Nightshift 32: Main Hallway, 1-Center

[ran_on_empty]

[From here.]He was close now

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[a_spider_can]

"He's this guy named Logan... Apparently he knows some other version of me. It's a long story, but he's a good guy. I'm pretty sure I can trust him." Taking into account some of the other people he could have been forced to share a room with in this place, Peter considered himself very lucky. He would have to introduce Harry and Logan sometime, especially since it seemed like Logan didn't actually know who Harry was.

That made Peter wonder. Did his alternate self not have Harry as a best friend? It was a strange thought, though it already seemed like the Peter Parker who Logan knew was pretty different from him.

Peter smiled under his mask at Harry's question, honestly glad to hear that he was worried for him. "No, not to me, but to a lot of other people. And there's no saying I won't be next." He didn't want to have to be such a pessimist, but it would be naive not to be in this place. While he had been figuring that Eddie's symbiote would be something that would interest the sick curiosity of the doctors here, he knew that his powers were probably just as intriguing.

"Anyway, grand tour. We could head upstairs or try to get outside for some fresh air." He tried to keep his tone light so that it seemed like he was talking about a tour through a museum rather than through a deranged hospital crawling with mutated creatures.

[littlegoblinjr]

So the guy on the bulletin board was Peter's roomie. He hadn't really said much to the guy and it was difficult at best to judge people based on what they wrote on a public board, so he really shouldn't be forming any opinions about what the guy was like. All the same, he was a inclined to dislike this 'Logan'. It was entirely possible that, whoever he was, he was taking advantage of Peter's trusting nature. His instinctive dislike of a man he'd never met had absolutely nothing to do with the fact the guy had tried to warn him off going after Brock and even less to do with the faint feeling of jealousy that Peter had found someone else to rely on in this place.

He really wasn't sure what Peter meant when he mentioned another version of himself. The only thing it brought to mind was some old episodes of Star Trek he'd never admit to having watched. "Sounds complicated, maybe I should talk to him myself, see what he has to say." His desire to speak with Peter's roommate also had nothing to do with his aforementioned lack of jealousy over whatever relationship Peter had with him.

The possibility of Peter being experimented on was something he didn't want to consider any more than the prospect that something may have already been done to him. Choosing instead to focus on the question of where to go, he responded, "Why not go outside? If there's a way out it's gotta be out there, right?" Sure, if it were that simple, Peter would have already left, but, well maybe he'd missed something.

[a_spider_can]

Meanwhile, Peter didn't think there would be any harm in introducing Harry to Logan. Considering he approved of both of them, it followed to assume that they would get along without too much of a problem. Logan was pretty open, from what he could tell, and while Harry had the tendency to cause conflicts, it seemed like he was making more of an effort to avoid that kind of behavior now, knowing where it had led him.

"Yeah, I'll point him out to you," he agreed with a nod. It might even be a better idea for them to meet up during the day, since nightshift wasn't exactly the best time for drawn-out conversations.

Once Harry mentioned going outside, Peter was about to nod yet again until he realized one very important fact. "All right, but... I haven't actually been outside before. I mean, I went through the front doors once when we went into town, and I've been in the greenhouse once, but that wasn't really outside. I know there's a courtyard, though... I just haven't been there." He was fairly confident that he knew the way to the courtyard, though, remembering when the nurses had filtered into the cafeteria from there the day of the riot.

"I'm pretty sure I know the way, though. It's through the sun room, which can get dangerous at night, so stay close." He felt bad ordering Harry around, but he had to teach him the ropes first.

[littlegoblinjr]

It looked like he would be getting the opportunity to meet the mysterious Logan at some point. In spite of the fact it had been a long time since he and Peter lived together, Harry couldn't help thinking of this guy as his replacement. He hoped he could be civil when he met Logan long enough to find a legitimate reason to dislike the man. But, he forcefully reminded himself, if Peter thought of him as a friend, then Harry had better get along with him or learn to pretend to, as once Peter had made up his mind about a person it was almost impossible to change it. God knows he'd tried enough times where Spiderman was concerned, even if that was a special case.

Harry was honestly surprised to hear that Peter hadn't been outside yet. He'd expected that Peter would have been over every inch of this place if he seriously wanted to find a way out of here. "Why haven't you gone outside? Is it that difficult to get out there?" A sudden thought occurred to him, "Wait, how long have you been here?" If Peter hadn't been here much longer than him then it might make sense he hadn't been everywhere yet. It did seem like the institute was pretty big. A through search of the kind Peter would be most likely undertake would take a while to complete.

Either way, Peter hadn't been outside yet, didn't think it was a bad idea to go out there, and had told him which direction to go. When Peter felt the need to warn him about the sun room he almost asked him just which one of them had saved the others life not once, but twice. But, then he'd get that awful, wounded look of Peter's, the one that made Harry want to do anything to get rid of it, be it introducing him to a famous scientist he respected or buying him some new piece of technology he'd never be able to afford on his own.

He settled for calling back cockily "Sure thing, Spidey. Why don't you watch my back?" as he headed towards the oh-so-terrible sun room. He was determined to show Peter he was just as capable as the bug at this sort of thing. He might be half blind but he was far from being a liability. Even in a place like this, where the biggest threat seemed to be the lack of light.

[a_spider_can]

"About a week?" Peter guessed. It was long enough that he was starting to get more than a little antsy, but at least he had his bearings to an extent. This specific situation just proved that he needed to get his hands on some of the maps he had seen being passed around, but that could be a project left until the next day.

"I just haven't gotten around to it," he explained. He caught Harry's implication, of course, but the fact of the matter was that it wasn't easy to cover much ground each night when there were battles to be fought every step of the way. In any case, there was no better time than the present to see what there was out there, even though his hopes weren't too high.

Though when Harry started for the sun room without a sliver of hesitation, Peter fought the urge to call after him before ditching that idea and instead just making sure to follow closely. There was bound to be something in there, and they would just have to face it together.

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