Day 10: Ridesharing and Disruptive Innovation

The Baxter Building
Day 10 PGR

The after-party was largely breaking up. Johnny, Jen, and Mary Jane were all still talking in one corner. Stark was talking to Steve Rogers, Janet, Carol, and Doctor Blake in another. Ben had just said his goodbyes and scooped up the remains of the bar's contents in one large bag, for recycling.

Gwen had found herself hanging close to Jean and Kitty. Kitty seemed fine with that. Gwen sort of got the feeling Kitty took most things in stride, these days. Jean...

Jean seemed... almost relieved, honestly.

"So where are you staying, at this point?" Kitty was asking Gwen.

"Wh-- oh! Mary Jane's got a spare bedroom in her apartment. We just sort of... became roommates. Which is a serious relief. If I were trying to find a place to live in the middle of all of this..."

"I'll bet," Jean said. "Who'd you ride over with?"

"Huh -- oh, Stark sent a van around. He brought that whole team, and they all know Mary Jane... I guess I missed the return trip."

"Eh -- come with us," Kitty said. "We can decide if we wanna make a later night of it or something or just drop you off."

"Wh-- oh, I couldn't put you out like that," Gwen said.

"You're not," Jean said. "Honestly, I'm... just liking the chance to talk to someone else..."

"Who's recently in the 'grey jeans' club?" Gwen asked, wryly.

Jean laughed. "Exactly. C'mon. Let's go camp out at the taxi stand."

"What?" Kitty asked. "No -- nuh uh. I'll get us something on Lyft." She fished her phone out of her pocket. "I'll make my round of goodbyes on the way -- that's the weird thing about being in the Xavier position. Suddenly I'm the one who has to be all 'thank you ever so much for having us.'"

"That. That's the weird thing," Jean said, grinning.

"You know it." Kitty scampered off.

"She's getting us a ride... on an app. Because... taxi stands are for losers." Gwen shook her head ruefully. "I'm never getting caught up with all this. I'm still impressed by Wikipedia. And we had Wikipedia."

"Yeah, well. You had Starbucks, too. And yet goodness, you tried to order coffee and got a Frappucino?"

Gwen paused, then grinned. "It was a good example. Something to bring it home to people. Even if I'd had most of that drink order three days before the bridge incident."

"No worries. It did bring it home... in a way that makes more sense to people who are used to 'apps' already." Jean smiled a bit more. "It's... actually a bit easier on me than I claimed, as well -- but only because I have my time-displaced self's memories now. She had a chance to get used to this year, and I benefit. Which doesn't make 'Spotify' a word, no matter what anyone claims." She looked over to where Kitty was laughing with Johnny and Steve. "That's not nearly as weird as being around Kitty, to be perfectly honest."

"What? Why?" Gwen paused. "Oh. Kitty... took the time displaced Jean in?"

"Not quite. When we five original X-Men -- not actually the original team but that's semantics -- were brought forward in time and decided to stay and try to make the dream a reality, so that it'd be worth our pain... someone needed to be responsible for us. That someone ended up being Kitty. She was our field teacher, our commander, our teacher... she was our Professor X. And since none of us knew her from before -- since she was, I don't know, a toddler? We had no preconceptions. So we got to know this incredibly smart, incredibly competent, incredibly confident leader who'd been through what we'd been through. It helped. Honestly, it was amazing." She paused. "And then we went back and forgot her. Years later... she joined up in the wake of my first ****. Madelyne Prior got to know her. Then I got to know her. In both cases, she was a teenager, a basket case a lot of the time, rash and ridiculous..."

"And not incredibly smart, competent, and confident?"

Jean snickered. "Well, she was always smart. Brilliant, even." She looked back at Gwen. "And then the original five went back in time, and all those memories suddenly unlocked... and I have two entirely different impressions of who Kitty Pryde is and what she's done warring with each other in my brain. I keep wanting to overrule Kitty one moment, as a team leader and senior X-Man even above her seniority... and shutting up, listening, and trying desperately to please her the next."

Gwen thought about it, then nodded. "Yeah, I can see that."

Jean frowned slightly. "There is one thing, jumping back to apps for a second. They aren't just... convenient, Gwen. They change things. Take that one she mentioned."

"Lyft?"

"Right. That and Uber were pretty huge and are still kind of monumental in the public consciousness. But taxies didn't go away. At least... not yet. But their business model was shattered by this thing you could arrange on your phone without talking to a human being, making sure payment would be taken care of and giving you recourse if there's an issue." She looked at Gwen. "They call that 'disruptive technology,' because it disrupted an industry... and for that matter, disrupted society and 'the way things have always been.' Just like Wikipedia in our pockets does."

Gwen frowned. "Okay? This... doesn't sound like small talk."

"I know." Jean smiled, very slightly. "You said you 'didn't know' if the process that brought you back would work for anyone else. But you do know, don't know. You wouldn't have denied it if it wasn't an actual issue. Which means it will work for others."

Gwen paused for a long moment. "Yes," she said, softly. "And we're... actually kind of going nuts over that fact."

"Of course you are." Jean laughed, just as softly. "Because that's way bigger than Lyft's impact on the taxi industry. You've got the ultimate disruptive technology, and no real idea how to deal with it." She smiled a bit more. "And Gwen? You're not introducing something new or making a change that won't otherwise happen. The things you said in your presentation? That's real. I've been brought back to life four times plus all the others. You've been cloned and brought back. Johnny was brought back by worms. There's real philosophical and ethical concerns about all of that... but more than that? There's a practical one. Today, revivification is disproportionately available to and represented by the superhuman population... but the day will come when multiple methods become reproducible, replicable, and available... at least for a price."

Gwen nodded. "I know that."

"So... who are you planning to revive right now? Don't worry -- no one can hear us and I've frozen us again, so Kitty doesn't walk in on this conversation."

Gwen looked around. People had indeed paused again. "Well... right now? We've got three we know we're doing. Agent Anti-Venom... one of the women who went by Spider-Woman..."

Jean noticed the pause. She nodded, slightly. "Sounds good. And the third?"

"...Captain George Stacy of the NYPD. My father."

Jean chuckled. "Yeah. I can understand that. Reviving my own parents crossed my mind. Not to mention... well, others. And it feels weird to admit that, right? I mean, Agent Anti-Venom and Spider-Woman are heroes, and ones close to the people involved. But your father... why him specifically."

"Because... I got it in first, before we discussed it too much." Gwen flushed a bit. "And because... because..."

"Yes?"

"--look, it wasn't Spider-Man's fault, but he still died fighting alongside him and against... I mean... it's not--"

"Gwen?"

Gwen closed her eyes. "I came back to life. It's not fair that he doesn't come back too."

Jean chuckled. "And there it is. And... I'm not arguing. I understand completely. It's Survivor's Guilt, but worse, because you didn't survive. You just got this sudden bonus round out of nowhere, from your point of view. How can that be fair when your father's still dead, right?"

"...right." Gwen shook her head, laughing without humor. "I mean, I get it. It's selfish. Childish, even."

"It's human. And loving."

"But there are all these people who... have done more for the world. Who've been so... important."

"Versus... what. A New York Police Captain? Sounds pretty important to me."

"There are degrees. I mean... what about you? Your teammates. Wolverine? Charles Xavier? Your own husband?!"

"Ex...husband. And Scott is... an interesting case. As is Wolverine. And Charles. And yes. What about them indeed? What about Moira MacTaggart, or Vulcan, or Thunderbird, or Banshee? Or the Cuckoos who died? Or an insane number of friends? Or my parents?" Jean shrugged. "There's no good starting place. Are you sticking to your guns? Your father's one of the first three."

"Yes."

"And how do you justify it?"

Gwen looked at Jean. "I don't have to justify it. Peter will do it for me. Period."

Jean nodded. "Exactly. And... that's as good a reason as any, even though no one else would necessarily agree." She looked wry. "Peter's the key, then, she asked with false innocence?"

Gwen flushed. "That... it's no secret that... uh..."

Jean laughed. "Gwen? I'm a telepath and you shield for crap. I know how it works."

Gwen turned magenta. "I knew I should have told Peter to block that sort of--"

"You really should, yes, but don't worry about it. It's not even the weirdest thing I've run into. My husband cheated on me using only his cerebellum, remember? Assuming he did so entirely willingly. I was seduced by Mastermind who projected me into a Victorian Romance Novel. The strongest paternal figure in my life other than my own father had a romantic and sexual obsession with me when I was a teenager and he never really got over it. And none of that can hold a candle to Kitty falling through a building because she's coming too hard or Wolverine and Squirrel Girl having a weird, uncomfortable thing in their past." Jean shrugged. "Sex is sex. I don't really care about that. The point is... Peter will do this for you, and you want him to do it. After that, it's literally just semantics." Jean shook her head. "The problem isn't that. Honestly, using this to bring back a non-powered police officer is a good move all on its own. The problem is... what happens when it isn't Peter Parker making that call. What happens when it's Magneto. Or the Kingpin." She paused. "Or Otto Octavius?"

Gwen flushed. "We have to prevent that from happening."

"We can't prevent that from happening. Not in the long run. That's the point. The ultimate disruptive technology... and we have no real idea how it will spread into the general population, under whose control, and what it will do to everyone."

"So... bring this all around for me," Gwen said. "Why bring it up again? Why bring it up now? I mean, I thought we'd kind of established you wanted to be a part of Inanna -- as a consultant and a client."

"I do." She paused. "And I want to join... what do you call yourselves?"

"...Inanna's--"

"Gwen..."

"...Spider-Harem."

Jean blinked. "Well, that's a bit on the nose. I want to join Spider-Harem. My qualifications include a college degree, a current pilot's license, multiple years of combat training, an Omega-level mutant telepathic ability with a broad range of applications, and being the second hottest redhead in this room. Do you think there might be an opening?"

Gwen stared. "...why?"

Jean chuckled. "Because... I've based multiple entire lives around Xavier's school, his mission, the X-Men... the same group of people... I spent some time at Metro College, but otherwise, I've always done that. And let's be clear. I'm still going to be an X-Man. But... I need something more than that. Inanna sounds like a really good first step. And... making real friends... close friends... outside the X-Men is really, really tempting." She paused. "And right now, your group is making these huge decisions, but they're circular ones. It's the people close to Spider-Man or those he's closest to who are doing this. You need perspective outside of that circle. You need a voice that isn't one of your voices. And you need someone who has practical experience with functional omnipotence, and I'm pretty much the expert there."

Gwen kept staring. "...and?"

"And what?"

Gwen slowly smiled. "And?"

Jean flushed, looking away. "And... it's... not... impossible that I've had a thing for Spider-Man... and Mary Jane Watson... and wanted to make Peter the meat in an impossibly hot redhead sandwich since I was 19 years old. What? I can't be the one with the unfeasible fantasy for once? It always has to be about me, instead?"

Gwen's smile became a smirk. "And... that time you swapped Wolverine's brain with Spider-Man's won't be an issue?"

"How do you-- I mean... why would that be an issue?"

"He tried to nail Mary Jane while he was in the Spider-body."

Jean blinked. "...that rat. As soon as he's confirmed back to life I'm going to kill him."

Gwen laughed. "Yeah, okay. I don't think that'll be a problem, depending on what Cindy and MJ say. And Peter, but if he says 'no' I'll be... weirdly disappointed in him." She paused. "What about your husband? He's... not likely to stay any more dead than anyone else."

"_Ex-_husband. Honestly, I'm not sure why we haven't had two more teams form -- X-Wives and X-Husbands. Well, okay, it's a terrible idea, but still..." Jean snorted. "Gwen? Scott was my literal high school sweetheart. And he married an identical me, which makes sense because clone. And Emma did or didn't mess with him but he still left me for her. I know half my friends still ship the two of us, but that's another good reason to explore things outside that group of friends." She shrugged. "I'm ready to grow up."

"Yeah. Because we're grownups. I'll talk it over with people. Come see us tomorrow or the next day. And... do a Time-In? I'm actually pretty tired."

Jean nodded. "Okay." She smiled, the room unfreezing.

"Right! Ten minutes! Let's head to the lobby, girls!" Kitty walked over. "Hey Jean. You've been blushing. I'm sure I don't even want to know."

"Hey MJ!" Gwen shouted. "I'm catching a ride with Jean and Kitty!"

"Cool!" she shouted back. "I've got my own way home! See you there!"

The ride back was fun -- Kitty and Jean were a blast as it turned out. Kitty was actively funny. Jean was... comfortable, and Gwen wasn't sure she ever got comfortable. They said their goodbyes and Gwen headed into the building, rode the elevator up and headed to Mary Jane's apartment. Their apartment. Something else she was still getting used to, like apps, and harems.

She got inside, looking around. She'd expected... someone? Peter? Cindy? Ollie? She wasn't sure--

Oh. They were in Peter's room. They were all in Peter's room. Well... lucky Peter.

Gwen paused. "How did I know..." she shrugged. Must have heard them.

She headed into her bedroom. It was slowly becoming hers. She slid her dress off, undid her underwear -- high end fancy stuff, not because it would be seen but because Mary Jane said it was easier to talk to crowds if you dressed with confidence from the foundation garments up.

Pulling on an oversized sleep shirt, Gwen rolled onto her bed. She got her phone out, and opened up Wikipedia. Slowly, and a bit lazily, she began to tap out letters in the search field. 'B-I-L-L-[space]-C-O-S...'