Starlight › Marvel [1] ✓

025. back to normal

› CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE ‹

It had been two months since Raleigh and Peter defeated the Vulture. Adrian Toomes' trial had concluded about a month ago and the man had been found guilty for selling illegal weapons and was sentenced to prison. His sentencing had been the talk of the next few school days until the news grew old and boring. While the villain was forgotten, the school news attempted to keep the hype about heroes alive as they went around the school and asked people what they thought about Spider-Man and Aureate and if they had any theory on who was under masks.

It was an uncomfortable position Raleigh was put in when Betty Brant asked him for his thoughts on who was under the masks. He had smiled uncomfortably and shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't know, we'll probably never know, you know?"

Betty let out a whine of annoyance, having received many responses like that, and she stomped away with the camera, approaching MJ who was sitting at the picnic table behind them. Raleigh made a quick exit before he could hear what MJ said, not wanting to be bothered again by Betty.

Over the two months, Raleigh hadn't talked as much with MJ as he normally would, since he had been focusing on both his schoolwork and his work with Peter as Aureate. Since the fight with Toomes and a facetime call with Tony, Raleigh had learned that weighing both of his lives was important. Tony had given him pointers and talked about not outweighing something over the other like he had been doing just months ago.

The wounds on Raleigh had finally finished healing and though he was initially frightened his shoulder was going to be permanently damaged, he had yet to feel any long-lasting pain. He was just relieved his stitches were out and he didn't have to be caking makeup on his face anymore.

Spider-Man and Aureate were still active and working alongside each other. They had yet to find anything as insane as they did with Toomes' illegal company, but neither complained about it. They were happy and content to just be dealing with minor felons and helping people with directions. And ever since the battle with the Vulture, Aureate had begun gaining a larger audience, which Raleigh would admit was nice.

Raleigh and Peter were given back their original Stark-made-suits by Tony himself. With Raleigh's suit, Tonny had tinkered with a few things, which left him dazed at first.

Tony had disabled the Training Wheels Protocol, giving Raleigh his own Karen or F.R.I.D.A.Y.. Raleigh had named his A.I. June, mostly because he felt pressured to name the assistant, but also because he vaguely remembered his parents had an elderly dog named that. He passed away when Raleigh was around five-years-old. He felt like it was a nice oath to always think about the couple that adopted him and cared for him for so many years.

Along with the A.I., Tony had created a pair of gloves to fit with his suit. At first, Raleigh didn't understand so he asked Tony about it the next time they met up. The man hadn't looked at him when he explained that he didn't like seeing him constantly getting his hands scuffed up, so he had struggled with different kinds of materials until he constructed something that wouldn't obstruct his powers from phasing through. Tin Tony's way, this was how he expressed his caring nature for Raleigh, and the boy appreciated it.

Along with balancing his school and his hero life, he had his personal life to juggle too, which included the weirdness that was Odin Borson. Since so many months had passed, Raleigh had begun to understand a lot more about where he came from. He still didn't know anything about his biological mother and Odin usually avoiding the topic when it came to Loki, but Odin happily talked about the world he ruled for many-many years.

Raleigh could picture just how beautiful the land was, with it being covered in shimmering gold. He could picture the eloquently dressed Asgardians that roamed the land. Most of all, he could picture the rainbow bridge that Odin claimed was the most important piece of Asgard, since it helped them travel freely through the nine realms and indirectly kept peace among them. The artwork that people had created on the Norse Gods apparently didn't show the extent of how stunning Asgard really was.

There were only a few more months left of school and then summer would be rolling around, and Raleigh was excited to see what trouble he could get himself in—and by trouble, he means finding the trouble. He wasn't looking for anything as intense as the alien weapons, but he was looking for something to keep himself busy during the break from school.

› › › ›

"How is it we do this after school every other day and you still haven't put it together, that you can just change in the bathrooms?"

Raleigh smirked as he leaned against the alleyways brick wall. His day clothes were already packed in his backpack, which he had shoved behind the garbage cans. His hands smoothed out his eye mask as he watched Peter Parker jump around out of his pants and tug his Spider-Man outfit on.

The boy wasn't as amused as Raleigh. "How is it you haven't found a better place to leave your backpack?"

"My things don't get stolen like yours does." The ravenet said and followed in Peter's lead as he put his mask on. A light blue grid appeared over the buildings and streets, before fading and June's voice filling his ears in a welcoming greeting.

"What are the plans for today?" June asked.

"We're just going to scope the area, make sure everyone is playing nice," Raleigh told his A.I. and turned to Peter. "I have to be home before six. Trystan wants me to watch this new show with him."

Peter nodded. "Sounds good. Aunt May wants me home so she can start preparing dinner for tomorrow. You're still coming, right?"

"Yeah. Believe me, Trystan hasn't let me forget about it. He always gets antsy before dinner with your Aunt. I think May scared him with all the questions and concerns she had after finding out..." Raleigh motioned to the Spider-Man that stood in front of him. "...this."

Peter shook his head and let out an unamused laugh. "You have no idea."

Raleigh took Peter's open palm and snorted. "Actually I do since you told me everything."

"Raleigh... shut up." Peter closed his hand around Raleigh's. He didn't look over to see if his friend was ready since they had done this so many times now that it was normal behavior—and spit his web at the building in front of them. Moments later, Spider-Man and Aureate began swinging through the city of Queens.