Going back to school wasn't as bad as Prompto thought. Sure, there were plenty of people who stared at him and Noctis, but he could be more open around him. He didn't have to hold back on wanting to hug him or hold his hands.
He knew Noctis enjoyed it too. He could see it in Noctis's face when he would smile. Every opportunity they got together was another special moment that only furthered their feelings for one other.
But, while Prompto wished he could just go to school and spend his days alongside Noctis, they both had other duties they needed to attend to. There was still plenty of dangers in the kingdom, and their work never truly stopped because of that.
"So, anything good today?" he asked Nightwing as they sat on the rooftop of a tall building.
"Nothing yet," Nightwing murmured.
Then again, there were days where nothing happened. Crime was still bad in Insonia, but in the short time he had been around as Spider-Man, he hadn't been working to fight the crime every single day.
"If nothing happens soon, do we get to go back and relax?"
"We could do that. Probably could head to the Bat Cave, just in case something does end up happening."
Spider-Man pumped a fist into the air. "Alright! Another trip to the Bat Cave!"
After waiting about ten more minutes, Nightwing concluded they could head back for the time being. The two of them headed to the secret entrance to the Bat Cave, and once they were settled, Spider-Man pulled off his mask and sat down on one of the couches set up down there.
"Aw man, I was really ready to fight some baddies," Prompto sighed.
"Eh, they'll show up sooner than later," Noctis replied, setting his mask down at the computer console.
"But for now we'll just relax!" Prompto chuckled.
"And do homework so Ignis doesn't yell at us."
Prompto stuck out his tongue. "Bleh, homework. I'd rather do more fun stuff!"
"Well, we might have something… take a look at this."
Prompto sat up and looked at the large computer monitor, seeing several news articles and videos pulled up. All of the news articles came from outside of Insomnia, most of them originating from Niflheim.
The articles were published from several days ago, but they were all about the same person, a man named Verstael Besithia. All of them were citing that after 14 years, the man was finally being released from Angelgard prison.
"Who's Verstael Besithia?" Prompto asked.
"He's this crazy mad scientist guy," Noctis explained, pulling up various images of the man. "Years ago he built and controlled this giant robotic worm he called Immortalis. He was helbend on trying to take over Niflheim and eventually make his way to Insomnia. Thankfully, the heroes from Niflheim put a stop to his crazy plans and sent him to the supervillain prison; Angelgard. But… I guess he's 'been good' which I call bullshit on."
Prompto came beside the console, still staring at the images. For some reason when he stared at this man, he got a strange feeling in his chest. He had never seen this man before, let alone heard of him, yet he felt like he was having the strangest déjà vu.
He shook the thoughts off, trying to not let himself get lost in them. "Think he's actually up to something? Played the 'I'm good now' card so he could resume villainy?"
"Wouldn't put it past him. I mean, look at this thing. No man who creates this for destruction could ever turn a new leaf."
The next images to pop up were what Noctis had called the Immortalis. It really was a gigantic robot worm. With the massive size of the thing, it really made Prompto curious how the battle must have gone.
"Geez, even if he is a crazy guy, being able to make something like that and control it? It's kind of impressive."
"And it's always crazy smart men who end up as villains."
"Hey! I'm really smart y'know!" Prompto said, pouting as he sat down next to Noctis.
Noctis laughed. "Yeah, but you're Prompto smart."
"And what's that supposed to mean?"
Noctis wrapped one arm around Prompto, pulling him in close. "Means, no one is your kind of smart, which is still extremely smart."
He gave a quick kiss before Prompto could even respond.
Prompto started to laugh seconds afterwards, feeling warm and bubbly from the short moment of affection. "Trying to sweet talk me?"
"I could be."
"Well, two can play that game!"
Prompto kissed Noctis back just as quickly as before. They started to laugh softly to one another, giving soft kisses to one another.
"Ahem. While I am happy to see your newfound affections, if you are going to makeout, please do not do it over the computer."
Prompto and Nocits nearly fell off their chairs, turning around to see Ignis walking in.
"I-Ignis!" Noctis shouted. "What the heck? Were you just watching us the entire time!?"
"No, I only happened to walk in just now."
"And we w-weren't making out!" Prompto added quickly. "Just a couple of kisses!"
Ignis looked at both boys and laughed. "I know, but it's rather easy to make the two of you flustered."
Noctis glared. "You're awful Ignis! You're supposed to be my wingman here."
"I would say you are the wing man, wouldn't you say, Nightwing?" Ignis replied slyly.
Noctis rolled his eyes, standing up from the chair. "Great. Now he's doing puns. Come on, Prom, let's go to my room where we won't be interrupted."
"Now hold on, Noct." Ignis held up a hand, stopping the boys from leaving the cave. "You do have some meetings you need to attend today. Now that kingdom surveillance is done for now, you need to attend to those princely duties."
"Seriously?"
"Yes, I am serious."
With a heavy sigh, Noctis turned to Prompto. "Guess we'll have to hangout later?"
"Let's make a plan for it," Prompto said, standing up to grab his mask and his school bag he had left there earlier. "Text me later when you're free?"
Noctis nodded. "I will."
Before Prompto put his mask on, he gave Noctis one last kiss. "See you later!" He then put on his mask and started to swing towards the secret exit of the cave.
Since he now had the evening free, Prompto took the time to walk around the downtown areas of Insomnia before heading home. He hadn't had a proper chance to really relax and walk around in the city in forever.
People were moving around, talking with one another and living their lives. At that moment things felt peaceful, and Prompto felt like he didn't have to be watching everyone and everything.
As he walked however, he thought his spider sense went off briefly. It was so quick he almost hadn't noticed it, but when he looked around himself he saw nothing. There wasn't anything suspicious in the area as far as he could see.
'Huh… weird. Maybe I'm just tired… imagining things.'
He started to head in the direction of home when it hit him again. A brief moment of his spider sense going off, but nothing nearby that could have triggered it.
"Hm…"
Stopping to turn around, he realized that he was alone now. In the outer areas of downtown there weren't a lot of people, at least not at this hour.
But while he was presumably by himself, there were several alleyways around him.
He started walking towards one alleyway and it triggered his senses again.
"Hey!" he called out as he walked down the alleyway cautiously. "Is someone there?"
It may have been a stupid play to call out to whatever could've been hiding, but it wasn't like he had a lot of options. Either he walked home with something following him, or he tried to confront it right now.
"Hello?" he called again, feeling his senses freaking out at him.
Something was moving in the shadows… something that sounded mechanical. Looking closely, he could see a strange looking robot standing at the end of the alley.
Before he had the chance to turn around and run, the root tossed something that rolled to Prompto's feet and a large plume of smoke burst out in all directions. He tried to run, but something grabbed onto him within the smoke. He was about to use his strength to break away from whomever was grabbing him, but the effects of the smoke were already taking effect on him.
HIs mind started to grow hazy as his body started to relax against his will. Within a couple of seconds everything faded to black, and now he was in the hands of whomever set the trap.
Prompto stirred as his consciousness came back slowly. He blinked, looking around as began to figure out just where he had ended up. It was some gray room without windows, but on the wall opposite to him there were several large screen monitors taking up the entire space.
"What the…"
He stood up, shaking the sleepiness out of his legs. Quickly, he noticed that his bag was right beside the couch he had been on. He opened it up to check if all of his stuff was still there, and thankfully nothing seemed to be missing.
But that still left plenty of questions.
"Just where am I…?" Prompto muttered as he began to look around.
As he started to investigate, he heard a door open behind him. Swirling around he came face to face with an older man with fading blond hair. It only took Prompto a few seconds to recognize his face, having only freshly seen him not even an ago. Maybe it had been more than an hour, as Prompto had no idea how long he had been knocked out, but that didn't deter him from the fact of who he was seeing.
"V-Verstael Besithia!?"
'Could he have somehow discovered I was Spider-Man? He's only been free from prison for a few days, could he really do that in such little time? Shit, is Noctis in danger now?'
"Yes, that is me, so I can assume that you have heard of me or at least seen the news of my recent release," he said, his deep voice surprising Prompto.
"Yeah, and it's not a secret you're the freaking Immortalis!"
"The key word is was. I was the Immortalis, but I have sworn that name away. I am nothing more than Verstael Besithia now."
Prompto stepped back, not knowing if he was going to have to make a break for it or not. All he could do for now was play it cool and try to learn what he could. Verstael Besithia was a smart, tactful man from what Noctis had told him. He obviously captured Prompto for a reason and not out of random chance.
And yet as he stared, he got that weird feeling of déjà vu again. He didn't like it at all.
"So what does Verstael Besithia want with me?" Prompto asked.
"Please sit and I shall explain," the man said as he gestured to the couch.
Prompto shook his head, stepping back further. "I can't just trust a known supervillain. You kidnapped me!"
"It may seem that way, but if you let me explain, it will make sense," Verstael said as he sat down.
"No! I'm not going near you. Whatever you have to say, you can say it to me while I'm across the room from you!"
Verstael sighed. "I feared it may be hard, but I suppose there is no way to beat around the bush. Prompto, you are adopted, correct?"
Every part of Prompto's mind was telling him to get out. His thoughts screamed at him to run past Verstael and make it to the door. He could get out of here, call Noctis and have him rescue him from wherever Verstael had imprisoned him.
Yet, he couldn't bring himself to move. Verstael Besithia was right before him, yet he didn't threaten him. He only asked simple questions, even if said questions were unnerving.
"How the hell do you know that? I mean, what does it matter if I am?"
"Because, you know your parents aren't your biological parents."
"Again, why does that matter!?"
Verstael looked him dead in the eyes, his serious expression unwavering. "It is because I am your father and I have wanted nothing more than to reunite with you."
Prompto almost couldn't believe it. The most impossible situation was unfolding in front of him, and he was really wishing he had hightailed it out of there already.
"That's not true. That's literally impossible!"
"But it isn't impossible, and I can prove it."
Verstael stood up and started to move toward the monitors. Beneath them was one central computer that they all hooked into.
Upon powering it on, the screens lit up with various files and data spread across them.
"If you try anything funny, I won't hesitate to fight! You can't fool me with fake data or any other crap you could pull."
Verstael sighed. "I knew this task would be hard. To convince you while my record is widely known doesn't help my case, but I assure you that I am not lying."
"Then how? How on Eos could you be my father?"
"Have you not noticed the similarities between us? One would think that you'd be able to see it, just as I see reflections of myself in you. But, on the other hand when we look back, you were too young to remember. Merely a small infant when they came and took you. It was after my arrest 14 years ago, they shipped me off to that highest security prison for villains and raided my old lab… That's where they found you, and they took you away."
The more Prompto listened the more he started to doubt himself. The man was persuasive with his words, his honesty tone was enough to make him believe it was true.
"You were raising a child while being a supervillain? Planned to make me into your evil, little protege when I was old enough?"
Verstael shook his head as he clicked open a video file. "I wanted to protect you from that life. From the moment I held you in my arms, I wanted nothing more than to give you a good life."
"I still don't know if I can believe you," Prompto said stubbornly.
"Then maybe you might believe it when you watch this."
Verstael clicked play on the video and Prompto's eyes began to widen. The video featured a little blond baby with freckles across his face. He was playing with a colorful chocobo toy set, picking up various chocobos and making little 'kweh' sounds.
"Prompto what color chocobo do you have there?" Verstael's voice said from behind the camera.
"Buu!" Prompto shouted as he held up a blue chocobo.
Verstael now stepped into the camera frame, he looked younger and far less tired than he did currently. He sat down next to Prompto and picked up a different colored chocobo, holding it out to him.
"And what about this color?"
"Geen!"
"Wonderful. Now let's do one more. Tell me about this chocobo's color."
"Yewow!"
"Another perfect deduction. You are a marvelous boy, Prompto."
Verstael patted the little baby version of Prompto, chuckling happily as he did so. His gaze then looked directly at the camera, revealing his wide and warm smile.
"As you can see, Prompto has shown incredible intelligence. I cannot wait to see how far he will go. I know he will grow up to be a wondrously smart boy."
The video stopped after that and the current Verstael turned to look at Prompto. "Does that help prove myself?"
It was more than enough to prove it. Even if Verstael had captured him for some nefarious plot, to go so far to create a fake video of him as a child to convince him seemed way too unnecessary. Supervillains were all pretty crazy, doing plenty of insane stuff to get their way, but the video showed honest love and affection.
"So you're really my dad?"
"Yes, and I'm sorry that you had to find out this way. But I promise you, all I want is to see you and have you back in my life. My 14 years in prison… It gave me time to reflect on what I wanted most, and that was my son."
Cautiously, Prompto stepped closer to Verstael. While he hadn't felt in danger during this entire time, he was still approaching a man who had proved to be a dangerous villain in the past. "And you're not going to be a villain anymore? Just like that?"
Verstael gave him a nod. "Just as I promised in my court trial, I will stay true to my word. I want nothing more to do with that life. I put it behind me."
"Then, um, can I ask why you captured me? You literally knocked me out with sleeping gas to get me here. You had a robot grab me! How did you even get that thing to sneak inside Insomnia?"
Sighing, Verstael ran a hand through his graying hair. "It's not like I could write to you, or show myself at your house. I am still a freshly released villain. I couldn't see any other way that wouldn't result in suspicion."
"Oh… Uh, guess you have a point. I would have probably flipped out if you called me or something, trying to claim, er, explain to me that you were my dad."
"So, will you accept me?" Verstael asked.
"I don't know. This is still a lot to take in."
"I can give you time if you'd like."
Prompto rubbed his arm. "I don't know… Cause like, if I want time, how are you going to contact me if I want to talk again? Don't really want to be captured again."
"I would ask for an email then or your phone number, if you are comfortable with those methods."
It was still a dangerous thing to be playing into, but the video Prompto had seen really did seem honest and truthful.
Plus, now he knew why he was having that strange déjà vu when he started at Verstael. Deep down his subconscious was trying to tell him of their relationship. Now that the truth was revealed he could see it in the older man's face.
Verstael Besithia, a former powerful villain, was actually his father.
And now he had a new secret to keep from everyone.