, she had felt that Jack occasionally told some obvious lies, but they trusted him and didn't question him too much. Now even Peter and Gwen seemed to be hiding things from her.
"What are you talking about?"
Jack understood what she meant. Since Peter had learned that Gwen was Spider-Woman, he had been spending a lot of time talking to her alone lately, often leaving him and MJ behind. So MJ's suspicion wasn't completely wrong.
"The last few times I saw them, whenever I got close, they suddenly changed the topic. And when I asked about it, they both said they weren't hiding anything and that I was overthinking."
MJ shared her doubts.
"Sometimes it feels like they're keeping some big secret between them. Am I really just overthinking it?"
"That's probably just your imagination. Don't overthink simple things."
Since Jack knew the truth, he didn't say anything more. Instead, he changed the topic.
Soon, MJ started talking about her dance classes and acting classes. Jack didn't even know she had joined so many classes, and before long, she had completely forgotten about Peter and Gwen.
Later, Jack didn't ask Gwen what Peter had talked to her about. It felt like an invasion of privacy.
However, Gwen ended up telling him herself.
"So Peter was asking if you found any clues about Dr. Connors?"
"Yes. Do you have any idea where he might be?"
Since Gwen had no idea that Dr. Connors was the Lizard, Jack explained everything to her.
"I didn't expect him to be Dr. Connors!"
Hearing that the Lizard was the same man she had met at the Oscorp library, Gwen was genuinely shocked.
"He looked completely normal. I just can't connect that giant green lizard with Dr. Connors. It doesn't feel like they're the same person."
"We should find him soon before he does anything dangerous."
As she said that, Gwen suddenly thought of something.
"Don't worry. Now we have two AIs. The moment he appears anywhere in New York, finding him should be much easier."
"Two AIs?"
Gwen remembered Red Queen, but she didn't know about the second AI.
Seeing her confused expression, Jack explained everything that had happened with Friday and what Emma and Morgan had done.
"That was honestly just an unfortunate mistake. No one could've predicted something like that."
Gwen ended up taking Emma and Morgan's side.
Jack just rolled his eyes. Even he understood that they hadn't done it on purpose. Otherwise, he would've really scolded them.
"I'll be happy if they don't cause any more problems today."
Hearing Jack say that, Gwen suddenly had a strange feeling.
For some reason, she didn't think that was going to happen.
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