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ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING
xxiv. THE LIGHT IS COMING

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  TO POSSESS A FEAR of the dark is much more complex than it reads the first time. Maintaining trepidation in regards to the dark is not the case in which one is fearful of night or mere pitch blackness. Those who are afraid of the dark do not fear it due to the fact that they despise the concept of there being no light or color. Those who are afraid of the dark fear it because of their fear of the unknown. They are afraid of something lurking in the shadows, not the shadows themselves. They fear who or what may hide beneath their bed, not the empty space between the bed and the floor.

   In other words, Riley was certainly not afraid of the dark; she was afraid of what lied beneath a plain blanket of darkness.

   Sneaking in and out of places was not something that was unfamiliar to her. She was and always will be an agent. She knew how to be a hero before she knew how to tie her own shoes properly. She knew how to hack into a system's mainframe and how to properly wield a gun before she could count to 100. When she was given a jump rope for the first time, she discovered at least 10 different ways she could use it against an enemy. Point being, Riley was and always will be an agent, an Avenger, and most importantly, a hero before anything else. This was why it was so easy to slip past the guards hanging around Rob's private jet.

   Then again, that probably had something to do with the fact that Riley could turn invisible and simply walk past them.

   She slipped past the small group of men as they boarded the private jet. Her eyes darted around the general area, searching for Rob. The entire area was emptied before Rob entered it from inside a nearby building.

   Noticing that he was alone, Riley said, "You lied."

   Rob tensed. He recognized the girl's voice after a few moments of considering if he had imagined it or not, given the fact that no one else was outside but him. "What did I lie about? I told you I needed your help for a project my colleague and I were working on," he simply replied.

   Riley clenched her jaw. "You said you cared about me. You only said that because you wanted me to help you do your dirty work."

   Rob paused. He was formulating a plan of some sort in his head. This much, Riley could tell. The problem was figuring out what was going on in his deviant mind. "You know, I'm impressed, mija," admitted Rob. "How did you figure out where I was hiding out?"

   "I'm not an idiot," Riley instantly spat. "I've been doing this for 13 years. You're not stupid enough to travel with your partner."

   "Hm... I suppose S.H.I.E.L.D did teach you something useful," Rob commented mostly to himself.

   "They taught me more than you ever could," Riley snapped.

   It should be recognized that she was pissed. She was beyond angry. Throughout her trek, Riley had more than enough time to think to herself. She had actually formulated a proper plan in her head, but now that she was confronting Rob, all she wanted to do was scream at him.

   Rob was supposed to be her father. Rob was supposed to be an amazing guy that all the other older agents at S.H.I.E.L.D would talk about endlessly. Rob was supposed to be an absolute legend who "left the world too soon". However, Rob wasn't anything like that. He was a liar. He just wanted to steal from the Avengers and use his shitty weapons to take over the nation and maybe even the globe.

   Riley had wasted years and years of her life mourning and grieving the death of her biological parents. She spent so long asking about them and researching all of their work as renowned scientists. She spent so much of her time blaming herself and beating herself up for being the murderer of Athena and Rob O'Dair. She idolized her parents for so long, but at the end of the day, everything she knew was a lie.

   Rage swirled in her brown irises. Instead of responding, she pushed forward and ran toward Rob. She brought her fist back and punched him in the gut, causing Rob to stumble backward.

   Coughing up blood from the intensity and unexpectedness of the hit, Rob leaned forward. He stood up straight once more after a short moment. "You really think you can take me on, mija? You really think you can defeat someone like me?" Rob challenged.

   "I don't think," Riley snarled. "I know."

   Darkness radiated off of Rob. Shadows pulled at his muscles, an unnerved look in his eyes. "Fine," Rob snarled. "If that's what you wish, mija."

   Within seconds, the light was stripped from Riley's eyes. Shocked, Riley found herself turning visible to the naked eye once more. She could feel the fear coursing through her veins at the darkness. She couldn't see her father. She couldn't see anything! This was Rob O'Dair's domain now.

  It wasn't that the light from the world was gone. Rob blinded her with his shadows. No matter how much she tried to conjure UV rays to return the light, she couldn't see a thing. 

   Riley gasped sharply upon feeling the wind being punched out from her lungs. The darkness seemed to envelop her body, making her feel weaker and weaker by the second.

   "This is a man's world, dear mija!" Rob shouted manically. "Let it be known—You won't survive a fight against me!"

   With that being said, the four men in the private jet shuffled outside to see what all the commotion was about. It didn't take them long to realize that an enemy to Rob was on the battlefield, for they immediately drew their weapons.

   Riley shook her head. She needed to focus. She focused on what she knew. She couldn't see the men, but she could hear them. It wasn't too crazy to assume that Rob had removed the darkness in his henchmen's eyes in order to see and attack Riley. She needed to be careful.

   Upon hearing the sounds of guns being cocked, Riley raised her hands and created a forcefield around her body. She didn't flinch at the sound of the guns shooting at her, knowing that she was protected. Soon enough, Riley broke out into a sprint upon figuring out which way the sounds of the guns were coming from. Within minutes, Riley was able to kick one of the men onto his knees. Then, she grabbed his gun and used the butt of it to hit him in the head, causing him to fall unconscious.

   Next, Riley created another forcefield around herself to protect herself. One by one, Riley was able to attack all four of the men and render them unconscious.

   She felt good for a short-lived moment until the darkness attacked Riley once more. Turning herself invisible was useless. It seemed as though Rob's field of darkness had senses of its own: wherever Riley was, the darkness would attack her nonetheless.

   She probably looked ridiculous. She was throwing punches and trying to dodge the darkness as it depleted her energy. Her attempts were useless! She was almost allowing herself to be Rob's personal punching bag!

   "Why don't you reveal yourself and join me?" suggested Rob. "We can discuss everything on my jet."

   She balled her hands into fists. "You really wanna talk... Dad?" sharply demanded Riley, almost sardonically. It was strange how although Rob was technically her father, 'Dad' was the last thing she could bring herself to genuinely call him.

   "That's all I want." Liar.

   Rob didn't care about Riley. He only cared about himself. Isn't that why he refused to get to know his daughter? Isn't that why he reached out to her? Because he knew she had extraordinary powers that would make him even more powerful if she joined him? It made her wonder if Athena was the same way, if Athena was just like Rob.

   It pissed her off.

   The truth was blinding. It infuriated her.

   Years and years were thrown away from Riley's life. Riley spent so much of her life allowing guilt to eat at her when the accident wasn't even her fault! She couldn't have helped it! She was a child. It was an accident. Riley was realizing this all too quickly.

   Riley had allowed Rob to induce so much of her own personal torment and suffering. First, there was the guilt. Then, there was the fear and paranoia of him constantly watching her. What would be next if Riley succumbed to her biological father?

   "Give it up, mija," Rob taunted.

   She was out of breath and probably bleeding, according to the countless sensors going off in her suit. Riley was ignoring every warning JOCASTA was giving her. JOCASTA kept telling her to call Tony, to run away, to do just about anything other than fight Rob; however, Riley refused to back down. She just hoped her own stubbornness wouldn't be the end of her.

   "To you?" Riley snarled. "Never."

   "I don't understand why you won't quit!" Rob exclaimed, clearly irritated by his biological daughter and her actions. "You have nothing! What will you gain from this fight? Satisfaction? You are nothing, Riley, nothing! You're just an orphan with mutated DNA. That's all you are and that's all you ever will be!"

   Riley clenched her jaw. "You're... You're wrong," Riley whispered to herself. She shook her head. She wasn't going to let him overpower her. She couldn't. If not for herself, then for all of the future individuals that could fall victims to Rob O'Dair and his schemes.

   "Am I?" taunted Rob. "I would know! I am your father, after all!" He laughed to himself menacingly. "No one can replace me, mija. Not S.H.I.E.L.D, not even your precious Tony Stark." He scoffed. "Tony Stark isn't even half the man your father is."

   At the mere mention of Tony Stark, something in Riley seemed to snap. You could talk about her all you wanted, you could make fun of her for being so attached to an event that occurred over a decade ago, you could do whatever you wanted; however, the second you mention Riley's village, that's when she gets defensive.

   "Fuck you, Rob! You're wrong! You're so wrong!" Riley screamed at the darkness, shaking with exasperation. "You don't know me. You don't know shit about me. I let you haunt me for 13 years. I beat myself up with guilt, with fear, with every goddamn emotion in the book that could possibly mess someone up in the head. But I won't anymore. You don't know what it means to have a family, what it means to be truly loved and cared for the way the Avengers have for me. They're my family. The agents at S.H.I.E.L.D that raised me are my family, too. But, you, Rob? You don't know a single fucking thing about family."

   "We made rules!" Rob attempted to yell back. "You promised you would stick by my side, you promised you would help me!"

   "I don't care! I don't follow rules, I make them. And when necessary, I break them," Riley continued to shout. She took a step forward, her body vibrating with wrath. "I refuse to succumb to your bullshit any longer! I'm done letting you write my story! I'm beyond done letting you continue to conduct the song in my heart! My name is Riley Juniper O'Dair, and I will not let you control me anymore!"

   In that moment, every single emotion that had been bottled up within Riley's shaking body for the past 15 years just exploded. She wasn't sure how she did it, but something happened. She turned that rage, that guilt, that sorrow, and that irritation that she felt so deeply in her soul and... well, she exploded.

   Literally... sorta.

   Riley's body emitted light. Light washed over the darkness that Rob had been implementing on their environment, causing Rob to release a loud shout of pain. Ultraviolet rays shot out of Riley's hands as her eyes were replaced with holes full of light.

   The power that surged throughout every fiber of her being was incredible. She had never felt anything like this before. It was like she had unlocked a new part of her that she had only dreamed of discovering. Riley had unleashed all of the power hiding from within her, which came in the form of ultraviolet rays.

   Riley O'Dair was the human personification of the sun.

   After hearing Rob's screams and the power coming from her simmered, Riley released a gasp as she realized she could see once more. Riley squinted for a moment at all of the light as it slowly faded. The Latina breathed heavily. Her eyes darted forward, spotting Rob O'Dair laying on the ground. He looked extremely beaten up and also unconscious. Riley glanced down at her hands. Did... Did she do that?

   Breathing heavily, Riley stared at her biological father's unmoving body and snapped, "Don't fuck with the babysitter!"

  "It seems that you've figured out how to channel your emotions into your powers, allowing you to unleash your powers in an entirely new manner," JOCASTA analyzed. "All that training really paid off, boss."

   "Huh... So that's what happened..." Riley trailed off, feeling very fatigued from the explosion of her powers. She stared at Rob's unconscious body tiredly until her ears perked up at the sirens coming from behind her. "Hey, do you hear that, JO?"

  "It seems your burst of power has depleted your energy, Miss Valor," said JOCASTA. "Please try to stay conscious."

   Riley stumbled forward, unable to stand tall. "I think I see the light. Is the light coming or are those ambulances just a lot brighter than I remember...?" she mumbled. She released a yawn. "JO, you should probably call Tony... or Happy... one or the other, I don't mind."

   "Jesus Christ!" Happy Hogan's voice shrieked from behind heer, seeing as the environment around them was completely destroyed and partially on fire from Riley's internalized sun. "Kid, what the hell happened here!? Are you alright!?"

   Not even turning around, she mumbled, "Beautiful timing, Happy. Now, I can do what I would really like to."

   With that being said, Riley O'Dair passed out from genuine exhaustion.