9:35pm
Friday
November 12, 1999
Big Bear Lake, California
Two story House
"Papi! Dónde estás?!" A four year old boy called out from his front porch, brown eyes searching through the darkness of the night.
"Anderson, time for bed." An older girl of nine years old stood at the door. She spoke with a heavy accent. "Papi will come home soon. You'll see him in the morning."
'Anderson' looks up at his older sister. "Promesa, Victoria?"
"I promise. Now, come. Time for bed." Victoria held out her hand for which her brother grabbed and lead him to their shared bedroom.
Anderson and Victoria trek up the stairs, turning the lights off behind them until they reached their room.
While Anderson started changing into his pajamas, he wonders why his Papi isn't home yet. "Tori, por qué no vino papi casero?"
"May have got held up at work again. Or he's visiting Mama." Victoria answers, not taking her eyes off the floor. "And speak English. We are in America, not in Ecuador anymore."
"No es importante que hablamos a español?" Anderson ask, arms crossed.
"It is important but not everyone here speaks Spanish and we have to speak their language." Victoria explains, pulling the covers back on Anderson's bed. She patted the pillow. "We have to get up early tomorrow. So, get into bed."
The light-haired boy climbed onto the bed and wrapped himself in the blanket. "Buenos noches."
Victoria turned off the bedside lamp, making the room dark for a few seconds until moonlight filtered in through the window. "Buenos noches."
5:40am
Friday
November 13, 1999
Big Bear Lake, California
Two story House
A loud alarm rang, waking the two siblings from their sleep.
Anderson yawns and stretches his arms and legs. He rubs his eyes when he remembers last night. He ran out of the room, and ran downstairs. "Papi, es hogar?!"
He stopped at the foot of the staircase. There was silence, no sign that his Papi even came home last night.
Victoria had shaken her head in fondness when her brother went looking for their father before trailing at a slower pace after him. But she didn't hear her father's voice and walked faster down the stairs.
This was a first. Papa has always come home before they woke up in the morning and when they did wake up, they would usually find him cooking breakfast before sending Victoria off to school and Anderson to daycare.
"Papa?" Victoria called, not expecting an answer.
A booming knock caused the two kids to flinch in surprise.
Anderson held onto Victoria's hand as they walked to the door. Victoria opens the door to see a policewoman standing there.
"Hi, are you Victoria and Anderson Ruiz?" The woman politely asks. Victoria and Anderson quietly nodded.
"Por qué estás aquí?" Anderson questions. The woman gave him a confused look before looking at his sister.
Victoria sighs at her brother's refusal to speak English. "He asked, 'why are you here?'"
"Oh. This isn't easy to tell you. Your dad, Emanuel Ruiz, he passed away last night." The policewoman said somberly, hating that she has to break the devastating news to the little children.
"No, that can't be true." Victoria said, tears blurring her vision.
"I'm sorry. I really am." The woman apologized.
Victoria looked down at her younger brother and saw that he was motionless. He was standing there with a blank look on his face.
"Anderson?" Victoria looked at him with worry.
Anderson finally reacted and pushed his sister away. "Eres un mentiroso! Prometiste! Prometió que estaría aquí!"
Anderson ran off into the forest that surrounds his home and disappeared from Victoria's sight.
He didn't hear his sister's whisper when he ran deep into the forest.
"Lo siento."
1:37pm
Tuesday
May 15, 2015
New York City, New York
Fifth street
"Anderson, wait up!"
Anderson Ruiz turned around to see his close friend, Peter Parker running up to him. He stopped to let him catch up.
"How was your dinner with Liz and Josephine last night?" Anderson asked as they started walking side by side. Peter gave him a look of annoyance.
"I don't know why I let you talk me into doing double dates if you're not going to show and I end up with two girls as my dates!" Peter exclaims, arms waving around to make his point.
Anderson laughs at the face Peter is making. "I'm sorry, sorry. Something came up last minute."
"I hope it was extremely, life-threatening important that you had to ditch on our double date." Peter grumbled.
"Again, I'm sorry. Forgive me if I give you this?" Anderson holds out a chocolate frosted donut to his blue-eyed friend.
"A Boston Creme?" Peter glanced between the donut and Anderson before grabbing the donut. "You're forgiven as long you don't do it again."
"Deal. Now, come on. Time to go to ourwonderful job." Anderson said, sarcastic with the last sentence he said.
Peter held in a groan at the idea of going to their horrible job. "Yeah, so wonderful."
1:57pm
Tuesday
May 15, 2015
New York City, New York
Wonderful Dining
The bell over the door rang as the two boys entered the diner. It was vacant, obviously had no customers all day.
"Parker! Ruiz! Stop dawdling and get to work!" Mr. Mastin ordered, walking through the swinging door that leads to the kitchen.
"We're going, we're going." Anderson say, going behind the counter and wrapped an apron around his waist, Peter doing the same.
3:45pm
"Why do we have this job again?" Anderson asks in absolute boredom as he stared at the empty tables and chairs.
"I don't know."
6:59pm
After an uneventful shift, Anderson says, "Well, I'm out."
"Me too." Peter agree, both taking off their aprons.
The two boys left the worn down building and bid their goodbyes.
"Tomorrow, wanna to meet up at the Joint?" Anderson said before Peter walked away.
"Are you actually going to show up?" Peter responds, a playful smirk to show he's not serious.
"You're not going to let it go, are you?" Anderson laughs. Peter shakes his head, a small 'nope' leaving his lips.
"See you there, then. Más tarde!" Anderson says, heading for the C39 bus stop.
"Bye!" Peter replies back over his shoulder as he walks down to the train station.
Once Anderson made sure that Peter was gone, he switched directions and headed in the opposite direction. He strolls into a empty alleyway and makes sure that nobody's watching before tapping the side of his neck like there was some kind of button on it. The result was instantaneous.
A rainbow glimmering light covered his body before dimming to nothing.
Anderson stood there in a skin-tight hoodie, hood slightly covering his face, a black cloth covers his nose and mouth, and baggy sweatpants.
"Now, it's time for my next job." Anderson said to himself as he climbs up the fire escape to the roof.
Once he was up there, he started running and jumped to the next building. This continues on for a few minutes until he was a block away from a certain tower.
Avengers tower looms over his head in its majestic glory. He gave a wave at the tower, knowing JARVIS, Tony Stark's AI, can see him from the outer cameras. And no doubt will tell his creator that he's here, so he jumps to the next building and keeps going.
"Stop, leave me alone!" A cry from below caught his attention and he peers over the edge of the roof down at the alley to see two muscle bound thugs cornering a woman into the corner.
The thug on the left laughed. "Now, why would we want to do that?"
Anderson frowned and jumped down silently behind them. The woman glanced at him in fear and relief. "Because if you don't, then you're going straight to jail."
The duo turned furiously at the voice who dares disrupt them. Their eyes widen at the sight of him. "Yo, it's Death Angel!"
Death Angel smirks at this, tapping his foot. "Are you going to stop ogling me anytime soon or are we going to fight?"
The man on the right narrowed his eyes at his comment and growled, throwing a fast punch at Death Angel, who dodged.
"Get him!" The men started launching punches and kicks at him, Death Angel dodging most of them.
His eyes caught on the terrified woman behind the thugs, staring at the scene before her. He yelled at her, "Go!"
With one last glance sent his way, she ran off.
Death Angel, relieved that she's safe, turned his attention to the criminals.
'My turn.' He thought. He slammed each of his hands onto the chests of the two in front of him and he released a loud scream, sending them flying into the opposite wall, knocking them unconscious.
In the distance, Death Angel heard the police sirens. "Time to go."
Death Angel climbed up the fire escape and sat near the ledge, enough to be hidden from below but enough to see into the alleyway.
Two policeman ran into the alley, guns raised at the knocked-out men. One of them took out his radio, while the other was starting to put handcuffs on the criminals, and said into it, "Yeah, we found them. Taking them into custody now."
Death Angel couldn't hear what the response was but he heard the policeman say, "It was definitely the work of Death Angel."
Death Angel smiles before running and jumping to the next rooftop.
8:43pm
Tuesday
May 15, 2015
New York City, New York
Citystone Building Rooftop
After an hour's worth of patrol, Death Angel sat on the ledge, overlooking the brightly lit city.
"Hermosa." He breathed out.
"You know, I really like it when you speak in that language nobody understands." A mechanized voice commented from behind. Death Angel turned to see Iron Man hovering there before turning his jet boots off and lands on the ground.
"Well, I'm glad you do since no entiendes lo que estoy diciendo." Death Angel smugly replied. Iron Man retracted his faceplate to show his handsome face.
"Now you're just gloating." Tony Stark said, disassembling the suit and stepping out of it. Death Angel chuckled quietly, turning back to the city, Tony sitting close to him on the ledge.
Death Angel subtly checked his phone and saw the time. "Wow, it took you twenty minutes longer than usual to get here. You're getting slow, Molasses."
"Oh please, Angel. Molasses got nothing on me and you know it. I was late because Pepper had me trapped in a two-hour long meeting for Stark Industries."
"Well, you do have responsibilities to take care of." Death Angel said, glancing at the billionaire. "Even if you don't want to, you big whiner."
Tony stuck his tongue out at him childishly and looked away.
"Awww, whattsa matta? I hurt your feelings, big boy?" Death Angel cooed. Tony stayed silent and crossed his arms, playing along.
"I'm sorry, for like the third time today." Tony gave him a confused look. Death Angel elaborated, "I apologized at least twice today. This is the third."
"Ah. What did you have to apologize for?" Tony ask.
"I was supposed to go on a double date with a friend of mine but of course, Death Angel needed to show up at several crimes." Death Angel said, not noticing the frown Tony gave when he mentioned 'double date'.
"So, anyway, moving on. Want to hang out at the tower? You can help me with some modifications on the new armor design." Tony offered, silently hoping he'd say yes.
Death Angel thought it over and was about to accept but then he remembered something. He groaned slightly, "Sorry, can't. I have to be up early to go to a job meeting. Even though, I don't want to."
Death Angel grins, referring to their earlier conversation. Tony hides the disappointment in his eyes and grins as well. He opened his mouth to say something but got interrupted, "I'm not skipping it."
Tony closes his mouth and looks away. Death Angel catches onto his disappointment and pulls him into a side-hug. "Next time. I promise."
"You better or I'm going to drag you to my workshop myself, Angel." Tony said, pointing at him.
Death Angel nodded. "By the way, can you give me a ride to Central Park?"
Tony sighs in fake annoyance. "Nah, you just ditched on me. Why should I give you a ride, ditcher? That should be your hero name. Ditch Angel."
"Ha-ha-ha. Very funny. But seriously, can I get a ride? Please?"
"I don't know. Can you?"
"One of these days, I'm going to hit you over the head."
"I'd love to see you try."
"May I please get a ride now?"
"Sure." Tony suited up and had Death Angel into the infamous Hug and Hold. Tony started up the jet boots and they were flying up into the night sky.
Death Angel whooped in excitement as they made many turns around buildings and soon, Central Park was in view. Tony hovered a few feet from the ground and let Death Angel go.
He landed on the ground and waved at the red and gold armored hero. "Hasta la próxima!"
"I really need a translator." Iron Man said over his shoulder, as he flew away.
Death Angel merely laughed and started running home.