#update 12

[mortisbane]

Destination Zero

Memories - Ezra - Secrets

Ezra’s always had a knack for snooping, and being stranded on an alien world in an abandon Star Destroyer is no deterrent.

[prophetandprincess]

X X X X X X X

It’s slow going, but I haven’t abandoned this fic I promise! Life and original fiction are keeping me from getting a lot of progress done. However, after seeing Endgame I have SO MANY IDEAS for where Alex is going to go. Don’t you worry

Alex was surprised how close Peter lived to the Malone's as she followed Google Maps to the address that he had texted her. Peter, due to his sudden and unexplained departure that afternoon, had left his clothes in her bathroom so Alex had washed and dried them when she did her own laundry. After her little pity party on the couch, she decided that the easiest thing to do to make herself feel better was clean the apartment. Once she started, she couldn't stop, and when she left everything was spotless. Her heart still ached, but she did feel a little calmer.

The Parker house was a rather charming row house, practical in a neighborhood as crowded as Queens. Alex made sure she had the right address before mounting the steps and pressing the doorbell. She could see movement through the glass door, but it took a moment before it was opened.

"Oh, hello. You must be Alex," the woman at the door said with a kind smile, wiping her hands on a dish towel. "Peter has told me so much about you. Please, come in."

"And you must be Aunt May, it's nice to meet you." Alex gave her best farm girl smile as she walked inside. "Peter said that you were working at the hospital today, I hope us being here isn't too much trouble. I brought some wine to go with dinner."

Aunt May was about four inches shorter than Alex, with brown hair streaked with grey, and soft brown eyes. There was some family resemblance between her and Peter, mostly in the eyes, and Alex liked May instantly. Without even trying, she had made Alex feel safe and comfortable, which was no small feat these days. May had to be an excellent nurse.

"Oh, not at all dear," May laughed as she accepted the bottle of wine. "Peter said he wanted to order in, but spaghetti and meatballs isn't all that hard to make. This wine will go perfectly with it. Peter is finishing something up in his room, why don't you just go up? I already called up to let him know you were here, but apparently I'm chopped liver. Dinner will be ready soon."

Alex gave her a smile before excusing herself and heading up the narrow staircase. It wasn't hard to figure out which room was Peter's, it was the one with the door closed. She knocked. There was some shuffling, a crash, some cursing, and then the door opened a crack to reveal a very flustered Peter Parker.

"Harper, hey, hi, right, we were supposed to work on the project tonight," Peter said, looking up and down the hallway as if he hadn't expected her at all.

"Everything alright in there?" Alex asked with a board grin, tilting her head to the side. "I hope I didn't interrupt anything?"

"What? No, no of course not. Just…give me a second," Peter closed the door and then opened it again, "Please."

Alex shook her head as she stood in the darken hallway after the door closed again, taking a minute to look at the family photos that were hung on the wall. There was Peter from chubby cheeked child to lanky teenager and then a well-proportioned adult. Aunt May didn't go through as dramatic a transformation, but one did happen, along with a man that Alex had to assume was Peter's uncle. Once again she wondered what happened to Peter's parents, even though it really wasn't her place to ask such a painful question, she couldn't help but be curious.

"Alright, come on in," Peter said as he threw the door open all the way, smiling. "Sorry about that, but it was a bit of a mess."

"And you've cleaned?" Alex asked as she walked into the chaos that was Peter's bedroom. The bed was made, which was probably what he had been doing while she waited in the hallway. That was the only organized and clean area in the whole cramped room. Papers, books, and piles of clothing were everywhere. Then again, Alex hadn't exactly been keeping her apartment clean recently, so who was she to judge.

"So, this midterm project, have you even looked at it yet? Because, I'm going to be honest with you, I might have lost the paper," Peter plopped down on his desk chair and indicated that Alex was welcome to the bed.

"I've looked over the instructions like…once? I know that there is a paper that needs to be written and raw data that we need to run through…something?" Alex dropped her backpack and reached into it for her binder, pulling out Peter's shirt and jeans. "You forgot these earlier, by the way."

"Right, sorry," Peter took the clothes and after digging a paper out of the jeans pocket, he tossed them into a hamper across the room. "This is for you, by the way. I meant to give it to you earlier. I hope the ink hasn't run too badly."

"What is it?" Alex asked as she took the slip of paper and was able to read a pretty badly smudged phone number. "Are you trying to set me up with a date or with a therapist?"

"While you probably need both, neither. There was this girl posting flyers at the student union, apparently she needs some cash and fluent in Russian. She seemed cool and I know you're stressed about that class so," Peter shrugged as he rummaged for his biochemistry notebook. "The paper part of this project shouldn't be too much of a problem, but running all this data, we're going to need some time with the specialized computers in the lab."

"I'll look into getting us some dedicated time," Alex quickly braided her hair as she looked over the assignment sheet. "We can get most of this paper done without even looking at the data. The introduction and lit review sections should be a piece of cake, and we can probably a bit of the method section done as well."

"Except if we miss even a period, Warren is going to dock us the maximum number of points," Peter sighed as he grabbed a pen and started scribbling notes. "So, how do you want to divide this up?"

Over the next half an hour, they carefully read through the project, decided on a game plan, and divided up the work. Alex was actually starting to feel that this assignment might not be too painful, if they stayed on top of it. Peter even started to make an outline when Alex got off the bed to stretch, coming to look over his shoulder while his fingers flew over the keyboard. Her eyes landing on a framed picture to the right of the monitor, a pretty blonde smiling at something out of the shot.

"Girlfriend?" Alex asked as she picked up the frame. Peter has never mentioned that he was dating, but Alex also had never asked. Maybe it was a long distance relationship? High School sweethearts that went to different colleges?

"Ah," Peter's eyes slid away from the screen and then back at the computer, though his fingers didn't start moving again. "She used to be."

There was something in the way that Peter spoke, the tone of his voice and the articulation of the words that made Alex's heart drop. The girl in the picture, whoever she was, had died. Peter didn't have to say anything else for her to know that. Alex wanted to ask so many things, but all of them were completely insensitive. Instead, she studied the picture, the wide smile and carefree attitude. Her heart ached for Peter. She knew James was still alive, he was calling her and she could still hear his voice. He wasn't gone forever, well in a permanent sense at least. Peter didn't have that burden, whether it was a blessing or a curse.

"What was her name?" Alex set the picture frame down, her hand gripping onto the back of the chair as a sign of being there for him.

"Gwen," Peter's voice was so soft, Alex barely heard him. "Her name was Gwen."

Peter smiled a little as he looked at the picture, a finger reaching out to trace the outline of Gwen's face. He had loved her, a lot. It was written on every line of his body and the way tears welled up a little in the corner of his eyes. Alex understood that feeling well, the ache that made it almost impossible to breathe.

"Peter!" Aunt May called, making them both jump. "Dinner is ready."

"Do you need help with anything?" Alex asked as they came down the stairs to see Aunt May set a basket of garlic bread on the table. A wave of homesickness hit Alex, which she hadn't expected. She missed family dinners at the farmhouse, the dogs fighting to get what little space there was underneath the table in case anything dropped.

"I do," May smiled as she headed back toward the kitchen. "Peter, come and help me in the kitchen. Alex is our guest and should help herself."

Peter shot Alex a look, but followed his Aunt into the kitchen. Alex sat down and started to load her plate up with pasta, salad, bread, and meatballs. Her mouth was watering from just the smell of the garlic bread. Other than when she went out with Steve, the most nutritious thing Alex had to eat at her apartment was hot pockets. It was easy to hear a whispered conversation going on in the kitchen, probably about her, but she attempted to ignore it.

"Sorry for the wait, I needed help with the cork," Aunt May said as she and Peter came back into the dining room. The blush on Peter's cheeks made it obvious the wine cork wasn't all that had been giving him grief.

"It's alright, I've just been sitting here trying not to eat all the food. It looks delicious." Alex gave Peter a knowing smile, tilting her head to the side and raising an eyebrow while he filled her wine glass. Peter just gave her a little head shake before going over to fill the rest of the glasses.

"So, Alex, tell me about yourself," Aunt May said as she sat down, ignoring Peter's groan. "What? I want to know about your friends. You rarely bring them over to the house."

Over a very delicious meal, Alex gave Aunt May the parent approved version of her past. It wasn't as exciting without the motorcycle gang, string of criminal ex-boyfriends, and all the other torrid things she had done in her youth, but May looked intrigued and asked questions now and again. May even told some stories of her own from the hospital where she worked.

"I've always told myself that I really should take a basic first aid course," Alex said as she helped herself to another helping of food. "I took a course back when I was a Girl Scout for a badge, but I don't really remember much and I have a lot of clumsy friends."

"I would be more than happy to teach you a thing or two. These days, with Peter out of the house so much, I'm always trying to find something to keep busy." Aunt May laughed. "But maybe you should tell your friends to be a bit more careful."

Alex and Peter shared a look over their wine glasses, but chose to keep their comments to themselves. She hadn't meant Peter specifically, in fact, though the shoes probably felt extremely well. No, it was the face of the dead girl the year before had prompted the statement, but it was still fun to make Peter squirm a bit. Even if May knew that he was Spider-Man, which was not a conversation to have over meatballs, Alex doubted that Peter told her everything about his time crime-fighting.

"Honestly, Peter, I don't know what I'm going to do when you move out." May patted his hand before taking starting to collect the dirty dishes. "I've spent so long looking after you, it's basically been another full-time job."

"You're going to be just fine," Peter laughed. "You're going to go to loads of parties and on hot dates and forget all about me. I'll be getting snapchats of you dancing on top of tables and doing body shots."

"Snap what?" Aunt May looked confused at the door of the kitchen, looking from Alex to Peter. They both broke out laughing.

"It's an app," Peter explained as he helped clean up the table while Alex finished up her second plate of food.

Alex wondered if Peter had told Aunt May about the application for the foreign exchange program or not. They only had each other and seemed very open with one another, but Alex also knew how hard it was to tell your family something that you knew they weren't going to support. When she was accepted to NYU and her parents told her they weren't comfortable with her going to New York, Alex kind of just left the house one day with her things and gave them a call from the airport.

Peter was still attempting to explain what Snapchat was when they returned to the dining room, carrying plates of chocolate cake. After topping up their wine glasses, explanation resumed, and by the end of their meal they had taken a couple pictures together with filters. They had to stop when one of the filters made them look as if they were in a Funhouse mirror and Aunt May laughed so hard she started crying.

"Okay, okay," Peter wiped his own eyes and put his own phone away. "We have to finish a few more things for this assignment before it gets too late."

"Is this that Professor that's giving you a hard time?" Aunt May's voice had a little bite as she finished cleaning up the dining room. "Do I have to call and speak with him?"

"You know," Peter said as he ate the last piece of his cake with his fingers, "that might not be a bad idea."

"Peter, really!" May chided before turning to Alex. "I swear that he had manners as a child. I don't know where he gets this from. I'm sure your boyfriend isn't such a slob."

"Aunt May," Peter groaned, mouth full of chocolate cake and some icing on his lips.

"I don't have a boyfriend and my previous relationships have left a lot to be desired in terms of manners," Alex gave May a smile. There was something kind of endearing about adults embarrassing their children, especially when it was someone else getting embarrassed.

"Oh, did you hear that Peter? She's single." Aunt May gave him a look before disappearing into the kitchen.

"We're never speaking about this ever again." Peter was practically pink, rubbing his hand over his face. "Never. Those last couple minutes never happened."

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Parker." Alex smiled brightly before she got to her feet.

"Thank you," Peter finished his wine.

"Sure thing." Alex gave him a pat on the shoulder as she got up from her chair. "I totally won't bring up the fact that your aunt basically just asked me out on your behalf to benefit me in some way in the future. The thought never even crossed my mind."

Peter groaned as he slid to his feet and started up the stairs. Honestly, Alex was a little flattered that Aunt May deemed her worthy of Peter's affections. She seemed very protective and Alex didn't exactly look like the girl next door. Not like Gwen, who Peter had obviously been in love with. Maybe May was desperate for Peter to be happy in whatever form he could find.

They worked for another couple hours before they really couldn't get any further on the project without the data and doing some research. Both of them were also dead tired and had spent the last half hour complaining about everything they had to do instead of actually doing it. As Alex started to pack up, she hoped that the alcohol and the mental strain she would be able to sleep once she got home.

"I should probably get going," Alex said as she got to her feet and stretched. "I would hate to overstay my welcome."

"I'll walk you home," Peter jumped to his feet in some fluid movement, not a pop or a crack from his joints. Apparently doing acrobatic routines that would make Cirque du Soleil jealous while fighting crime made him immune to the same joint problems everyone else had.

"You don't need to do that." Alex laughed as she headed for the bedroom door. "It's only a couple of blocks to the subway station and it's just a hop, skip, and jump to my apartment. No need for you to waste an hour or so of your life."

"Hop, skip, and a jump? That's adorable and very Midwest of you," Peter pulled on a hoodie and followed her down the stairs. "Besides, I can get you home a lot faster than the subway, with a much better view of the city."

"I mean, we're still due for that conversation about...well...you know," Alex pointed out, trailing off when Aunt May got off the couch and walked over to them.

"There is a container of chocolate cake on the kitchen counter for you," May said with a smile. "It was nice to meet you, though I have to admit, you're not what I expected. When Peter talked about his brilliant lab partner I was thinking of someone more…"

"Normal? Not tattooed and had more metal in her ears that some common household appliances? Yeah, I get that a lot," Alex laughed, leaning against the banister while Peter tugged on his shoes. "And between the two of us, Peter is the brilliant one. I'm copying his notes half the time."

"That's only because you're asleep half the time," Peter pointed out. "Come on, we'll head out the back door so you can collect that cake."

Peter kissed Aunt May on the cheek before leading Alex through the house and out the back door, swiping the cake on the way. It actually felt like an autumn night, the air cold and crisp, as they walked into the postage stamp backyard. Instead of heading out of the gate, Peter waved Alex over to a little shed.

"How do you work like this?" Alex asked as they stepped into what was obviously a small workshop, taking in the chaos around her.

"I've been kind of busy recently, so housekeeping hasn't been my main priority," Peter rubbed the back of his neck as Alex pushed some things on the work table around to get a better look.

"I feel like even if you had all the time in the world, it would still look like this," Alex laughed.

"Okay, that's true, but also rude," Peter walked over and sat down on his little red stool, wheeling over to whatever he was working on underneath a illuminated magnifying glass.

Alex realized that the workshop was a visual representation of Peter's brain, scattered and crowded, but sprinkled with brilliance and all working toward a purpose. The current purpose was new wristlets that seemed to hold his webbing material and it seemed like a very complex operation. They were delicate little devices, the small mechanisms the reason he had to work on them underneath magnification. Delicate mechanical operations were not Alex's forte, but she bet Monica would be drooling at the mouth to see the interworking on Peter's gear.

"Why are you making a new set?" Alex asked as she leaned in closer so she could watch him work.

"These ones," Peter flashed his wrists to show his current set, "are good, but I am trying to improve the accuracy and holding capacity. Right now, they can only hold two canisters, which puts me in a sticky situation for a long battle or a lot of swinging. I want to be able to carry up to five canisters, as well as adding a few other tricks and upgrades. Unfortunately, between crime and school work, it's been slow going."

"You'd think criminals would be more conscious of your GPA." Alex watched fascinated as Peter picked up a small screwdriver and tightened something. She had a hard time understanding how such a clumsy man could do such delicate work.

"They are so inconsiderate sometimes," Peter laughed softly, not looking away from his work.

"So," Alex turned around to study the rest of the little bits in the shed, "when are we going to talk about how you became a superhero? Get sick of kids making fun of you for taking gymnastics so you started fighting crime?"

"It's a long story," Peter sighed as he traded out the screwdriver for a tiny spray can of something, "but the short version is that I got bit by a radioactive spider and now I have super powers."

"Please tell me that you're joking," Alex said with a small laugh.

Peter just looked up at her and gave a little shake of his head. Alex didn't know how to process that information. It just sparked so many questions. The first question being where the hell did he run into a radioactive spider. This was New York, and it wasn't the cleanest city in the world, but radioactive spider was a little out there. Plague ridden rat, she would be able to believe. The second question was more of her scientific mind at work, how did a spider bite give him powers and not just kill him?

"Well, that just reinforces my rule of never trusting those eight legged, eight eyed bastards," Alex finally said with a shrug. "Like, who needs that many legs and eyes? It's excessive."

Peter stopped working and looked up at her, surprise written all over his face. Alex just tilted her head a little and raised an eyebrow, wondering why her distrust of spiders was so surprising. It was like God designed them to be evil. Then Peter just started laughing, pushing away from his work and running his hands through his hair.

"What about you?" Peter asked as he got up, apparently no longer needing something to do with his hands, and turned off the light.

"What about me?" Alex had no idea what he was talking about. "Last time I checked, being able to stand you wasn't a superpower. Unless you're talking about walking in heels and a short dress?. It's not exactly scaling walls."

"I mean, depending on who you ask, both are super powers," Peter pointed out as he locked up the shed, "but what I meant was you said 'not again' when you unmasked me. Do you make it a point of ruining people's secret identities? If so, I'm sure that NYPD would love to give you a job."

"No, but I have a bad habit of finding them out, without meaning to. Honestly, the less I have to do with superheroes, the better."

"You work at Stark Industries, under Dr. Banner. That's like an alcoholic walking into a bar and just sitting there looking at the bottles," Peter shook his head. "You're a very strange woman, Alexandra Harper. Honestly, I'm starting to worry about your overall sanity."

"Says the man who just told me he was bitten by a radioactive spider and, instead of going to a hospital, decided to fight crime in spandex instead," Alex laughed. She understood where Peter was coming from, but she really and truly didn't want anything to do with superheroes or Hydra. Stark Industries was purely for her career, not because she wanted to be around the Avengers. Why couldn't people separate the two? Hundred of people worked for Stark Industries who never even laid eyes on the Avengers.

"It's…it is a little bit more complicated than that," Peter sighed as they got to the front of the house. "I'm going to run in and see if Aunt May needs me to pick anything up before we head out. Give me a second."

Alex waited at the bottom of the porch steps as Peter slip back inside. There was the flash from the television, but Aunt May must have been asleep or laying down on the couch since Alex couldn't see her head. Peter's face softened and he pulled the blanket from the back of the couch and presumably draped it over her. It was all very sweet. Alex wondered why Peter wanted to go to London when it was obvious he was devoted to his aunt.

"Come on, let's get going," Peter said as he came back out, locking the door behind him. "It's freezing out."

"You don't have to walk me, you know," Alex went to playfully punch Peter's shoulder. Peter's hand shot out and grabbed onto her wrist. It wasn't painful, but it stopped her from touching him. They looked at each other in shock.

"Sorry, sorry, quick reflexes," Peter let go of her just as quickly and looked embarrassed. "It's part of my powers, I can kind of sense things coming at me."

"Like…spider senses?" Alex tried to recover from her shock. Even though she knew he was Spider-man, it was easy to forget that he even had powers.

"Like what?" Peter asked, head tilted to the side.

"Well, whenever something is about to happen, you said you know beforehand. Like you sense it," Alex explained, though it was difficult to get out and she felt her cheeks heating up. "You're Spider-man, you have these senses, so their spider senses…spidey senses…Oh, never mind."

"Spidey senses…I kind of like it," Peter gave her a crooked smile as they walked toward the subway, "but don't ever say that in front of anyone else, though."

"Obviously," Alex smiled giving his shoulder a little shove, which he allowed this time. Who the hell else was she going to say it to? No one else knew that Peter was Spider-Man, but there was no reason arguing with him about it.

"I really like your aunt, but the way. She reminds me a bit of my mom, without the bite."

"I can't even imagine your mother," Peter laughed as they walked toward the subway station. "Like all I see is a carbon copy of you with like an apron and a rolling pin. It's a little disturbing."

"Grace Ann Harper is shorter than I am, a bit wider, has blonde hair streaked with grey, and a shotgun beside the back door that she can hit a groundhog with at 500 feet without even breaking a sweat," Alex explained with a smile. Again, a wave of unexpected homesickness washed over her. The small town and farm had always felt so stifling to her as a child, but it had really let her get herself together during the summer.

"Remind me not to stand at your back door," Peter smiled as he dug his cell phone out of his pocket, frowning at the screen. "Hey, there is something I have to do…"

"Okay, that's fine. Like I said, you don't need to walk me," Alex didn't like the serious look on Peter's face. "Is something wrong?"

"Oh, there might be a small bank robbery that I need to stop, nothing major," Peter said as if he was mentioning stopping by to let a friend's dog out. "I can't let you walk home alone, thought, not after the other night. I'm just going to take you with me and leave you somewhere safe while I deal with this. It's no big deal."

"Excuse me? Are you insane?" Alex stopped walking, making Peter look at her. "How do you even know that there is a bank robbery happening?"

"I get the police updates on my phone." Peter put his arm around her shoulder, starting to move her down the sidewalk again.

"If the police know about it, why not just let them handle it?" Alex asked, though she let herself be dragged along.

"I don't have time to explain right now, but the weapons these guys are using are bad news bears. I'm better equipped to take care of it than the boys in blue." Peter looked around to see if anyone else was on the sidewalk. "You're going to be so mad about this."

Before Alex could say anything else, Peter picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. There was no time to even scream before they were catapulting up into the air. Her stomach settled in her mouth, but she stayed very still. From what she could see, they were suddenly very high off the ground and she didn't want to know what it felt like to be free falling toward the pavement. The whole experience was like being on the worst rollercoaster Alex could imagine without a seatbelt, rising and falling at inconsistent intervals.

Finally, the ride stopped and Alex opened her eyes to see that she was on the solid ground of a roof. Peter set Alex down softly, but her limbs were shaking so badly that she grabbed onto his neck to keep herself upright.

"You're choking me," Peter croaked as he pried her arms off his neck.

"Are you insane?" Alex finally got out, not sure how she was standing or where in the city she was. Looking for a landmark, her eyes focused on Stark Tower glowing in the distance. They somehow had gotten to Upper Manhattan in a matter of moments. The Hudson River was very close, but that still didn't make Alex feel as if she had any idea what was going on.

"You can yell at me later." Peter stripped out of his clothes in record speed.

Alex wasn't sure if she should watch him or look away, even though it was obvious that he had his suit on underneath his t-shirt and jeans. Was he ever not wearing that thing? It had to smell if that was the case, spandex was not a breathable material. Before she could even form any these thoughts into a question, Peter was tugged on his mask from his back pocket of his jeans, threw all the clothes at Alex, and leaping off the edge of the building.

It took Alex a couple heartbeats to figure out what happened, Peter's crumpled clothes in her arms, blinking up at the night sky. Curiosity finally pulled her over to the side of the roof to take in the scene below. There was a Chase Bank on the corner, surrounded by cop cars and officers trying to block off the area from bystanders. Peter was nowhere to be seen, but that was to be expected.

Now that Alex's stomach was settling back in it's appropriate position, she was cold and pissed. How dare Peter just pick her up like a sack of flour and drag her wherever he saw fit. Not only that, he had thrown his clothes at her! Alex wanted to drop them, but she couldn't bring herself to do it, so she folded them angrily instead. When Peter got back, she was going to tell him exactly what she thought about Spider-Man.

The sound of gunshots rang out and people down on the street screamed. Alex felt as if ice water had been dropped over her and the clothes slipped out of her fingers. She blinked and Nadia was pointing a gun at her, smiling as she pulled the trigger. It was a year ago, but all that fear and adrenaline and hate was coursing through her body as if she was right there.

The next time Alex was aware of herself, whatever happened down at the bank was over. A couple of officers were walking the supposed criminals out of the bank, hands behind their back, and white webbing all over their clothes. There were a couple unmarked cars among the flashing lights and even though she was far away, Alex could have sworn she saw Officer Sousa down on the sidewalk. How long had she just been standing there?

"It was all really excessive. Like, first of all, who robs banks with electric powered ray guns, which were thankfully malfunctioning, and hand grenades? Seriously?" Peter's voice came behind her, obviously in the middle of a rant she hadn't heard any of.

Alex spun around to see Peter pacing behind her, still in his suit, though he had pulled the mask off. Black soot was covering the spandex, which meant that at least one of the grenades had probably gone off, and there was a good sized rip in the right shoulder. Peter opened his mouth to say something else, but stopped when he saw her expression.

"Is everything okay?" Peter walked over, putting his hands on her shoulders and held on a little tighter when he felt her trembling. "I know that swinging isn't for everyone, especially when you aren't used to it, but I thought you'd be fine. Oh, wait, are you scared of heights? I didn't even think about that. Sorry, if you are, I mean, I'll keep that in mind for the future. Not that I think I'll just throw you over my shoulder again in the future, as I think you might punch me, but these things are good to know. Alright, I'm really starting to get worried because you haven't told me to shut up."

"How long were you down there?" Alex asked, trying to figure out how much time she had lost.

"Oh, maybe fifteen to twenty minutes, at the most." Peter was gently rubbing her arms, speaking softly, concern written all over his face. "Why?"

"I…I dropped your clothes," Alex looked down at the pile on the edge of the roof. "Sorry about that."

"Don't worry about it." Peter tilted his head to the side. Alex just gave him a little head shake of not now he let go of her and picked the items in question up.

"We should probably get out of here before the police start looking for you." Alex did not feel like explaining, even if she could explain this new fun thing her mind was doing. She felt numb and hollow and was having a hard time pulling herself back into reality, even now.

"You're not wrong. Come on, I'll give you a piggyback swing back home." Peter still looked extremely concerned, but there was a small smile on his face.

"Speaking of which, if you try to throw me over your shoulder like that again, I will break every one of your fingers until they light up like the little radioactive glow sticks that they are," Alex said, managing a shaky smile.

Peter watched her for a second longer before pulling on his clothes, tucking his mask into his back pocket. After getting everything situated, Peter crouched down and Alex got onto his back. There was some adjusting from Peter, mostly loosening the grip on his neck and shifting her legs on his hips. As Alex didn't want to fall to her death, she didn't make too many sounds of protest.

"I don't know if it's going to be better for you with your eyes open or closed, but we're about to jump," Peter said over his shoulder.

Before Alex could make a decision of what would be best, Peter ran and leapt off the roof. After getting used to the free falling aspect of it, which made her reflexively made her close her eyes, Alex enjoyed watching the city fly by around her. It took almost no time for Peter to be gently setting Alex down in an alley near her building.

"I could have just walked home," Alex said as they both adjusted their clothes and walked out onto the sidewalk. It probably looked suspect to anyone who saw them appear, faces flushed and clothes askew.

"You get in trouble when you're with a group of friends. I'm not going to let you out on your own," Peter laughed.

Alex was too tired to argue as she noticed that there were a number of cop cars outside the building. Fear gripped her and Alex started running toward the front door. What if something happened to Monica? Peter didn't ask any questions, just ran with her and they busted into the lobby.

"Miss Harper, oh thank god you weren't in your apartment. I didn't see you come in, but I was so worried I had missed you and…" Henry was explained in a hurried voice as he came over to Alex and Peter. "Oh, I'm so glad you're alright."

"What happened? Is Monica alright?" Alex asked in just as hurried a voice, speaking over the older man.

"Miss LeBlanc? She's fine, other than being worried about you." Henry seemed confused by the question.

"Why would she be worried about Alex?" Peter asked, the only one not completely panicked at the moment.

"Because it looks like a wild animal tore her apartment to shreds. It's a mess and we have no idea who did it," Henry explained, looking more worried than Alex had ever seen him. "I have no idea what could do something like that. It's almost supernatural."

[thisstoryismadewithmind]

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Bethesda veröffentlichte heute „One Tamriel“ und Update 12 zu „The Elder Scrolls Online“ für Xbox One, PS4 und dem PC. Willkommen zu „One Tamriel“, einer Welt voller unbegrenzter Möglichkeiten – jetzt live mit Update 12. „One Tamriel“ erlaubt es euch, überall und zu jeder Zeit frei mit jedem zu spielen, indem die Stufe eures Charakter stets an die jeweiligen Inhalte angepasst wird. Das bedeutet, ihr könnt mit euren Freunden gemeinsam spielen, ganz gleich welchen Allianzen diese angehören. Und das Beste daran, dieses Update ist für alle ESO-Spieler kostenlos!

[gamingphanatic]

The Elder Scrolls Online – One Tamriel Launch Trailer!

The Elder Scrolls Online – One Tamriel Launch Trailer!

Welcome to One Tamriel, where you can adventure without limits, now available in Update 12. One Tamriel allows you to play anywhere, with anyone, at any time by scaling your character to the level of the content in every almost zone of the game. That means you can play with your friends regardless of their level or alliance. And best of all, this update is completely free to all ESO players! The…

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[isriana]

I, uh... Certainly you are not thinking about going to, say, Craglorn and expecting your level 10 character to be just as powerful as someone CP 300-500 who has been playing the game for a year or two? If that would be the case, then why even bother leveling at all? Much of the end game is about gathering Champion Points and distributing them in ways that unlock new abilities or enhance your existing skills. If you take away the need for improving your skills, abilities, and your character in general then what’s left, really?

The point is that all zones are now doable. If you wish to explore an area that was previously much higher level, you can do it. Not as efficiently or gracefully as someone with a truckload of Champion Points to boost their existing skills, perhaps, but you can go there and not die when an enemy gives you a mean look. It used to be that even your assigned map might have been hazardous at lower levels - make one wrong turn at level 7 and find yourself surrounded by a mob of level 15 enemies. Been there, done that, respawned at a wayshrine, and went back to questing in a more linear fashion to avoid that happening again. And that is something this update fixes.

More under the cut because this turned out lengthy, and I want to spare those of you who are not playing TESO. Anyway, here goes.

Personally, I find One Tamriel quite wonderful. I have a habit of completing every zone 100%, and before this update it was actually more of a hindrance than a benefit because you would easily outgrow your zone due to extra xp from exploring all nooks and crannies. So, by the time you got to the next map chances were that you were too high level to get any real reward from the stuff you did there. Imagine having a half of your journal full of grayed out quests, so when you do them you get maybe 20 gold, a tiniest sprinkle of xp, and an item that might have been useful to you eight levels ago. Very motivating.

I actually stopped doing Aldmeri Dominion quests with Meirami for a long while because of this. Earlier this year the Thieves Guild DLC was launched. Naturally I was eager to experience it and so I jumped to Hew’s Bane as early as level 12. It was doable, the scaling worked, and I survived the fights even with my severely limited skills, and could enjoy the story to my heart’s content. What I didn't consider, however, was how this would impact the rest of my gaming experience. The xp gained from the DLC meant that by the time I returned to AD main quest, I was seriously overleveled for anything I was supposed to do. I breezed through two zones like that until I finally stopped in Greenshade, a level 39 Nightblade in a level 21-34 zone and basically went ”Khajiit has had enough.” And now, finally, with this update I can resume to that adventure and have something meaningful to do - with actually challenging fights and quest rewards that are worth picking up.

That is, at least to me, one of the best things in this update. No matter where you go, no matter what you do, you will always get quests, rewards, and even mats appropriate to your level. With One Tamriel you should actually be able to level your characters faster because you always get the optimal amount of xp from whatever it is you’re doing. No more worrying about being in the right area or doing things in this specific order to make the most of the available xp and rewards.

Also, for a moment imagine this from the CP160+ player's point of view. If you want to play PvE you used to have one or two maps and maybe DLC areas where you could actually play properly. So, those were the zones you would grind to ad nauseam, because why go to Glenumbra or some other place where wolves and bandits die from a light slap? You gain nothing from it, except maybe the satisfaction of frying an entire low level mob with a single AoE spell. That, too, gets old after a while. But now, any place I go with Noelie is scaled to 160 for me, and honestly it's so refreshing to actually play on other areas after such a long time. I've been sitting in Wrothgar since June and now I jump from map to map, and zone to zone, fighting bosses for Witches Festival. And I'm not the only one.

This update has brought so much life to zones that previously had hardly any players. Due to the nature of leveling in this game you used to have essentially 2-3 highly populated maps (usually the starter zone, the alliance capital zone, and the final zone for your alliance) and the rest felt almost as if they had been abandoned. People would play through Rivenspire, for example, head to the next map, and then never look back again - which is a pity because it’s one of the more distinct Breton areas with its own unique feel. Similarly, when I was playing through Malabar Tor I actually felt like I was alone in that forest because you hardly came across anyone in that part of the map. That can be enjoyable, too, but considering that this game is an MMO, it’s not necessarily a very encouraging sign to stumble upon a half empty map. Previously entire zones were rendered pretty much irrelevant because there was no reason to linger there once you had reached the level cap for the area. I feel like One Tamriel has brought a lot more players into all zones - particularly those that previously saw little to no action. Good thing, too, because with more challenging world bosses you can really benefit from having more people fighting beside you.

Which is another great thing – actual Ebonheart Pact players on Ebonheart Pact zones (what a concept, haha). Previously, no matter where you went even during Cadwell's Silver or Gold, all other players you'd find on that area were of your own alliance. Now, the bars are finally lifted, and you can actually see players from other factions. More importantly, you can group with them and do quests together. I've lost count how many times in a multi-faction guild someone was looking for players to do content with, and then it was like ”Hey, I want to come, please invite.” ”Oh, but you're EP? I'm DC.” ”Aww, I don't have DC character of right level for that.” ”Oh well, next time then.” Doesn’t matter if you want to group with other alliance players, or just meet a friend's character who happened to pick a different side than you, it's all possible at last. Now the challenge is just to be online at the same time.

Some other good things brought by this update... Changing servers now requires literally one click. There are bunch of new sets unique to each area which also encourages people to go adventuring to those less populated areas. A lot of loot dropping from bosses and stuff gained from reward chests is no longer bind-on-pickup (I mean, I have done Wrothgar dailies for months and I have like 30 bound Briarheart and Trinimac set pieces in my bank that are virtually useless to me for time being – finally I can actually sell any new stuff I gain). I’m also really looking forward to playing Craglorn which I couldn’t really do before because you had to find a group of people who were in the same quest stage as you in order to get anything done. Oh, and weapon ultimates! I do love the one I got for my Destro staff. There's probably some other stuff I'm forgetting, but I think my stance on this update has become clear enough by now.

So, tl;dr: I really like One Tamriel. It feels like this is how it should’ve been from the start.

[esoitalia]

PAX WEST 2016: Novità

PAX WEST 2016: ecco tutte le novità in arrivo per ESO!

Durante la conferenza di Elder Scrolls Online al PAX West, gli sviluppatori ZeniMax hanno risposto a varie domande del pubblico su cosa aspettarsi da One Tamriel quando arriverà. Degni di nota i checkpoint di teletrasporto per trial e dungeon, con modalità normal e veteran complete, 30 set oggetti specifici per zona o dungeon oltre ad eventi festivi incluso uno di halloween. Interessanti anche i…

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[uesp]

Update 12

This is a friendly reminder that if you play ESO on PC/Mac and have the PTS installed, Update 12 dropped for testing today. It is a BIG update, so get ‘er done early!

We at UESP will work extra hard to get everything updated, but a lot of things changed, it seems. Please excuse the transition. :)