Look, my parents were mad scientists who pumped me full of spider-juice just to see what would happen. I went to Hail Hydra high school and Nick Fury university. I've been extraordinary my entire life. After all these years of insanity... a little ordinary sounds pretty #$%^ great. You have your normal... and I have mine.
“You were supposed to say everything’s great, and nothing else will ever go wrong again.” Cindy teased with a half smile before she sighed and shook her head slightly. Leaving her bunker was something she knew was going to be hard, but this hard? Trying to figure out where her family was, juggling a new job and being a superhero at night? It just made Cindy want to retreat to comfort, which unfortunately was still the bunker. None of her friends really knew about that yet, so when Jess asked if she wanted to go pick up her kid, Cindy couldn’t even hide her smile at the chance to not go home to an empty bunker for once. “Not unless yours bites. Then I’m gonna have to pass.”
“Everything’s great and nothing will go wrong again.” Jessica tried out the words but they felt disingenuous. She preferred to be blunter and did her best to avoid being unkind. She grabbed her coat off the chair and slipped the leather jacket on, feeling glad to be in this uniform instead of the full body spandex. “Well, he – he bites sometimes? We always tell him no. He’s more into energy bursts.” Holding up a hand, Jessica let green energy begin to glow. “Like mother, like son. Anyway, I can’t swing because I don’t do the webbing thing so I have to take my bike. Feel free to follow any way you like.”
Cindy still wasn’t quite used to the whole adult thing, and it was ten times harder now that she was out in the real world without her parents by her side and fresh off of seven years in isolation. Honestly, the whole being a human person thing felt like a weird concept at this point. It took a lot of courage for her to let herself out of the bunker, and even more courage to put herself out there enough to even meet anyone. She was trying, but conversations were still pretty hard. “Are things getting bad again? I was kind of hoping that I sat most of the crazy stuff out in the bunker.”
Playing the unofficial babysitter to Cindy Moon wasn’t in Jessica’s original plans for the evening. Not that Cindy needed a babysitter – she was a competent semi adult, after all. Maybe it was that Jess felt bad. When she had stumbled from her stasis pod back to reality after decades of being locked away she had been aimless. So aimless she had joined HYDRA, but that was beside the point. Cindy had more going for her than Jessica ever had and she wanted to keep it that way. “It’s a cycle. Good, bad, good, bad. It’s not something you can wait out.” Checking her phone, Jessica ran a hand through her hair. “Gwen’s late and Roger’s got to pick his own kid up which means I have to be home to get mine. What do you say, Moon?” She pocketed the phone. “You’re not afraid of toddlers, are you?”
Cindy bit her lip and glanced away. Her thoughts weren’t exactly logical right now, but having Jess to talk to made things a little easier. “I’m glad I have you, Jess.” She smiled sadly, glancing up at Jess. “Thank you.”
“Always, kiddo. Always.” Before having a kid it would have been hard for Jessica to reach out, but Gerry had softened her. She reached out, gently putting her arm on Cindy’s shoulders to not spook her and give her a chance to pull away before lightly tugging her into a brief hug. “You don’t ever need to thank me unless I’ve brought you food, okay?”
“Then why do I always feel like I’m running out of time?”
“Maybe because we’re human and we don’t have a lot of it? Not sure, kiddo. I wish I had a better answer. I’ve done the whole parents went missing while I was stuck dealing with new powers alone thing. You and I are pretty alike. It’s hard.”
“I’m starting to lose hope that I’ll ever find my parents.”
“Don’t do that, kiddo. You’re supposed to be better than me, remember?” It had been a long time since Jessica had come to peace with the fact that wherever her parents were they didn’t want to be found – if they were even still alive. At this point the best she could do was help Cindy out. “Do you have any more leads? We could always ask Gwen to check on the awful version of you on Earth-65.”
Cindy hadn’t known Jessica had been with HYDRA. To be fair,
Cindy didn’t know about most superheroes’ backgrounds, though. Like Jessica had
said, the job didn’t really come with a manual to read up on. ( Though
imagine the convenience. Maybe they should start that up. ) Knowing that deciding
what was good and fighting for it rested in her hands was a pretty scary
thought. Before everything, she hadn’t even been able to keep her powers under
control. And now even with them figured out, Cindy felt far from in control.
But if there was one thing she knew, it was that not using these powers would
be waste of the spider-bite and everything that had come after it. If she could
do good, she should at least try at
it. She didn’t need the big leagues, the victories for the little guys would do
too. She didn’t know what to say to Jessica after all that– -there wasn’t much
to Silk’s name just yet. But knowing that she wasn’t alone in this helped a
whole lot. “I guess it’s at least good to know we’re not at this alone.”
“Oh wow, I had no idea.” Cindy replies, eyes widened
slightly at the implications of that. She thought being attracted to one ( two
) dude(s) by
default was hard– -attracting and repelling?
No thank you. “That’s crazy. How did you learn to get it under control?”
The best thing about growing up was being able to look back on what you had done and being able to say that you were better. You had grown. Retrospect was something you had to earn but it made it all worth it in the end. The fifteen year old girl who had no clue what was happening to her had done her best to survive. She had worked at a bar and fended off would be rapists and nazi’s even when she didn’t know her own last name or what had happened to her. That’s what you had to do. That girl had made a lot of mistakes as well. She had fallen in with the wrong group and hurt people she shouldn’t have all under the assumption of protecting herself. Jessica didn’t abhor that girl. She was her. She could resent where she had been while being proud of where she had gone. “No, you’re not alone. And you guys won’t be with this network Stark’s set up.” That brought a small smile to her face. It was hope, as lame as that sounded. The first person to ever take a chance on her had been Nick Fury of all people and he had saved her life. He had changed the trajectory of where she was going. If more youth could have experiences like that it was all for the better.
“That’s because I don’t let it dictate me anymore. When I was your age it was a mess. I’d use it on missions and spend the entire time panicking. I eventually had to start focusing and stop relying on the perfume. I still use it from time to time, but it’s a lot of focus.”
