Marvel: The Social Link System

Later in the evening, Peter sat in the back of his uncle’s car quietly as they were stuck in a traffic jam. He had just been picked up by his uncle and aunt, who came together, as for the rest of the day, he was suspended for involving himself in a fight hours earlier.

Uncle Ben looked at him through the rearview mirror, disappointment clear in his eyes.

"Why did you do that, Peter?" he asked calmly.

Peter didn’t say anything at first. He looked through the window as he put his head against it. "You know why."

"What is with you these past couple of weeks?" asked Uncle Ben again. "You’ve been acting distant, and now you’re doing something like this..."

"Peter," said Aunt May sternly. "This is not the way you were raised."

Peter frowned deeply. "What are you talking about? I was just defending—"

"His face was swollen!" Aunt May pointed out.

"Then what am I supposed to do?!" Peter refuted. "I am so sick of being picked on all the time! For once I defended myself, and what do I get from you? A lecture…"

"Peter, that’s not how we taught you." Uncle Ben said. "I know you’ve suffered, but fighting back is going to only give you trouble. Boys like him are not worth your time; just ignore him; outclass him in other areas; fighting is not the solution."

"It’s easy for you to say…" Peter murmured.

Uncle Ben just looked at his wife, who looked quite anxious for her nephew, before sighing deeply and not saying anything anymore.

—

On Saturday morning, Duncan and Peter stood in front of the music club room in the school. True to his predictions, Peter has been grounded by his aunt, and was not supposed to be here. He snuck out of the window, climbing down the building using his power.

Duncan could sense that Peter was nervous as hell. He was fidgeting with his fingers and tapping his feet, and his senses were overly sensitive.

"Peter." Duncan suddenly said, making Peter flinch.

"Y-Yeah… Let’s go…"

The boy then opened the door, only to see that there were four girls looking at him directly. Peter swallowed his saliva as he saw MJ, who was looking quite embarrassed.

"I win." Gloria chuckled as Betty gave her a one-dollar bill.

"What are you doing?" Duncan raised his brow, also entering the room.

"They were betting how long it would take for Peter to enter." Gwen suddenly said. "You were out there for quite a while."

Peter's face was flushed with embarrassment.

"Come on, seriously? That’s just scummy." Duncan sighed. "Look at him, he even risked being grounded for longer just to see you guys."

"You’re grounded, Peter?" MJ asked in surprise.

"Y-Yeah… I-I got into a fight…" Peter answered.

"I knew that, but I didn't think you'd be grounded." MJ said again. She then stood up before looking at the others. "Alright, let’s just get to the point."

The girls just quickly walked towards their own instruments. Gwen sat in front of the drum kit, Gloria moved to her keyboard, Betty picked up her guitar, and MJ walked to the mic stand, holding a bass.They tuned the sound system first before looking towards both boys again.

"Boys, enjoy the show." said Gloria with a smirk.

Without waiting for a response, Gwen quickly tapped her drumsticks to set the tempo of the music and started playing.

Duncan’s eyes widened as he realized what music they were playing. They were playing rock music. The room shook as the sound of the electric guitar rang throughout the space, the drums blasted into Duncan's ears, and the bass reverberated throughout.

Then MJ started to sing.

While her voice isn’t the best, she fully used the genre’s voice tropes to her advantage, so it doesn’t really matter. The lyrics were not that complex but pretty demented; it was about a woman who was monologuing about her experience killing people and getting away with it. The woman in the song brags to the listener that she avoided the cops’ grasps easily and that only God could judge her now.

The music played for around 3 minutes, and the entire time, Peter couldn’t stop watching. Duncan could sense that he was weirded out by the lyrics, but that feeling was being buried by other things.

As MJ muttered the last words of the song, the girls slowly turned off the music, with Gwen being the last to stop the drum beats.

MJ took a deep breath first, resting her voice after that song. Then, she looked at the two boys.

"So?" she asked. "How is it?"

"Demented and edgy, it screams "high school band"." Duncan answered flatly. "But okay."

"Just ‘okay’?" Gwen raised her brow.

"Well, it’s not good." Duncan shrugged. "What? I came here to offer my two cents, not to become your yes man."

MJ just sighed. "What about you, Peter?"

"Um… I think it’s good… But I agree with Duncan, it’s a bit… edgy…"

"Who wrote the song, anyway?" Duncan asked.

"Do you have a problem?"Gloria answered, raising her brow.

"A bit." Duncan shrugged. "I don’t want to insult you all or anything, but if you really want to play this, you've got to set up the vibe too."

"Meaning?" Betty questioned.

"Well, only Gloria seems to fit the part." Duncan said, looking at her gothic girl look. "The rest... not so much. I mean, you’ve got Gwen with her cute headband playing the drums. You with your glasses, and MJ with the cheerleader makeup. So…"

The four girls just looked at each other and laughed.

"Well, yeah, obviously." Gwen giggled. "We won’t wear this kind of outfit during the gig. You don’t have to worry about it."

"Then I guess it’s fine." Duncan hummed. "Are you really going with that song?"

"Yep."

"How’d you get that idea anyway?" Peter suddenly asked. "It seems... odd talking about a woman who likes to kill."

"Oh, that." Betty said. "Well, during our free time, we like to try to solve cases and that type of stuff."

"Uh… what?"

"Let us just show you." Gwen suddenly stood up, and walked to the back room. Not a minute later, she came out, dragging a board that had a lot of things on it. Red strings, photos, information, it’s like a—

"It’s a theory board." Gwen said. "Right now, we’re trying to solve a really hard case, so it’s pretty messy."

"Oh, wow, that’s cool…" Peter said, walking towards it.

"We got that idea for the song from an old cold case," Gloria explained, walking to the board. "We didn’t find out who the killer was, unsurprisingly, but we all agree that the killer is a woman. So, that’s the idea."

"A real case?" Duncan asked curiously.

"Yeah, all of the cases that we discussed are real." Gwen nodded.

"How’d you get all the information and pictures?"

"Well, my dad’s quite careless." Gwen shrugged. "Usually, he brought some case files, and he just left them on the table. So I took pictures of it."

"Of course… that’s not surprising at all." Duncan rolled his eyes. "Your dad’s going to get fired one of these days."

Gwen just giggled, but then Peter pointed out something.

"Hey, Duncan, it’s you." he said, pointing at Duncan’s picture on the board.

"Hm?" Duncan raised his brow. He looked at the board, examining it closely.

There are three separate events that were pinned on the board. One was the hotel massacre, the killing in the alleyway, and the three hanged men near Ryker’s Island.

In other words, they’re trying to find Duncan.

"Yeah, it’s your case." Gwen chuckled nervously at Duncan. "We call it the tarot cards killings."

"Oh really?" Duncan spoke calmly. "What’ve you got?"

"Not much, really." Betty commented. "We’re literally finding an angel, so..."

"He’s human, not an angel." MJ insisted.

"There are sketches of him, MJ." Betty rolled her eyes.

"That’s not important." Gwen said.

"So you discovered anything?" Peter asked.

"Not much, really." Gwen murmured. "The only thing we realized is that all of the cases are somehow connected to Wilson Fisk, though the cops also probably know that too."

Duncan hummed. "Well, good luck on your little game, I guess…."

—

Duncan and Gwen were now walking through the quiet corridors of the school. Duncan was now going to the football field for practice, while Gwen was going home early, as always.

"So what do you think?" Gwen suddenly asked. She looked curious.

"What?"

"My skills." Gwen said. 

"It’s okay." Duncan shrugged.

Gwen sighed. "You’re an asshole sometimes."

"Well, you ask me what I think." Duncan stated. "Like I said, I'm not trying to be your yes-man."

"Ugh, I hate you." The girl rolled her eyes.

Duncan just chuckled. "There’s still a month left, just keep practicing."

The girl hummed. "Thanks."

"For what?"

"For coming." she said. "And for speaking your mind for once."

Duncan chuckled. "Meaning?"

"Look… I know you have secrets that you don’t want to tell anyone." Gwen continued. "Your ‘shadow’... but, if you want to talk about anything, like at all, I’ll be here, okay?"

Duncan raised his brow. "Okay…"

"I’m serious, Duncan." she said. "Don’t… keep it to yourself. It’s not healthy."

Duncan didn’t say anything at all at first. But finally, he just hummed. "All right."

"Good." She smiled. 

The sound of chains breaking sounded inside Duncan’s mind, a sign of ranking up.

Duncan suddenly stopped walking, making Gwen confused.

"You okay?" She asked calmly.

Duncan just nodded. "Yeah. I’m okay."

===

NEW RANK UP!

Temperance - [VI] None