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<span class="mu-r">“Sounds like you’ve had it rough. I’m sorry that happened to you.”</span> you said with genuine sincerity.
She shrugged, wiping at her face with a gloved hand. <span class="mu-g">“Yeah, it’s been…yeah.”</span> she said, nodding and pointedly avoiding looking in your direction. <span class="mu-g">“You’re actually the first person that I’ve talked about it with. So…thanks for listening, I guess.”</span>
She turned to look back at you, and she blinked at you. To be exact, she blinked at the object that you were holding out towards her. It was a tiny white tablet, identical to the ones that she’d been examining in her lab.
Her jaw began working the air, but no noise came out. You raised your hand a bit, and she reached over, and gingerly plucked it from your hand. She stared at it for a while, and then directed her gaze at you.
A bit of light came back to her eyes, then. A tiny glimmer of hope, you thought.
<span class="mu-r">“I grabbed it before your lab blew up. I thought that you’d want to-”</span>
You never got to finish the sentence. Gwen shoved the pill into her pocket, stepped forward and wrapped you up into a massive bear hug. Air hissed out of your lungs as your ribcage was compressed, and your bones creaked as they rubbed against one another.
The girl was <span class="mu-s">strong</span>! Unnaturally so. You were starting to understand how she tore through that Oscorp facility so easily. All of a sudden, you weren’t so eager to see the upper limits of that strength.
Gwen seemed to understand what she was doing, because she gasped, and let you down in a hurry.
<span class="mu-g">“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry! Are you alright?”</span> she asked, her face filled with regret.
<span class="mu-r">“Oh, yeah. Super…”</span> you groaned, stretching your back and popping a few vertebrae back into place. <span class="mu-r">“By the way, have you ever heard of Doctor Connors? I think he could help you.”</span>
Her face lit up, and she gave you a bit of an incredulous look. <span class="mu-g">“Of course I know who Dr. Connors is! The guy’s a local celebrity around here.”</span> she said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. <span class="mu-g">“Plus, I’ve read his doctoral dissertation more times than I can remember. It was like, my favorite bedtime story.”</span>
Absently, you thought that this woman and your brother would get along very well. Unfortunately, that very same thought only served to drive your mind to a darker place.
<span class="mu-g">“How do <span class="mu-i">you</span> know him?”</span>
Her question broke you out of your funk once more, and you shook your head. <span class="mu-r">“I helped him out a while back, and he asked me to look into something for him. You might have to help with that.”</span>
She gave you a confused look, but before you could explain, Callisto stepped out in front of you, a terribly sharp-looking dagger flipping end over end above her hand.
You froze, and Gwen raised her shield as if to throw it. Callisto’s stance shifted, and you could tell that she was preparing to loose her knives at the slightest provocation.
(Cont.)
