The Little Signs
The path to finding Riley’s as fairly easy… they had punched a hole into the glass of a vending machine. And seemed to have punched the buttons as well. Most spiders hold back their strength, but Miguel definitely pissed them off.
Plenty of the other spider-people milling about were eager to tell Peter where Riley went, due to their open pessimism… and bloodied hand from punching glass.
And they eventually found Riley cleaning their hand in the other side of the building. They seemed stiff, but calm as they dressed their would.
“You alright, kid?”
“Again, twenty seven,” Riley reminded Peter, shaking their hand a bit after cleaning it. “I’m good. Just needed to hit something.”
“Didn’t expect you both to act that way,” Peter admitted. “All things considered, I thought the both of you would get along.”
Riley sighed one more, offering a fired smile to Peter. “I don’t think getting along with others really fits either of us. Besides… you heard him. In his eyes, I’m nothing special.”
“He just doesn’t know you. That suit of yours is pretty spectacular.”
Gwen perked a bit. “What’s it look like?”
Riley smiled, and reached into their pocket. Nanotech suit meant traveling with it was easy. Unless it was in an airport, then it was annoying. Riley slipped on a watch on the arm not holding the day pass, and a suit formed over their body, white and black mostly, with reddish gold webbing, and a green holographic spider dancing on their chest. Their mask covered their face, sporting the same pattern.
Things of note Riley always loved pointing out.
• The Light webbing under the arms that would extend to wings if needed.
• The bouncy and light material in the sole of the feet of the suit that added an increased jump.
• the color shifting fabric of the suit that reflected surroundings.
• and a voice modulator that wasn’t visible, but sat at the base of Riley’s throat, to catch the vibrations of their vocal chords to change the way their voice sounds as they speak.
So many things about their suit they were proud of. They could even have a cape if they wanted. They just usually didn’t use one since it served no actual purpose. More of a fun little adage.
“I could’ve sworn your suit was blue…” Peter muttered.
“It reflects my surroundings. That’s how I was able to vanish into thin air after all. But the original color reflects the spider that bit me.”
“You remember what it looks like?” Gwen asked curiously.
“I’m a spider fanatic.”
Peter nodded in agreement. “They talked about spiders for six hours straight. Very enthusiastic.”
Riley shrugged a bit, quickly deactivating their suit and putting their watch away. “To summarize and not keep you here forever, I like spiders and spiders are drawn to me.”
“That tracks,” Gwen said with her own sigh. “Will your hand be alright?”
“Accelerated healing. I’ll be fine.” Riley even lifted their hand to reassure her, and it was true, there was no marks to even show they had cut their hand. It was faster than any of their own regenerative healing abilities. “I know my limits.”
From what the three other spiders saw, there was definitely something unique about Riley that Miguel could’ve tried to see.
Gwen went to place a hand on their shoulder, but Riley jerked back from the touch, stepping back from all of them. “I’m seriously fine. My goal is to find a cafeteria and eat something before heading home.”
The jerk caught the others off guard, but what was a spider without issues? So they didn’t mention anything. “Did you want help finding it?” Peter asked.
“I’ll need it. This place is a fucking maze.”
“Then let’s get you some food, yeah?” Hobie suggested with a grin. “And you can tell us all about your time as a spider.” They stood next to Riley, their color palate shifting to blue as they did. Fun. Their universe must’ve been pretty fun. And colorful. If given the chance, they’d have to visit it sometime.
“Lead the way!” The four of them shuffled towards the food court as Riley detailed some fights they’d been in as Mega-Byte. Nothing too big or outrageous, and all relatively normal under the scope of the spider-persona. It seemed that for the most part, Detroit didn’t attract nearly as many crazed scientists. So they were able to get away with taking days off.
And when they made it to the cafeteria, Riley had finished describing their fight with the green goblin, who ended up in their city one night. Much to Peter’s surprise. He was unaware there even was an attack from the Goblin there.
“He must’ve thought I was Peter, or his spider-man. Either way, he vanished right before my eyes, and I wasn’t able to track him. I relied on my spiders’ eyes, but there was nothing, so I went back.”
“Strange he was even in Detroit…” Peter muttered.
Riley just shrugged, glad they reached the cafeteria, skittering off the grab some food. The others watched them pile their plate with a rather… strange assortment of food. Beef, lentils, chickpeas, Potatoes, white rice and kidney beans. It was a lot of food, which all of them understood. But it wasn’t really a coherent selection.
“Are MJ and I not feeding you enough?” Peter asked. “I can have her make something else while you-“
“No! That’s not-“ Riley interrupted, shaking their head. “I just worked up an appetite, that’s all.”
Peter glanced at the food again. “Any reason for that selection?”
“You know how being a scientist is, I tend to forget to cover all the nutrients I need,” Riley reminded lightly. “So I grabbed specific foods to help push me to a more reasonable nutrient need.”
“Take better care of yourself,” Peter muttered. “I get it, but you actually have the ability to take proper care of yourself.”
Riley nodded, knowing Peter was talking about being able to afford the things they needed, something a lot of spider-people didn’t have when they first started out. “Sorry to worry you.”
“You’re in dad mode all the time, huh?” Gwen joked. “And why are you and MJ looking after them?”
“I’m staying with them for the week,” Riley quickly informed. “While I deal with scientists I don’t want to deal with.”
A simple explanation with simple enough reasoning.
While everyone was still focused on that, chatting about science things, Riley quickly ate, basically shoveling food down. Feeling a lot more calm once they finished eating. The tension in the muscles shifting and melting away as they took the last bite, letting out a relieved sigh.
“We should get back before Miguel decided to pick an actual fight with me and I decide to punch him, full force, in the dick.”
Peter nodded aggressively, not wanting to deal with that right now. “Yeah, yeah, let’s get you back. I’ll you you two another time.” Peter was quick to open a portal, and Riley was quick to fall into it, waving goodbye to Gwen and Hobie as they did, vanishing into thin air alongside Peter.