Hello everyone, sincere apologies for my absence, I was suffering from procrastination and writer's block. Anyway, I'm back now! Thank you to anyone who followed, favourited or reviewed!
Disclaimer: I own nothing from Marvel, only my own OCs.
Chapter 10 - Jake's Not Happy
Rays of sun pushed through Ava's window as the girl slept, lightening the dark room and readying her for the morning ahead. Of course, this wasn't what woke her up. What woke her up was the shrill singing of her alarm clock. Begrudgingly, the blonde sat up and slammed her fist onto the devilish device, almost breaking it in the process. Ava gradually stood up and went about her daily routine, ending with the breakfast of herself and her grandmother, who was also slow to wake.
"So how was last night?" the old woman asked slyly.
"It was great, actually. I better be-"
"Did you go with that boy who was at the door?"
"Um, yes. Shouldn't you have been in bed?" Ava countered steadily.
"I just wanted to see who your new boyfriend is-"
"I gotta go, meeting Gwen early, bye!" the teen shouted as she darted to the door.
As soon as the door was slammed shut, Mrs Livingston burst out into uncontrollable laughter, something that Ava unfortunately heard from the hallway and flushed about until she arrived at the school. As she entered the building, the girl was immediately greeted by a certain sandy blonde, who wore a bemused frown as if it were second nature.
"Oh, hey Jake," Ava muttered uncomfortably.
"Ava, I heard you had an argument with Liz. Is everything ok?" he asked gently.
"Everything's fine but, I don't really want to hang out with you guys anymore. Sorry."
There was moment of silence as Jake's face fell even further into unhappiness. Maybe that was a little blunt, Ava thought, biting her lip worriedly. She began to open her mouth to speak again, but the teen in front of her got there first.
"But we've always hung out together. I don't understand, what's changed?"
"I'm sorry, but if being friends with you and Flash and Liz means I can't be friends with anyone else... I just don't think that that is a true friendship. Jake, you're a great guy, but when it comes to friends, you'll always go for the jocks. I'm tired of that lifestyle, I'd much rather like people for who they are, not what they can do," Ava shrugged, "Athletes are great, but I don't even play a sport. It's kind of boring."
"Who else do you have, then, Ava?" Jake suddenly snapped, "Those nerds that Liz is always complaining about? They don't understand you, only I do!"
"Calm down, I'm sorry but-"
"You're sorry," Jake repeated, laughing with cold spite, "Yeah, whatever you say. I should've known that you'd do this. I moved here for you!"
There was another pause. The boy suddenly groaned and slapped his palm to his head as Ava's eyes widened. She moved to touch his arm, but he stepped back. They shared a look before he stormed off in another direction, fury evident in each step.
"Ava? Is everything ok?" a voice queried and said girl turned around to see Gwen with worry in her eyes.
"I'm fine, Gwen," she lied, a watery smile consuming her face.
"If you want to talk about it-"
"No, really, everything's alright."
Gwen opened her mouth to reply, but Ava spun around and hurried away before another word could be said. The light blonde shook her head in worry and turned to attend her own class. Ava soon recovered from her confrontation and entered her homeroom calmly. It took a while for Peter to come bursting in. He grinned at her as their eyes met and hurried to his seat, completely ignoring the warning from their teacher.
"Hey, Ava," he greeted, the smile not leaving his face.
"Hi Peter, how was your morning?"
"Relatively uneventful. Well, I may have been webbing a thief to an alleyway wall, but that's-"
"The definition of uneventful to Spiderman?" the girl couldn't contain a knowing smile, "Yeah, I know what you mean."
Peter let out a short laugh before a glower from Mrs Smith silenced him.
"How about the Firebird? Was she out this morning?" he asked, his voice lower as he noticed a sandy blonde watching them irritably. Ava seemed to notice too.
"I... Haven't seen her yet today. Something a little more... Unfortunate happened earlier. If you've seen Gwen, she might've mentioned it," she shrugged.
"I haven't seen her since yesterday. What happened?"
"Jake blew up, I don't know why. He's normally so, I don't know, casual. It's really unlike him to be so angry," she muttered.
"Well, I can understand why," Peter muttered, uncomfortable from the glare that was burning into his head.
"I still want to be friends with him, even if we aren't going back to the way things were before," Ava shook her head, "I didn't even tell him about us but I suppose he guessed from what Liz has been saying."
The bell rang before Peter could respond and the class shoved their way through the small exit to their next lesson. Ava smiled and waved as she was pulled through. The brunet quickly navigated his way to his next class, but when he was only a few paces away, he was roughly slammed into a wall of lockers.
"You've ruined everything, you know that, Parker? I'm gonna make your life a living hell," Jake threatened lividly.
Peter, caught unawares, was unable to splutter out an answer and found that his Spider strength was all but lost against the jock, whose grip was inescapable. Finally, he let go and moved back, letting Peter slip to the ground slowly before scrambling to his feet. Jake stalked off, but his strength stuck in Peter's mind. He had never come across a bully who could force him against a wall like that since he had been bitten.
It was late and our two favourite heroes were scowering the city for problems to solve. Peter sat on the head of a gargoyle, letting his Spidey sense do the work for him as Ava, her makeshift wings flapping on either side, merely stared out into the labyrinth of roads, alleyways and backstreets.
"Hey, Ava, how strong would you say Jake is?" Spiderman questioned delicately.
"He's a great football player so I guess he's gotta be fit. Why?"
"Well, it's just... Today, at school, he kind of... He tried to intimidate me and..."
"Woah, is that Doctor Octopus?" Ava interrupted suddenly.
"Wait, what? What's he up to now?" Peter groaned.
"There's only one way to find out," the Firebird grinned, swooping down from the tall building Spidey was perched on and calling, "Race you!"
The conversation clearly forgotten by both participants, the two flew and swung their way to the empty park where Otto Octavius was stomping. He held something in one of his clamps and was too busy muttering about something to notice their presence. Ava motioned something to her partner in crime-fighting and he nodded. Spiderman began to run forward, straight in the direction of the villain. This was swiftly followed by the Firebird's descent into the air. She hovered above the ground as she accelerated and picked up Peter by grabbing his shoulders. Refusing to slow down, Ava shot across the park like a bullet before coming to a sharp halt. As she stopped, Spiderman was flung through the air and, extending his leg, kicked Doctor Octopus in the back.
Yanked out of his untidy thoughts and pushed face first onto the damp grass, he growled. His mechanic arms were soon to adapt to the situation and raised their master off of the dirt promptly. Finally able to gather a view of his attackers, Ocatvius' scowl became even deeper.
"Don't frown like that, Otto, you might get wrinkles," Peter advised, "Although maybe it's a bit too late for that. This is the Firebird, by the way, she's my sidekick."
"Um, excuse me, Spiderman, but we are equal partners in all this. If anything, I can kick ass twice as hard as you," Ava declared.
"I know who you are, Firebird!" Octavous spat.
"Excuse me, we were having a private conversation, Octopus, wait your turn," Peter reprimanded.
"Wait, what do you mean 'you know who I am'?" Ava asked.
"I am currently working with some people who are very interested in you, Firebird," Otto informed, "I'm not planning to release any details seeing as they want it to be a surprise but be ready for anything."
With that, the criminal picked up whatever it was that he had dropped behind him before Peter could shoot a web at it and scurried at an astonishing rate into an alley. The two heroes were quick to follow but the layer of darkness that the space provided left them befuddled as to where he could've gone. Especially since a thug immediately stepped out of the shadows to greet them. The Firebird sent a flame at her arm, but the woman was quick to dodge and raced past them both out into the park again.
Spiderman grabbed her ankle with a web and pulled, causing her to fall on the blades of grass beneath her. Hurrying to her feet, she was then bombarded by a flaming punch and sent to the pavement beneath a lamp post. Peter surrounded her with web as she stood once again and Ava sent a ball of inferno at the web, causing it to melt and stick in position. The woman struggled and cried for help, but she was left relatively unharmed. Peter then attached the cocoon of cool, hardened web to the head of the post.
"He got away," Ava announced.
"Thanks for that, Captain Obvious," Peter replied.
"What's next on the agenda?"
"Well, tonight seems pretty slow so I'm gonna say... Sleep. See ya!"
"Um, are we not going to talk about what Doc Oc just said? He's working with an organization who are probably out to kill me!"
"He was probably just making stuff up to stall us, they do that stuff all the time," Peter comforted, though he was planning to research the villain's moves as soon as he returned home.
"I guess... I'll see you tomorrow, Pete," Ava sighed, before sprinting and lifting off into the air.
What's up with Jake? What was Octopus talking about? Why do I ask questions, to spawn doubts in your uncertain minds, maybe? Politely review about what you liked, how I could improved, if you missed me? ;)
I'll be away for another two weeks, sorry! Follow and favourite if you enjoyed, though!