This..."
Ron felt awkward looking at Jessica's complaining face. He hadn't expected Jessica to turn out this way.
After he had given Jessica a positive mental suggestion, it must have continuously affected her, growing stronger over time, gradually turning her into an optimistic hip-hopper.
So, when Jessica came to him now, she probably wanted him to remove that optimistic mental suggestion, right?
Thinking this, Ron said, "Jessica, it was my fault back then. If you want to remove those mental suggestions, I can help you."
"Who said I want to remove those mental suggestions?" Hearing Ron's words, Jessica sprang to her feet, looking at Ron with extreme caution.
"I'm a hip-hopper now, and I have a lot of hip-hop friends. I'm telling you, I'm happy now, and you can't mess with my mind anymore!"
To stop Ron, Jessica quickly explained, fearing that Ron might, without a word, plant another strange idea in her mind.
Recalling her experiences over this period, Jessica felt that she must have truly stepped in dog poop to be so unlucky.
Half a year ago, when she was still studying at Midtown High School, she faked a sick leave to go to Disney with her family and successfully went with them.
But then, on the way, her family's car was hit by a military vehicle, and her entire family was irradiated to death by the radioactive chemical agents from the military vehicle. Only she survived.
This wasn't even the worst part. The most infuriating thing was that when she woke up, she didn't feel much sadness and even wanted to recite poetry.
Afterward, fully recovered, she was adopted by the Jones family and renamed Jessica Jones.
During this time, Jessica also became increasingly optimistic, no longer feeling any sadness over losing her family.
Later, she taught herself hip-hop, became a hip-hopper, and joined a group of like-minded individuals. She even formed a hip-hop crew called the Optimistic Family, of which she was a main member... Then, on her way home one day, she accidentally discovered that she had superpowers—she could jump very high and was incredibly strong.
Jessica trained a bit more and found that her abilities also grew stronger. She could even fly for short periods, which was incredibly cool!
After awakening her powers, Jessica also realized that her optimism wasn't unconscious; it was artificially induced.
After much thought, Jessica finally remembered who had made her optimistic.
Ron Brenstad, a classmate from the same school with whom she had only exchanged a few words.
Just then, Jessica also saw on TV that Ron had invented some kind of regenerative medicine that could regrow organs, making him a genius in people's eyes.
So, the very next morning, Jessica went directly to Oscorp Industries, wanting to meet Ron and figure out if what had happened before was indeed his doing.
Now that her goal was achieved, Jessica let go of the idea of wanting to know who made her optimistic and became her usual carefree, overly familiar self again.
"Ron, I came to find you just to confirm if you were the one who made me optimistic. Now I know, so, thank you!"
Ron oh'd, then stated his purpose: "Jessica, you must have awakened superpowers too, right? What are your abilities? Show me."
"Wait..." Jessica had no intention of hiding her abilities. She cautiously looked around and, seeing how many people were present, she carefully spoke to Ron.
"Ron, I'm telling you, you absolutely must not tell anyone, or I might be treated as a mutant, and that would be dangerous. If things go wrong, Aunt Jones might kick me out of the house!"
"Since you found me, you must know that I'm also an ability user. Go ahead and tell me; I won't say anything," Ron said with a serious expression.
"Alright, then I'll tell you." Jessica glanced around again, then said, "My abilities are short-term flight and super strength. I can easily lift a car—pretty cool, right?"
Ron nodded, looking at Jessica with great admiration. "Mm, much more impressive than me."
"Oh, right, Ron, what are your abilities? I only know you can plant strange ideas in people's minds. Do you have any other superpowers?" Jessica asked curiously.
"Want to know my abilities?" Ron smiled and said, "Alright, but I have a question. If you answer it, I'll tell you. How about that?"
Hearing this, Jessica immediately covered her chest with her hand and stared at Ron warily. "No way, I have a 'boyfriend'! I won't accept you!"
"Uh..." Ron was speechless. Was Jessica a bit narcissistic? She actually thought he was pursuing her. Her imagination was too wild, wasn't it?
Ron hadn't even been moved by the sexy Black Widow, so how could he be interested in this hip-hop girl... "Jessica, I just want to ask you, now that you have superpowers, do you want to become a superhero like Spider-Man and Red She-Hulk?"
"Oh, so that's it." Jessica relaxed, quickly picked up the coffee the waiter had just brought, and chugged it down before speaking.
"Ron, I'm telling you, you guessed too accurately. I was just thinking of becoming a superhero. I've even thought of a superhero name for myself: Jewel. It means I'm as beautiful as a jewel. What do you think, does it sound good?"
"Sounds good... I guess?" Ron's face clearly showed disdain. Then, Ron took out the Guardians of the Alliance member badge, engraved with a pair of wings, from his pocket and placed it in front of Jessica.
"Alright then. Actually, I've formed a superhero team. I'm officially inviting you now, Jessica, would you like to join my team?"
"By the way, Ron, you still haven't told me your abilities... Huh, Ron, you actually formed a superhero team? What's this? Let me see." Jessica was very curious. She took the badge from Ron's hand and examined it.
After seriously looking at the badge for a while, Jessica became excited: "Ron, I didn't expect your team to be the recently famous Guardians of the Alliance! Let me think, you mentioned Spider-Man and Red She-Hulk earlier, so that means you must be Skywalker, who founded the Guardians of the Alliance, right? Holy crap, I can't believe I'm seeing the legendary Skywalker, and he's my classmate! I..."
"Shut up, Jessica." Seeing Jessica excitedly talking non-stop, Ron quickly used the coffee cup she had just finished to cover her mouth, preventing her from making any sound.
"There are so many people here. Yelling so loudly, do you want to expose yourself?" Ron said, looking at the confused Jessica.
Then, Ron waited until Jessica calmed down before removing the cup and speaking.
"Alright, now you just need to tell me if you're willing to join the Guardians of the Alliance. Understood?"
"Of course I'm willing!" Jessica nodded vigorously, then her eyes became a little unfocused as she mumbled, "So cool, I'm actually a superhero, and part of the Guardians of the Alliance..."
Looking at Jessica's appearance, Ron somewhat regretted letting her join.
Is it really okay to let such a problematic girl join the Guardians of the Alliance?