Spider-Man : The Morales Trilogy

Chapter 17

The weekend break began just as Miles had predicted. Boring and with his movement restricted to his house since the news of an explosion at Horizon had wildly circulated and his mom kept bringing up her intentions to withdraw him from the school whenever she saw him.

"Mom, I'm okay. It was a small explosion. No casualties. A terror attack. We're getting those everywhere in the world nowadays, aren't we?" Miles protested for the thousandth time in the three hours he'd been at home.

"But it's not expected at a place that claims to be highly secured."

"I'm done trying to explain to you, ma. I'm not going to stay in this house for the rest of this break if you're just going to complain about Horizon every time you see me. I have things to do."

"You won't step out of this house, young man. Your father passed away not quite long ago and you're willing to risk your life so soon? I can't take this anymore."

"I'm not risking my life!" Miles yelled. "I'm trying to make a difference in the world with skills I can only ever acquire from Horizon. I'm not leaving the school. And I need to go see Dil, the shuttle just dropped him off at his house. School project."

"I forbid you."

"I'm going out anyways. I'll be home before dinner," Miles said and grabbed his backpack and started heading out the front door.

"You better be back in here before dinner!" his mother called after him.

"Sure!" Miles said and he closed the door gently behind him. His bike was parked right beside their mailbox so he walked towards it, got on the bike, ignited the engine and drove off.

Their plan was to visit Andy Stark as soon as they got home and that's what they were about to do. As reluctant as Miles had been at first about donning a suit with a spider emblem, he actually couldn't contain his excitement about seeing the suit now. He knew that anything developed by a Stark would be amazing and pure gold and in this case, pure vibranium.

It was a 15-minute ride before he arrived at Dil's totally gorgeous mansion where he met Dil waiting outside in a black leather jacket on a blue T-shirt with black denim trousers and a pair of red and blue sneakers.

"You had time to change?"

"Always gotta dress for the occasion."

"All we're doing is paying a visit to a teenage nerd just like us who has the resources we lack and can build a fancy suit for me. Nothing to dress for."

"This teenage nerd that's just like us has a recorded IQ of 301. That's supposed to be impossible."

"Whatever. Let's just get this over with."

"You realize we'll be seeing the Stark Tower on this trip?" Dil said. "You realize how frigging awesome that would be. So many teenagers would kill for this."

"Yeah, yeah. Get on your bike, let's get going."

"I'm hitching a ride with you. My brother took my bike out to a party at his girlfriend's. Probably won't be back till midnight so no point waiting."

"Let's just go!"

Dil nodded and hurried to Miles's bike before climbing onto it. "Let's ride off into the sunset, my dear Johnny Blaze."

"Ghost Rider puns?"

"Not exactly a pun. More like a direct reference."

"Well, I never really liked the Ghost Rider. He was just confirmation that the Illuminati existed."