( CHAPTER 9 )
❛ partner in justice ❜

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For the first time in a long time, Arlyn was happy. Maybe not sing out loud, always smiling happy, but everything was going right. The rest of that weekend had been spent with countless hospital visits to bring McDonalds over to Emily and hang out, all her homework having been postponed by her teachers because of the Washington accident, and Leyna dropping by to make spending time with family whole again.

Arlyn had just gotten back from the hospital, backpack on her shoulder (from giving Emily some study notes for the classes she'd be missing) and whistling some indie song she heard on Spotify that day. Once she opened their apartment door all eyes were on her, almost concerned for her too-good-to-be-true nature.

"Somebody woke up on the right side of the bed this morning," Gisa commented, shoving a forkful of spaghetti into her mouth. Dinner had just seemed to be starting as Arlyn took off her raincoat and backpack.

"I wake up on the side side every morning, thank you very much," she quipped, sliding off her black boots and plopping down at the table.

Momma was cooking, as usual, seeing as her other parent lacked in that skill, and Mom came around to kiss the top of her head. "How was Emily?"

"Fine as always," Arlyn replied, watching with hungry eyes as Momma came around the table, pouring spaghetti onto Arlyn's plate. Arlyn then poked Mom's side, watching her turn around with squinted eyes. "And by the way, you were supposed to pick me up from the hospital. Luckily I had money for bus tickets."

Mom's eyebrows raised for a moment, glancing at her wife for confirmation. "Yeah, you told her earlier this morning," Momma replied without even glancing up from the cooking she was doing.

"Well...I had lots of work to do, it must have slipped my mind," Mom replied, shrugging and sitting herself down at the table. Arlyn always thought her and Leyna's ability to never admit their wrongness came from Mom.

"You can't just forget to pick people up, what if she was still waiting at the hospital?" Kai piped up, walking in from the bathroom and sitting beside Arlyn, everyone in their usual spots besides Momma who was busy trying to put leftovers away.

"Yeah, he's right," Gisa added, pointing a judgmental fork towards Mom, who rolled her eyes and pushed it down with her own fork, muttering something about not sticking pointy objects at people's faces.

"Naomi, you gotta remember this things love, okay? After Washington-"

"We know," All 4 kids whined, eyes still focused on their own meals. Momma always took the parental worrying trope but turned it up to 10.

Mom shook her head. "'Gina, she's a teenager, she's almost 16. She can handle herself just fine. And besides, I only forgot you guys at school like, what, twice? I have 4 kids, it's hard to keep track of you all."

Momma sighed, brushing a short, black strand out of her face before sitting at the other end of the table. "Listen, forks down, let me speak."

Arlyn's stomach twisted suddenly, knowing one of Momma's long, meaningful speeches were approaching, and the rest of the Knox family knew it as well. "It's 2017, and crime in New York isn't the greatest. I don't know what I'd do with myself if any of you got hurt. When I got that call from the police...when I saw the Washington accident on the news, it felt like my...my heart stopped. I want you guys to know that when there's danger, you don't need to play the hero, okay? You run from it."

Kai seemed to know her last words hit Arlyn hard, because everyone nodded except for Arlyn. Momma didn't seem to notice Arlyn's head hang low, guilt eating up inside of her. Even Leyna glanced over at the now back to normal Arlyn, who never dared to show how she really felt. Being a superhero was dangerous work, and Arlyn had to play the hero, every damn time. But she now had something more to fight for. To see her family's faces one last time. Arlyn wouldn't be able to live with herself if her mothers' knew about Cosmo and felt like that each time she went out, saving the world.

She had to take this seriously now, even more seriously than she did before.

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Everyone couldn't seem to stop talking about Cosmo and Spider-Man saving the Decathlon team, and it made Arlyn feel a little better about Cosmo once she walked into the halls that morning and saw it playing on all the televisions. The school news team had the Washington incident playing non-stop, and she could tell Peter was happy about it as she watching him smile up at the screens.

"Hey celebrity, how does it feel?" Arlyn asked, nudging him in the ribs. Peter turned with wide eyes before noticing it to be Arlyn, sighing with a nod. "Really great."

The two were walking silently to their next classes before Peter spoke up. "What about you?"

Arlyn turned to him with furrowed brows. "Me? I've had this tons of times. Doesn't happen that often anymore though, but it definitely boosts my confidence."

"How's Emily?"

"She's good, just a bit overwhelmed with school work. They're letting her off easy though, not just because of the accident but because of her condition," Arlyn replied while stopping at her locker and putting her things away while searching for needed textbooks.

"Ah, makes sense..." he trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck. "Look, I think we're a good team."

Arlyn smiled for a moment before shaking her head, shutting her locker. "Haven't you said that before?"

Peter thought for a moment before shaking his head. "No, I haven't. And I should say it more often."

Arlyn's stomach twisted again like last night, wondering what this was leading up to. "And you're saying this because..."

"Because I think we should work together more often, I mean...after we catch these bad guys and whatever."

Arlyn stopped in the hallway, glancing towards the boy with soft eyes and messy brown curls. She stopped herself before she could stare into them any longer. "Yeah, I'd like that."

His worried frown soon turned upside-down, as he hurled himself down the hallway, turning back towards Arlyn. "Cool, see you at lunch."

"Bye," Arlyn replied, letting out a chuckle on accident as his eyes continued to glance at the televisions praising the superheroes.

Maybe a partner in justice wouldn't be so bad after all.

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It didn't take long before she was back in the game with her new partner.

Arlyn's feet peddled rapidly on her bicycle, dodging cars and trucks along the busy streets of New York. She'd just gotten a frantic call from Peter in English class about figuring out where the bad guys were at, and they were just about to take a ferry, which Arlyn was racing towards at that moment.

Finally she parked her bike, running towards the line of people walking on, checking her phone for the time. It'll be taking off in 3 minutes. Her breathing was scattered and her legs felt like jelly, but she had to make this ferry.

Finally she found her way on, sneaking along with the last crowd of people. Arlyn glanced both ways before turning a corner, about to head up to the stairs before she bumped into somebody. A small squeal escaped her, before feeling her heart drop when her phone fell to the ground. Luckily her Supernatural themed phone case was sturdy enough to not break it, as she bent down and picked it up.

"Oh geez, sorry about that kiddo," the man stated, Arlyn glancing up to meet his eyes. She blinked a few times, noticing him to be in his late forties with grey hair.

"Y-yeah, no worries," she mumbled before quickly running past him, shuddering at the smile he gave. Something about him gave her the creeps.

Quickly she found a seat on one of the middle floors, near a window and a stairwell, just in case.

After a few minutes of scrolling through social media she finally got the call from Peter he'd promised her. Picking it up, her eyes wandered towards the window, noticing how they were already driving out into the waters by now.

"Hey Peter, I'm on the main floor, where are you?" Arlyn whispered into the phone, glancing around in case anyone was watching. Overall, all she could really see were families and couples, or people preoccupied with something.

"I'm on the roof, near the end of the boat," he said before she heard him talking to Karen about identifying the criminals on the lower deck. That's all she needed to hear, as she began walking towards her end of the boat, hoping to get a better view of them.

"Droney, scan the ship for a white pickup truck," he said to his little drone. "You comin'?"

"Yeah, almost there."

"Aw, this is too perfect. They got the weapons the buyers and the sellers all in one place," Peter commented, making Arlyn scoff.

"We're in luck then, for once."

Incoming call from Tony Stark, Arlyn heard Karen say through Peter's end. Peter began protesting to Karen to not answer, Arlyn's heart racing.

"Peter, don't you dare hang up on—me." By the time she finished her sentence their call had already ended, making Arlyn grumble in annoyance, putting her phone in her backpack.

Now would be the time to pick up the pace, move your ass Arlyn, she thought to herself, trying to look as unsuspicious as possible.

She was close to the end when she finally noticed Peter flying down from the top floor. Near this end there weren't many people, perfect for putting her disguise on. Cutting a corner, she unzipped her backpack, threw on her bomber jacket, and pulled up her mask, running towards the end of the ship where she could hear the fight ensuing.

Glancing over the railing, she noticed most of the criminals he'd taken care of, but one with some strange arm gadget came running towards him. Arlyn quickly threw him towards the railing down below, the gadget shocking himself against the metal posts. Peter quickly spun around, watching as Arlyn, now as Cosmo, jumped down to his level.

"Thanks!" He said, all while webbing two of the enemies who were just getting up towards the railing.

He started talking to them nonchalantly before shooting some kind of explosive web towards one of the men down the car garage that flung him towards a wall.

Arlyn hummed with a smirk. "Neat."

Arlyn couldn't see it, but Peter was grinning at the fact that for once he'd actually impressed her.

Sounds of smashing was heard down the car garage, and both heads turned to see a man knock out one of the criminals. The blood drained from Arlyn's face when she recognized him to be the man she bumped into. This guy was bad news, and he knew it too, as he was staring right back at them.

Both heroes were about to run towards him before a ton of guns were pulled on them. They told them to freeze, and that they were the FBI. Who the hell called the FBI?

"W-what do you mean FBI? I know what the FBI is but what are they doing here?" Peter conversed with Karen, throwing his arms in the air in defence, Arlyn following suit.

Arlyn's body jolted at the sudden sound of a machine whirring, and in the distance from the white truck, a huge mechanical wing sprung from it.

It was the birdman. He was the birdman.

His whole body cut out from the truck, flying straight towards them, like a vulture coming for its prey.

"Get out of the way!" Peter shouted. Arlyn was frozen in place, not sure what to do. Finally she shook the fear off, knowing he was merely a few feet away from demolishing these people, as she threw her hands over each side of the boat, throwing everyone away from the middle. The Vulture threw a car past her, so close she stumbled back, Peter falling the other way. Arlyn spun on her heel, making sure to stay out of the line of fire from his purple lasers.

Peter grabbed him with his webs and tried pulling him towards them, but even along with Arlyn's powers he refused to leave his spot in the air. One purple laser shot near the middle, making Arlyn roll to the other side once again. Everything they tried seemed to fail, as Peter hopped back to the middle level, trying to pull him down with more webs.

"Oh shit," Arlyn cursed to herself, watching her partner swing below him then back to the ship. His multiple webs seemed to do the trick, all until with just a clip of his wings, the webs snapped off. Arlyn's smirked soon faltered, but Peter grabbed the laser weapon with a handful of his webs, activating his taser web along with it. Finally the weapon got out of his grasp, falling towards the ship.

The weapon went out of control, sputtering out lasers in all different directions before Peter ejected webs all over it. Before Arlyn could even think it would work, the laser began shooting through the webs, but in multiple directions, cutting through the middle of the ship.

This ship was about to split in half.

Arlyn's legs felt like they were about to collapse on themselves, but she pushed on, jumping back onto the second floor, sprinting towards the middle of the ship while Peter swung to the middle too. Water began spurting up from the lower level, each half of the ship slowly pulling apart.

"Not on my watch!" Arlyn yelled, holding the edge of one side of the ship with her magic, while being on the other and holding her magic towards the other wall. She'd thrown people, even lifted cars, and saved her friends from an elevator drop. But she'd never held a ferry together.

And she had no clue if she could.

Above her she noticed Peter swinging from side to side, attaching the two sides with his webs. Arlyn shut her eyes, drowning out the screams, and feeling each vein of her magic slip into the vessel of the sides of the ship, like blood seeping through her veins. Clenching her fists, she held tightly to each side, breathing heavily while losing her breath.

Panis set in as she heard each web slowly break apart, her clenching fists shaking at the sounds of the screams getting louder.

"C'mon Cosmo, come on!" She screamed at herself, the fear of losing lives by her hands fueling her adrenaline, feeling her powers reach out even more than they ever had. Her whole body shook, grasping each side and letting out as much power as she could. Her body felt so light she could barely feel the ground beneath her feet.

Unknown to her, the ground had quite literally left her feet.

Peter had swung back and forth once again, holding onto his last webs with as much force as he could muster, but his eyes widened at the sight in front of him.

Arlyn was rising to his level, her power lifting her higher, more magic than he'd ever seen emerge from her fingertips. Suddenly her eyes flew open, revealing a striking purple glow rather than her normal brown ones.

The way she looked at him made him feel unrecognized; this wasn't Arlyn anymore.

Soon enough the sides of the boat began to get closer together, but before he could think it was all because of them, a familiar man in a red and gold suit began pushing the boat together.

Falling back onto the boat, Peter noticed Arlyn slowly losing her grip, as her body began flying back to the main level. Before her body hit the ground Peter ran over to her, dragging her towards a wall.

Arlyn groaned, blinking away the purple hue from her eyes. Every muscle ached, and she could barely see anything in front of her besides Peter up close.

"You okay?" He asked. He wasn't sure if she'd known what she'd just done. Sweat dripped off her forehead, breathing heavily and harshly.

"Yeah," she got out before Peter swung upwards. She wondered where he was going, but she glanced over to the other side of the ship to see Iron-Man to the rescue.

She wasn't so sure that was the right answer anymore.

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cosmo has just upgraded!!

btw yall have no idea how powerful she really is, this is nothing compared to what she's capable of...