Spider-Man : The Morales Trilogy

Chapter 9

The party had been fun. They'd all headed back to the dorms so late that Miles and Dil had slept in and had almost missed the shuttle back home when they woke up the next day. They'd hurried down and gotten onto the shuttle right before it started moving.

Dil and Miles liked to sit in front or in the middle but the only vacant seats were in the back. Four vacant seats. Two seats next to Sam were free and there were also two seats next to Hay Johnson that weren't currently occupied. Miles looked at both Sam and Hay, his brain racing to decide which of them to sit with.

He was starting to have a bit of a crush on Hay and if he sat with her, they'd talk but he'd probably end up saying something utterly ridiculous so he decided he'd sit with Sam instead. Plus he didn't want to seem like a dick by leaving a friend for a girl.

So he sat beside Sam and Dil did something unexpected by Miles. He sat with Hay and flashed Miles a toothed grin as he sat down. Anger surged through Miles. He wanted to get up and scream at Dil and probably gouge his eyes right out and then proceed to tearing his heart right out of his chest but he just stared at Dil in disbelief.

"Curse you, Casen," he muttered. Everything Miles needed for the weekend was roughly stuffed away into his backpack which he had on the floor beside his seat.

"I was expecting you to sit with the hot girl," Sam whispered into Miles's ear. "That was the sensible move. But your asshole friend's with her."

"If that was the sensible move then why didn't you sit with her?" Miles asked.

"Because she got on the shuttle a couple of minutes after me. And she doesn't seem like my type, anyways."

"What's your type?"

"Aliens," Sam said and grinned sheepishly. "Aliens have a different way of life so they probably aren't plagued by the same problems that plague human females. Is the make-up too much or not? What's the best way to get his attention? Is my social media feed beautiful?"

"Those are human female problems," Miles said and chuckled.

"Not all of us have those problems though," said a girl who occupied the seat in front of Miles. There was a guy next to her that had fallen asleep and was snoring.

"Really? What problems are you plagued with?" Sam asked the girl. She had a brown complexion with long, neatly combed hair that she tied in a ponytail. When she turned to face them, Miles noticed she was beautiful and did everything he could to stop himself from gaping and drooling. She had nice brown eyes and a smooth face. He hadn't seen someone with completely perfect skin before. No dimples, no freckles, no warts. That was amazing.

"Sometimes, I can't decide which I enjoy more: Chemistry or Physics. I know I don't enjoy Biology," she said and smiled and Miles nearly melted away. Sam made a funny sound that made Miles aware he was feeling the same way.

"So your problems are nerd problems?" Miles asked.

"What are your problems?" she asked and arched one of her eyebrows. Miles felt a sort of warm feeling spreading throughout his body.

"I guess I can't decide which girl is hotter," Miles blurted out then after a moment or two, he started wondering why in the world he'd just said that.

She giggled. "So you have classic boy problems, heh?"

"That was a joke," Miles said.

"You don't have to worry about it. I just have a way of getting the truth out of people," she said and shrugged. "So which girl do you think is hot?"

Miles opened his mouth to speak again but Sam grabbed his hand and squeezed it so tight that Miles almost yelped. He hadn't expected Sam to be so strong but the pain had stopped him from saying what he'd been about to say.

The girl glanced at Sam and stared intently at him as though she was looking through his soul and she smiled. "You're special," she said.

"Yeah, I'm specially good-looking," Sam said and flashed the girl a dazzling smile accompanied by a wink.

"What's your secret?" she asked.

"I don't have one," Sam answered.

"What are your problems?"

"None. Other than being too lovable of a guy."

"How are you doing that?"

"Doing what?"

"What is going on?" Miles asked, looking at the two of them like they'd both lost their minds.

"He's not telling the truth."

"A lot of people do that," Miles said and frowned at her. Now, he noticed that she had a necklace on. It was golden but it had some sort of white, octagonal object in the center and a golden tiger was emblazoned onto it.

"Where'd you get your necklace from?" Sam asked her, still smiling. "I've seen it before in history textbooks. It has mystical origins."

"Not really," she said. "It's just a piece of junk that's been passed down for centuries in my bloodline. This is the first time a girl's had it, though. In the past, it had always been passed down to a male descendant but my parents only had me. So I got the necklace."

"You're an Ayala," Sam said and stared intently into her eyes.

"What?" Miles asked, totally confused as to what either of them were saying. "What are you guys talking about?"

"I'm Ava Ayala," she said.

"Miles Morales."

"You aren't entirely human," she said, staring at Sam. "Your aura, it's completely different."

"Stop talking," Sam said.

Miles opened his mouth to speak when he heard a shrill sound in his head that made him wince and then his body spiked with the tingling sensations. "Danger!" he yelled. "Get down!"

Others looked back at him and one blond boy was about to speak when something hit the shuttle with such amazing force that it went into the air, flipping multiple times in the air before hitting the road hard once again and flipping over multiple times before coming to a stop.

Miles groaned and looked around. Nearly everyone had been knocked out. Sam groaned as well and Dil wasn't on his seat anymore. He was on the floor of the bus, blood on the side of his face but he was conscious.

"What the hell?" Miles groaned. He unstrapped himself from the seat and got up, nearly falling down.

"Miles, get down!" Sam groaned.

"What are you doing, Miles?" Dil groaned weakly and tried to get up but he must have broken a couple of joints because he yelled in pain and stayed on the floor.

The doors to the shuttle slid open just as Miles reached them and he saw someone standing outside. He was dressed in black armor with blue paddings here and there but he wasn't wearing a mask so Miles caught a good glimpse of his face.

He had shoulder-length dark blond hair and a bit of a beard with bright green eyes. He had a deep scar over his left eye that gave him a bit of a more dangerous look.

Miles opened his mouth to speak but the person punched him backwards, straight through the side of the shuttle and he hit the ground, rolling a few times before coming to a stop. His vision blurred and he lost consciousness.