heroes
༻☆✫☆༺
You sat on the edge of an apartment building, overlooking the city below which was somehow still awake and bustling at unholy hours of the morning, you could also feel the eyes of a certain spiderman standing behind you. Probably inwardly criticizing you like many people had done online, you weren't exactly the best superhero to walk the planet. Infact, you were so bad at the whole thing that the main reason many people knew of you or at least consider you a rumour was because of your very first villain takedown.
You were investigating a drug dealing operation close to the your neighborhood, those people pretty much threatened young kids to sell drugs for them and their schools. Words couldn't describe how dangerous they were and they evaded the police multiple times because they had a small nightclub as a cover up for the real business they dealt with at the basement underneath.
You took them down, but you due to a minor accident the club caught on fire. You weren't even sure how it happened, you were too focus on fighting and not getting bullets into you that you barely noticed the smoke and the fire reaching the innocent people above who were just trying to have fun. Not only were many civilians injured in the fire, a lot of evidence large enough to put those drug dealers away for life was destroyed.
The drug dealers were arrested, yes, but no one knew if they were going to be in jail for a long time. They could be released next week for all you knew. You might as well have put people's lives in danger for nothing.
Doesn't sound very heroic.
So yeah, the public and the police and the media didn't have a high opinion of you, you doubted if spiderman no. 2 did even if he wasn't exactly the best superhero either.
So you'd get to the point, if he refused you, then you would go back to being a lone wolf– a very embarrassed and dejected one at that, and focus more on getting stronger...maybe invent some devices to help you out.
"The thing is, I didn't help that lady because I knew you'd show up sooner or later." You spoke, "but if you hadn't I would have helped her. I wanted to see you fight from up close and...uh, ask if we could be um...you know, partners I guess. We can work together. But, it's fine if you don't want to–"
"You want to be partners with me? Great!" Spiderman must have thought he must sounded too eager that he cleared his throat, crossing his arms he continued. "I mean uh... sure, whatever I guess."
You frowned then got up, you weren't expecting him to agree to quickly, after all, your super hero track record was a complete mess.
"Really?" You questioned, not sure if you were disappointed or happy about that, you expected a little bashing like him stating all the reasons why he wouldn't work with you. "You're not going to make me go through some kind of aptitude test or something?"
Spiderman tilted his head. She was right, not much was known about her super power. "You got super strength, right? What else can you do?"
You furrowed your brows, "I can jump high and far."
Spiderman's silence prompted you to go on.
"That's pretty much it." You concluded. "Can't swing around like you can, but I do have a knack for making cool stuff like this."
You pulled out a pitch black rectangular device which resembled a phone (just without a screen), you placed a finger on the finger print sensor and a golden hologram of Brooklyn itself levitated over it.
"Woah," he leaned even closer and waved a hand through it, his hand barely even disrupted the hologram. "You made this?"
"Yeah." You said with a wave of pride washing over you, "I know, I'm pretty amazing."
"And really humble too," he muttered. "what's it for?"
You chucked, "It lets me navigate through the city without getting lost, and it detects possible crime in certain areas I was able program it too." You handed it to him when he reached out for it for a closer look. "Think of it as my very own spider sense."
He glanced back at you when you said that.
"What?" You asked. "I'm a big fan of the first spiderman."
"You seem to be a pretty capable hero." Spiderman began. "Why exactly do want to be partners?"
"Capable?" You scoffed, "Did you not hear about the whole drug dealing fiasco on the news? About how I put a bunch of people in danger?"
You sit down on the edge again. "Everyone thinks of me as a threat. Because I wanted to do something really huge to kick off being a hero, I later realized I actually don't know what I'm doing. I'm hoping to learn that from you."
Spiderman sits down beside, legs dangling off the building. "So basically, you wanna be my sidekick."
You made a face. "What? No! I never said that."
"Sure sounds like it. You want to be partners, you also want to learn from me." He sounded way too cocky.
"I don't want to be your sidekick, dude." Your eyes narrowed, "I just want some experience with defeating villains perfectly with zero bystanders getting hurt. Because no matter what I do, someone always gets hurt."
You stare at your palms, way too strong for you own good.
"I guess I understand," spiderman murmured, his voice softer now, almost hard to catch. "I know what it's like to not be perfect. To keeping trying and yet it doesn't feel enough."
You stare at his black mask, you wanted to ask what made him feel like that. He was doing great in your opinion, you wondered if it was because he was constantly compared to the first spiderman. He didn't have to exactly like the first spiderman in heroics, he was alright just doing his own thing in his own way.
But you just met him like twenty minutes ago, you didn't have any right to draw personal answers from him. You just wanted one thing and that was to become a better superhero, one that the late Peter Parker would be proud of.
"But...if you think I'll be a liability, then..."
"I'll help you. But I doubt I'd be a good teacher, I'm still learning things." Spiderman said. "Besides I could use the help running things around here. Gets so exhausting sometimes."
You couldn't help but laugh.
When you weren't Midnight, you were (Name) (Last name). A regular rich girl with a single, divorced mom who barely had a good mother–daughter relationship with you, would rather bury herself with work than to maintain a normal conversation with you.
Probably because your father aided in the experiments done on you when you were just months old. Guess whose winning the Best Dad Of The Year award!
Usually when a married couple have a baby, they care for it, raise it and give it unconditional love and affection so when they grow up, they don't become menaces to the society. But nope, your dad saw it as an opportunity to try out his life's work.
Your biological mom had nothing to say in the matter when he took you to the lab, she didn't try at all to stop him (you weren't sure if she cared anyway, after all she married only him for his money). Him and his team of other deranged scientists had developed a serum with could improve physical strength by a thousand times. All they needed was something to test it out on, if it worked. They'd give it to their Billionaire sponsor and he'd sell it to anyone who was willing to spend millions on it.
Including criminals.
You grew up in that lab. Spending nearly seven years of your life there being poked, prodded and monitored 24/7. You weren't the only person they experimented on, they were countless other kids and adults they tortured. All of them couldn't make it, the drug was too strong for their bodies to handle.
None of them survived long in that secret facility, none except you.
It took years to find out what was so special about you, turns out there were two factors of why the serum didn't kill you.
You had been regularly taking the serum from when you were a baby.
And you were also sick as a child.
You had a hole in your heart.
Your father pretty much thought you weren't going to last long anyway, might as well use you as guinea pig as you didn't function like a normal baby.
You were healed by the serum, you were also given super strength and you also watched other guinea pigs die. To the point you expected to kneel over, blood pouring from your eyes and nose, unable to breathe and die as well.
But you never did.
You were about five at the time.
You later became numb, no long expressing any emotions, your dream of the outside world died along with your first ever friend Heather, another prisoner in that facility. She was twelve years old when her body gave up fighting for dominance against the serum.
She told you about the outside world, devoid of lab equipment, bright lights, depressing white walls, smell of chemicals, cameras watching your every move, needles, nurses and doctors who acted more like NPCs than humans.
There was life there, happiness, fresh air, freedom.
You wanted nothing more than to see it.
She also talked about a spider hero who defeated evil people and protected innocents.
She promised to take you to what she called an amusement park when the treatment was complete and they were free. That gave a sense of purpose, something to look forward to.
But when she died, you became an NPC yourself. You were stupid to think you'd ever be free, being a successful experiment was your purpose. You were born for this.
Two years later, the sound of gun shots and yells woke you abruptly from your room with no windows. You should have felt fear, but you didn't. What ever was coming for you might as well put you out of your misery.
You half expected a mutilated monster to burst into your room and rip you too pieces like Heather joked about, but instead it was a mask man in red and blue.
"Are you okay, kid?" He said, softly. Approaching you slowly as if you'd suddenly attack him with strength that would have rivaled his. But you simply remained in your bed staring at him with dull eyes. "I'm the good guy, I'm here to save you from those bad people."
"Are... are you a hero?" You croaked, it had been so long since you used your voice.
"Yeah," he chuckled, despite the alarms and noises outside. "I guess you can say that. I'm gonna get you out of here, alright."
You nodded, "freedom."
You let him carry you and swing you all through the carnage and gunshots.
Your dream was finally coming true, but you didn't feel anything. Not without Heather.