It's six in the morning on a Tuesday when Eloise falls asleep at her desk. Two hours later at eight o'clock, there's a sharp knock on her front door. Her eyes snap open as soon as she hears the knuckles rasp against the wooden door the first time and jolts awake, alert. When she realizes it's only someone at her door, her heart rate calms and she rubs her tired eyes.

With both parents at work, Eloise is the only one home to answer the door. She considers staying in her room and waiting for the person to give up and go away, but decides against the thought. She pulls herself out of the chair she fell asleep in and drags herself across the apartment. When she reaches the front door, she doesn't bother peering through the peep hole to see who is on the other side before unlocking it.

She pulls open the door. On the other side is the female officer who questioned her about Cliff's murder.

"Officer Janko?" Eloise asks, suddenly not so exhausted anymore. "What are you doing here so early?"

The officer smiles politely, but Eloise can see past the action. Officer Janko takes off her hat and shuffles her feet slightly. "It's about your friend, Cliff Howard."

Eloise's heart stops. "W-What? Did you guys catch who did it?"

"No, not exactly," Janko replies, not wanting to disappoint the girl who has been losing sleep over this case. "But we think we have a solid suspect."

"Who?" Eloise immediately asks, wasting no time.

Janko shifts her weight to her left foot. "A witness came forward and said it was that new super villain, Dark Menace, and her claim checks out."

A cold wave washes over Eloise's body. She stands there, frozen. At first anger fills her and all she sees is red, but it quickly morphs into calculating thoughts. She connects dots in her mind and gasps in shock when she comes to—what she thinks is—a realization.

"Holy shit."

Janko frowns. "What is it?"

Eloise remembers the officer's presence and looks up at her. "Um, nothing. Thanks for keeping me updated!" She ignores Janko's questioning look and slams the door on her. Eloise turns and presses her back against the door, her heart beating ten miles a minute.

Although she doesn't have any solid proof, she thinks she has figured out who Cliff's killer, AKA the Dark Menace, is.

All she has to do now is convince everyone else without sounding crazy.

🕸

The phone in Eloise's leg pocket of her elastic suit vibrates for the fourth time in two minutes. She sighs and leans away from the edge of the building she's perched on, pulling the device out and glancing at the screen. She moves to decline the call, but her finger slips and she accidentally accepts the call.

"So you're not dead after all."

Eloise internally groans and holds the phone up to her ear. In a perky voice, she says, "Hey, Bucky. What's up?"

"I have barely seen you lately, what are you up to?" Bucky asks with a hint of suspicion lacing his tone.

"Not much."

"That's not what Peter said."

Eloise's brow pulls forward. "You've been talking to Peter?" She asks, not even attempting to hide her surprise.

"I had to check up on you somehow," Bucky defends himself, then sighs. "How have you been doing since . . . everything?"

Eloise looks down and closes her eyes. She knows what Bucky means by "everything"; He means Cliff's passing, and now the news that the Dark Menace is the main suspect. It's all over news channels and newspapers and online articles. The same question is brought up in every report: Why did the Dark Menace specifically target Cliff, what made him different? All of Dark Menace's attacks had more than one causality. If Eloise's theory is right, then she knows why.

A distant boom rings out and barely reaches Eloise's ears. Her head snaps up and she notices thick, gray smoke billowing in the east.

"I can't talk, there was an explosion or something," Eloise rushes out and hangs up before Bucky can respond. Tucking her phone back into her protective pocket, she sprints towards the smoke like a beacon in the night. Eloise is halfway there when she's suddenly pulled up into the sky and tucked into the side of a figure. There's only one spider-slinging hero in New York, so she knows it's Peter and lets herself be swung towards the danger.

"Was it an explosion?" Eloise shouts over the wind whipping past their ears.

"Mr. Stark said Zagan and Dark Menace blew up the theater on Main," Peter replies. He flings the two onto the street in front of a building on fire with a gaping hole in the front. The flames lick up the sides of the brick and blow dangerously towards the buildings beside the theater. Above the ablaze building, the iron man suit flies into view and hovers above the teens in spandex.

"Get everyone out, I'll take care of the bad guys," Tony says behind the metal mask before turning and flying around, scanning the rubble and surrounding area for the men behind the chaos.

Peter doesn't hesitate to follow Tony's orders. He swings himself inside and shouts, "Is everyone okay? Anyone hurt?"

Eloise pauses. She knows she should go help the people stuck inside the theater, but the fact that the person who killed her friend is nearby distracts her and pulls her away from the civilians. The need to save the victims is overshadowed by the need to get justice for Cliff.

Sirens nearing the destruction and flames break Eloise out of her thoughts. She runs out of their view as the fire trucks and ambulances arrive and searches for any sign of the Dark Menace. She steps into the hole in the building, avoiding the flames as best as she can, and scans the space. People run past her as they flee the theater, but she doesn't halt her search.

A creak from the wooden ceiling brings Eloise's attention to the staircase in the back. She sprints to it and takes two steps at a time. Once upstairs, she rushes into an office with burning books and chairs scattered around the room. Just as she's entering the office, there's an ear-damaging boom! and a force that knocks her through a wall.

Eloise falls into the the room next door, her head smacking against the floor. She stays splayed out on the ground in pain—ears ringing, head pounding, and spine aching. The explosion leaves the scent of smoke and ash swirling around in the air Eloise sucks in through her mouth as she gasps for the breath that was knocked out of her.

Still unable to hear through the piecing ringing, Eloise bares her teeth and pushes herself up on her hands and knees. A sharp pain shoots up her spine, and she hopes that it isn't as badly hurt as it was when she was thrown against a building a few weeks ago.

"Eloise?"

The sound of her name surfaces past the ringing. Soon after, everything else—the sirens, the flickering flames, and the buzzing city—reaches her ears. Pain clouds her vision with black dots, and after blinking to get them to fade, she stumbles out of the room and down the stairs. Eloise's breaths are ragged and her whole body screams at her as her feet run down to the first level. She almost trips over her own feet a few times, but eventually she makes it out the front.

As soon as she steps foot outside, Eloise is enveloped in a tight hug.

"El!" Peter breathes, one hand on the back of her masked head and the other on her back to hold her closer to him. "You're okay, you're okay."

"Yeah, are you?" She asks as she returns the hug, just as tight. She ignores Tony standing a few feet away and grips onto Peter's suit as her lifeline. "And did you get everyone out?"

"I'm okay, everyone's okay," He assures her, but his soft and grateful tone turns into one of confusion. "Where did you go? I couldn't find you."

The two let go of each other but stay close. Peter looks her up and down for any injuries, his eyes searching for an answer.

Eloise looks back at the building being sprayed by water from fire trucks. "I thought I heard someone upstairs," she says, technically not lying but still dancing around the truth. Her eyes flicker from the building to Peter, then to Tony. "Did you catch the Dark Menace? Or Zagan?"

The mask folds back into Tony's helmet. His face is untouched but sweaty, his face anxious and frustrated. "Those bastards got away again," he sighs heavily. "I tried to track them down, but they turned into other people and disappeared into the crowd."

"Speaking of crowds . . ." Peter says, looking out at the people forming a semicircle around the scene. Tony and Eloise turn and realize the crowd they have attracted. Civilians had their phones out as they recorded the heroes regrouping in front of the damaged building after yet another failed mission.

Turning back to the teens, Tony instructs, "You two, come with me back to base. We should probably get out of the public's view so they're not getting in the way."

The mask covers Tony's face once again. He looks up to the sky and blasts off towards the Avengers facility. Eloise is about to ask Peter for a ride to the base, but an unfamiliar shiny object catches her eye. She steps over some rubble and carefully picks up a device she has never seen before. Turning it around to see all its angles, she can't tell what it is but has a feeling it's important. It's sleek gray with something at the end that resembles a small lense of sorts. Whatever it is, it looks advanced.

"Ready to go?" Peter asks, eyeing Eloise curiously as she examines the device.

She walks over to him with it in her gloved hands, limping slightly. "Look, isn't this weird? What is it?" Her thoughts go crazy as she tries to come up with different purposes of the device. Peter, however, shuts them all down.

"I don't know, probably just a piece of an old projector or something," he proposes without much interest. "Come on, Mr. Stark wants to talk. Plus, you were really close to the explosion, you should probably have a medical exam or something."

Eloise drops the subject but keeps the object in her grasp as she steps into Peter's side, letting one of his arms wrap around her middle. "I'm okay, but you're right, we should go. I'd rather not end up on the front page of the paper in the morning."

Peter smiles down at her with amusement before swinging off into the night, the soft thwip! of his web following them the whole way. The night grows even darker on their way upstate. Eventually, with the sky pitch black and the city illuminated by street lights and the headlights of cars, Peter and Eloise arrive at the compound. When Eloise's feet hit the ground again she becomes aware of the soreness in her body as a result of being thrown through a wall from the explosion. It's not incredibly painful and it doesn't feel like anything's broken, and Eloise is thankful for that. She's just going to be sore for the next few days.

Peter and Eloise are escorted by Happy to a board room. Upon entering, Eloise realizes that Tony is not the only one waiting for them; Steve and Bucky are present, too. Everyone is in their casual attire, which Eloise has gotten used to. Back when she first met the Avengers, seeing Captain America without his patriotic stripes and helmet was odd. Happy shuts the door behind Peter and Eloise and leaves the five to be in the room. Bucky, who is standing next to Steve sitting down at the long table, strides towards Eloise. She rips her mask off and steps into Bucky's outstretched arms. She inhales deeply and buries her face in his shoulder as he squeezes her tight, the comforting smell of metal and mint filling her nostrils. It feels so nice to be with Bucky again that she doesn't register the pain from his tight embrace.

"Good to see you again, kiddo," Bucky says as he lets her go, smiling at her and letting his eyes scan the marks on her face. "It wouldn't have killed you to at least call me, you know."

Eloise's lips lift in a smile as well. "Yeah, sorry about that, I've just been busy."

Tony clasps his hands together, bringing the attention to him. Bucky rolls his eyes playfully.

"Okay, so now that you two have seen that the kids are safe and sound like I said they were, can I talk about my plan?" Tony asks with dramatic hand motions.

Peter's brow furrows. "What plan?"

"My plan to come up with a plan."

He frowns, as does Eloise. She looks down at the device in her hands and considers bringing it up, but she doesn't in fear that what she found holds no significance. So, she holds it behind her back and listens quietly as Tony tries to come up with a plan but fails. The teens and adults in the room try to brainstorm ideas, but they mostly just argue about what they should do next. It's two in the morning when Steve suggests they call it a night and go home despite not really getting anywhere. Reluctantly, Tony obliges, seeing the droopy eyes on Peter and the dark moons stamped under Eloise's eyes.

Eloise doesn't immediately rest when she gets home. First, she texts MJ and tells her to come over first thing in the morning, then collapses in her bed and falls fast asleep. The device from the rubble stays on her messy desk like a paper weight and stays there for the next few hours until Eloise wakes up from MJ pounding at the door at the ass crack of dawn.

🕸

"It looks like a hunk of metal to me." MJ tosses the strange device between her hands like a baseball.

Eloise glances at her friend impatiently, fingers tapping against the desk at an irregular beat. "Yeah, I know, but I just have that gut feeling like the other day. And it's not indigestion, so don't suggest that again." She points at MJ accusingly.

The girl raises her hands in defense. "Hey, it was a fair suggestion." She looks down at the device, examining it for a moment, then looks back up at Eloise. "So you still think Mason is the Dark Menace?"

"Yes."

"And that he is responsible for Cliff's murder?"

"Yes."

MJ doesn't pull a face like she usually does when Eloise states her theory. Instead, MJ thoughtfully looks down at the unidentified object in her hands.

Eloise sits at her desk, hand raising her head so she can mess with the bandage over a gash on her forehead from the night before. "I've been watching him, you know," she says quietly.

MJ tilts her head. "Who?"

"Mason."

"Okay, so you're stalking the guy who has been stalking you?" MJ asks rhetorically. She sits back, still messing around with the device. "He had it coming, I guess. Have you seen him do anything weird or suspicious?"

Eloise sighs, resting her head on her hand. "Not exactly. I usually can't find him, but when I do, I always lose him. It's like he vanishes into thin air or something." Her forehead creases as she thinks deeply. Figuring out this case is like trying to complete a two-thousand-piece puzzle without a reference picture.

MJ, still lying on her back on Eloise's bed, runs her thumb over a ridge in the device. Her brow pulls forward and she touches it again as she sits up, but she presses it too hard and it makes a soft clicking sound. Eloise glances over at the noise and falls out of her chair in fear as MJ's skin peels off and reveals muscle. Bile rises in Eloise's throat. The skin reforms to build a new face with a new skin tone and features. Eloise blinks and is no longer staring into the dark eyes of her friend. She's staring straight into the eyes she sees every time she looks in a mirror. Sitting in MJ's spot on Eloise's bed is Eloise herself, although Eloise is also on the ground with her eyes wide and mouth agape. The new Eloise looks down at her arms and clothes — identical to the ones the real Eloise is wearing — and gasps.

"What the hell is going on?!" New Eloise exclaims, throwing the device onto the ground. As soon as it leaves her grasp, MJ's face and body appears again, just like her skin didn't just fall off. She glances up at Eloise with a scared, confused expression. Eloise's face reflects the same emotions.

"That wasn't real?" Eloise asks slowly, studying MJ as if she'd fall apart in front of her again.

MJ stands and looks down at herself just as perplexed. Slowly, her eyes rise to meet Eloise's. "Did I just turn into you?"

Eloise turns her attention to the device on the floor. She kneels next to it and, without touching it, inspects it. Then it all washes over her at once. The lense-looking part doesn't just record like a camera lense; it can emit an image like a projector. MJ didn't turn into Eloise, she just looked like her. If MJ didn't actually turn into someone else, and the device is from the building Zagan and the Dark Menace attacked, then Zagan faked turning into other people. That means Zagan isn't a skrull like Eloise told Peter, and Peter and Tony are on the wrong track.

MJ must be connecting the dots as well because a light bulb goes off in her head. "So you were right, Zagan isn't a skrull."

"What if I'm right about Mason being the Dark Menace too?" Eloise wonders, standing. "What if when I lose Mason in crowds when I'm watching him, it's because he uses this thing to turn into other people?"

MJ's eyes dart to the device lying limply on the floor. Running her hands through her hair, she says, "We need to tell someone."

"I'll call Peter," Eloise suggests as she grabs her phone from her desk and presses his contact. "He's on his way over to meet with Tony right now, they've been working on predicting the next attack."

MJ watches intently as the phone rings. After three rings, Peter picks up. He doesn't have time to get a word in before Eloise speaks frantically.

"I think something weird is going on with Mason," she says, not sure how to explain everything she and MJ just discovered.

"What do you mean?" Peter's muffled voice cracks through the phone. "Did he do something to you?"

"No, but—"

"Hey, can we talk later? I've got to go, Mr. Stark and I really need to get this Zagan and Dark Menace case figured out."

Eloise falters. "But it's about that, Peter." She starts to explain what just happened, but Peter cuts her off again.

"I really need to go." His voice is distant, slightly distracted. "I'm glad you're okay, tell me if Mason ever does hurt you or something, but I've got to go, I can't be late to meet with Mr. Stark, this is really important."

"No, wait—!"

"See you later, bye."

The phone goes silent as Peter ends the call. Eloise lowers her phone from her ear and looks down at the screen with shock and frustration. MJ's brow furrows and she sets her hands on her hips.

"Did he seriously just hang up on you?"

Eloise frowns and calls Peter again, but he doesn't pick up. Letting out a defeated groan, she throws her phone onto her bed and picks up the device.

"Woah, woah, woah." MJ's hand shoots out and stops Eloise from walking away. "What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm going over to Ned's to steal his bus pass so we can go to the Avengers compound to make those dumbasses listen to us," she breathes, determined.

MJ cocks her head, her hair slightly falling in her face, and narrows her eyes on Eloise. She runs her idea over in her mind a few times before cracking a smirk. She lightly hits Eloise's shoulder. "Well, let's go."

_____

Chapter Song:
Born For This | The Score