( CHAPTER 1 )
❛ stolen spotlight ❜

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Arlyn had come to the conclusion that she didn't like Spider-Man. After 8 months of watching him become viral on YouTube and reign the streets of New York, she decided that she didn't like him. It was almost wrong, because he did save many people, but Arlyn was so used to doing it for 3 years that it felt like her job was stolen from her. He was always one step ahead of her. She knew he had to know about her, right?

Everyone knew about Cosmo in New York. 3 years ago, she was in Spider-Man's shoes, bouncing up and down at the YouTube videos of her saving lives and stopping crashes getting thousands of views. A smile crept on her face when families were interviewed on the news as they rambled on about how grateful they were that Cosmo was there to save them.

But somebody else had taken her place now, and he seemed to be getting more praise than she ever did.

The good thing was she lived a Hannah Montana life, as her older sister Leyna used to say. Outcast student by day, vigilante by night. Her two lives kept her life in balance, she felt grounded by it.

Cosmo was a part of herself that kept adrenaline running through her veins at the mere thought of hopping across New York's rooftops, or the feeling of complete control over her whole life when she felt her magic twirl around her fingertips. But Arlyn Knox was the side of her that would always be her. For 15 years she had this mediocre life with an amazing family and a few friends, there was nothing wrong with it. But sometimes being Arlyn just wasn't enough. And sometimes being Cosmo just wasn't enough.

She was born for this.

Those kinds of thoughts always ran through her head when she sat at the edge of a rooftop of a chilly New York night. Her black, laced up boots dangled off the side of the roof as she sat in silence, breathing in slowly to take in the fresh, midnight air. This was her favourite moments in her watches, when she could let go of everything holding her back and just be nothing. She wasn't Arlyn, she wasn't Cosmo. She was just a little person in a big world.

Leaning back, her hands touched the cold concrete, but she didn't mind. The chilliness didn't bother her too much. In the distance, tall, gaping buildings dressed the skyline. The whole city was dark besides the dancing lights across the horizon, from street lamps to buzzing neon signs. The soft honking of cars and rustling of leaves made the thought of falling asleep of the roof not such a bad idea.

But she couldn't close her eyes for too long, not when she heard loud yelling from a few blocks down. Queens was known for it's noisy streets, but this was abnormal.

But not for Cosmo.

Pushing herself to her feet, Arlyn brushed off the dust from her tight, black leggings (which she found would be easier to fight in than jeans) and hugged her black, bomber jacket closer to her. The more layers she had, the less easier it was for people to tell who she was, or what she looked like. Underneath that jacket was a dark grey turtleneck and thick scarf. She had sewn it onto her shirt, seeing as the scarf played a vital part in keeping her identity safe.

It was her own mask.

Arlyn hastily pulled the thin scarf over her nose and under the back of her head. Luckily it was tight at the top, so it stayed up in battles. All the enemies could see were piercing, chestnut eyes and dark brown, curly hair tied in a messy ponytail atop her head.

The young brunette was already in a sprint. These rooftops may seem dangerous to the naked eye, but she had perfected her normal routes. To the right, down the fire exit, jump to the next one, climb up, race to the other side, balance past the wooden planks, jump across the next roof. She knew her way around this place by heart, and she knew exactly where the sound was coming from.

Arlyn bent her knees and stuck her head down into the alley, hoping to not be seen. She blew her stray curls out of her face to get a better look. Below her she could see a young woman with fiery red hair and a skimpy outfit. There were two, bulky men surrounding her, yelling at her to give them what she owed.

Arlyn had been in this sort of situation before.

"You give me what you fuckin' owe me sugar, or else we gon' hafta' make you," the man with a shaven head and tight t-shirt demanded.

The woman shook her head, confidently crossing her arms; even if her breath was shaky. "I don't have no clue what'cha talkin' about Bruce."

The shorter man with a leather jacket and slicked back blond hair stepped forward, "You cut that lyin' shit right now you bitch-"

The man's fisted hand swung towards the woman's face. Before it could hit her, his hand halted midway, dark purple energy surrounding it. It was like a magical orb had taken control of it.

Which was exactly what was happening.

His fist swung around, smashing against his own face as he fell back in shock. Arlyn's hands moved to the rhythm of her magic, having complete control over her powers. She let go of the fist as the other man spotted her, raised a pistol towards her head and shot. Before he could even aim it at her head Arlyn pushed out a violet forcefield around her, the bullets bouncing off of her sphere of protection.

She hid back behind the roof, crept to the side and jumped onto a garbage bin. No matter how many times she did that her nose wrinkled at the stench. She hopped out, seeing the two men head towards her. Holding both hands out, she latched her energy onto both and swung them apart, slamming them onto opposite walls. They fell to the ground as she let go, running towards the woman.

"Call the police. I got this," she said in a strict tone. The woman was paralyzed, but nonetheless ripped out her phone and dialled the number.

Arlyn spun around to see the bald one ready to punch. Again, she stopped his fist mid-air and swung it behind him, only to be met with the face of his friend. The blond one held his broken nose in pain, but the bald one seemed to be even angrier.

She pushed his body away from her with all the force she had, but he struggled harshly against her magic. As he began slowly walking towards her, her grip on his body faded, and he leapt towards her, pushing her body to the ground.

He seemed to have her pinned down, before Arlyn let out a loud grunt, pushing all her magic out of her body. It was a small energy explosion that erupted around her, sending anything in close proximity flying backwards with the purple energy.

"Take that fuckers," Arlyn laughed to herself.

She hopped up, catching her breath before pinning the two against the walk once again.

It didn't take awhile before the sound of sirens came pulsing through her ears.

"Thanks again Cosmo...the chief may not like you, but you do a lot of good work here," a police officer stated as the two men were hand cuffed and carried into the police car.

The girl nodded in thanks, running back into the alley and onto the rooftops, making her wag back to her apartment after another successful night.

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   A heavy sighed escaped Arlyn's throat as she settled back into her room. One by one she stripped off her outfit, hid it on the shelf in her closet and put on her pyjamas. It was around 12:30 am, and a school night, so everyone was asleep by now. Still in her closet,  she pushed her clothes apart to reveal a giant, photo filled cork board. With her bright, red marker Arlyn crossed out two photos of the men she caught tonight.

She had a crime board (as she liked to call it), it was something she used to print out news articles or mug shots to keep track of crime in the city.

Her door was suddenly creaked open, and Arlyn frantically pushed her clothes back in front of the cork board.

Her momma stood by her doorway, crossing her arms in her pyjamas. "What are you doing up this late? Don't tell me you went on a late night jog again."

Sadly Arlyn couldn't answer that with a double lie. After 2 years her momma finally took notice to her escaping in the night, but she had to keep this as a clever lie.

The young girl shut her closet doors in annoyance as her mother walked over to her. "You know I hate when you go out this late, there are bad people out at this time honey, I don't want you getting hurt-"

"Momma, I only go around the block. And besides," Arlyn shot back while falling onto her bed, "if I'm ever in trouble, Spider-Man's there to save me."

She almost puked in her mouth saying that.

The raven haired lady sighed, knowing it was hard to win an argument with her. "Just...please be safe next time. I heard police sirens. That could've been for you. Night sweetie."

She left, and closed the door. Arlyn frowned, knowing that to be very true. But even if they didn't know it, they had nothing to worry about. She wished she could just tell them that without telling them everything.

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   "Okay wait...look at this one," Emily said in anticipation as she showed Arlyn what was playing on her laptop. Somehow Emily knew everything about the Avengers, and was set on finding every video of Spider-Man and watching it a hundred times. Something about superheroes fascinated her so much that it made Arlyn want to claw her own eyes out when she showed her videos of herself as Cosmo.

In this one, Spider-Man was stopping a man from robbing a convenient store, and of course someone had videotaped his amazing swinging and webbing skills from across the street.

Emily was also dead set on getting Arlyn to love the Avengers as much as she did.

"Nope. Still don't care," Arlyn deadpanned, barely looking up from her school book. They were at a Decathelon meeting, which was something that Emily should have been paying attention to. Instead of studying or watching them practice up on the stage, she was mesmerized by the way Spider-Man flipped around the room.

After seeing the disappointed look on her face, Arlyn sighed. "Okay, Emily, I know you want to talk to me all day about your little crush on bug boy, but we gotta study so we can be better than everyone we hate. Right?"

Their spite seemed to fuel the girl as shrugged with a grin. "True, thanks for tolerating me."

Arlyn smiled triumphantly as Emily took out her notes and began watching them practice. "Your welcome."

"You've never even been in the same room as Tony Stark," Arlyn heard Flash Thompson pipe up. One of their members, Peter Parker, seemed to be talking about his 'internship' again.

"Wait, what's going on?" Emily spoke up beside her.

"Peter's not going to Washington," a girl across the room replied.

Everyone seemed to go crazy after that statement.

"Really, right before Nationals?" Liz Allen said in distraught.

"It's not like we're gonna lose if one team mate isn't here..." Arlyn mumbled, but Peter seemed to hear her statement and almost gesture towards her in agreement.

"He already quit marching band and robotics lab," Michelle said suddenly, everyone turning to her in confusion. Someone payed attention. "I'm not obsessed with him, just very observant."

"Flash, you're in for Peter," Liz stated.

"Oh, I don't know, I gotta check my calendar first. I got a hot date with Cosmo coming up."

Arlyn choked on the water she was drinking before hiding her reaction.

A boy in his stands rang his bell "That is false."

"Remember what I told you about using the bell for comedic purposes?" The teacher complained.

She couldn't wait to get out of this place and be alone on her roof.

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a/n: yyayayay i love my angsty child arlyn