Chapter 22 - Edumacation (Part 1)

Tyler Riddle

I didn't get much sleep. Nia kept squirming in her sleep, almost like she was trying to burrow into my chest, so I just lay on my back, mindlessly scratching Nia's head. Her hair didn't really portray our ethnicity well. It wasn't course at all, instead it was soft and thin, cool to the touch.

Gwen was supposed to move-in today, and sure enough it didn't take long before she arrived. It was a little hard getting free from Nia's clutches without waking her, but it was doable. Gwen only brought two large suitcases of clothes and other essentials. We didn't have any other beds for her to sleep on, not that it mattered. Gwen came here expecting to sleep with me, and since Nia wasn't going to let go of my 'Punishment', we all were sleeping in the same bed. Gwen wasn't mad about that part, but she was pretty distressed that Nia was 'using our childhood memories to gain an unfair advantage in seducing me'. I can't really comment on that though.

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6:30 a.m. the next morning

I was up in the kitchen, making a traditional breakfast of fried chicken and waffles. I had gone to the store an hour earlier to get the ingredients. Just as I finished plating breakfast, Nia and Gwen came in wearing the same pajamas they wore two nights before. 

"Breakfast sure smells nice!" Nia said, stretching her arms and back. She took a seat at our temporary table.

"It does, but why would you put fried chicken on a waffle?" Gwen asked, taking her seat opposite of Nia.

"Because it's delicious, that's why. I don't really like fried chicken on its own, but it goes great as an ingredient for dishes. Try some." 

"It's actually really good." Gwen says

*It's delicious as always brother."

"That's good. Make sure you eat up, we have a big day of us."

"We? What are you doing?" Gwen asks.

"I'm going to head to school with you guys. I'm still enrolled until I decide to take my test, and I need to take care of Flash for Peter."

"Why do you have to do that for him?" Gwen asks.

"Because Peter doesn't know how to fight back without violence. Bedsides, I have my own mini Vendetta against Flash. He was messing with Nia the other day."

"I told you I scared him and his goons off. I can handle myself." Nia protests.

"Then what kind of brother would I be?'

"Brother…." Nia starts looking at me all doe eyed and begins breathing harder. Gwen sees this and wraps her arms around my head for a kiss.

Her tongue shoots into my mouth and I reciprocate, but I know what's up. Just as much as I enjoy her taste, I can't handle a conflict between two girls in a house when I'm the only guy here. I suck the air out of her, and give her two nipples that poked through the fabric of her sleeping shirt two firm twists, making her yelp.

"What was that for?" Gwen asks in a wronged tone, covering her chest.

"You're trying to brew animosity and I won't have it."

"Can I have a kiss too?" Nia asks shyly.

"Sure." I move to give her a kiss on the cheek, but she moves her head at the last second to give me a kiss on the lips. I bite her tongue when it tries to enter my mouth.

"If you guys aren't hungry, then I'll eat your food."

"No!" They whined in unison.

"Then finish your breakfast and get ready. We leave in an hour." I can tell the next few years are going to be a pain. More so than I imagined.

I wolfed my breakfast down and left Nia and Gwen to finish theirs. I went to my private room I used as an office and did some research in the web, checking the news and such to see what's going on in the Universe. 

Reed Richards and his group is planning to head into space for their expirments in a couple months, which means the Galactus isn't far off. That's more than a little scary, but hopefully I can find something to pacify his desire for life force before he comes around. More locally speaking, Norman Osborn was fired by his board of directors. It probably has something to do with the investigations that Oscorp had to go through after my 'attack'. 

I surfed the internet until Gwen and Nia were ready for school, but I didn't find anything else that was really useful. The walk to school was wierd to say the least. Both Nia and Gwen were attached to my sides like glue. I felt like some sort of pimp on our way to school with all the people giving me looks.

Once we made it outside the school, I sent bother Nia and Gwen off so I could find Peter. He was talking up MJ over by her locker and Flash was who knows where.

"Hey Peter." I holler.

"Tyler, what are you doing here? I thought you were taking your GED soon." Peter asks.

"I'm still enrolled until I do. I just came over to hang out."

"Peter was just telling me about that. Why are you testing out?" MJ asks.

"I'm starting a company and school just takes too much of my time. I've learned pretty much everything they have to teach anyways. Peter, here's that phone I promised you." I slip him a black leather case that contains a set of equipment I made yesterday.

"Thanks."

"All right guys, I'll see you in class later." I leave the two lovebirds alone and start sniffing out Flash. I plan to humiliate him  enough that he picks a fight. 

I followed the scent over to just outside the Boy's locker room. It was a secluded area that only the football team used. Flash had a brown haired girl pinned against the wall with his cronies standing around.

"So you're the coma girl. Another addition to the Midtown Orphan Club." Flash said.

"Leave me alone!" Shouted the girl.

"Play with us and we just might." Croaked one of the goons.

"Hey Flash, leave her alone!" I shouted, grabbing his shoulder and flinging him off the girl.

"What's your problem? Miss your mommy? Eh, Riddle?" Flash shoves my hand off.

"Your my problem Flash. I'm tired of you going around like you own the place. You keep going around bothering whatever girl pleases your eye and beating every guy you thinks a bit smarter than your dumb ass. How MJ decided to hook up with you is a mystery to everyone."

"Oh, and what are you gonna do about it?" He says, his cronies start advancing in on me.

I hit him with an ark of electricity, making him fall flat on his ass. His cronies can't process what happened, so I hit them too before they can react. I hit them all a second time right in the groin area, not enough to make them scream, but enough to make their muscles spasm a bit and go limp. Their muscles start to relax and dark stains start spreading on their pants. Two different foul smells start to permeate the air.  I turn to the girl, who's still processing what just happened.

"Hey. My name's Tyler. What's yours?" I put my hand out to her, and she just kind of stairs at it for a moment.

"What did you just do?" She asks in a genuinely inquisitive tone.

"I shocked them, made them spoil themselves. See." I held my hand up and made sparks dance across it. 

"I didn't need any help." She says, looking at the guys on the floor, groaning.

"Of course not. I just came here to teach these guys a lesson. What's your name?" I ask once again.

"Jessica, Jessica Jones." Ahhhh. I was wondering when she would show up. 

"Tyler Riddle." I say, gesturing to myself. "Hey do you want to get out of here, it's starting to smell."

"Sure." We walk away from the Boy's locker room, but still in an area away from most people.

"Can I call you Jess? It's been a long while since I've last seen you. I heard you were in a coma for a couple months after you lost your parents."

"Yeah…"

"Me and my sister Nia lost our parents just a couple weeks back."

"How?"

"Car accident. We weren't with them, but it was still pretty hard. All of a sudden, they're just gone. But we had family take us in for a little while. Now we live on our own. It's been hard, but I've had some time to cope."

"...." We both go quiet for a bit.

"Anyways, I'm not gonna beat around the bush. Do you have any powers?" She seems a little surprised by the question.

"What do you mean?"

"Like what I did earlier with shocking Flash and his groupies, or anything else. People don't just handle seeing superpowers all of a sudden."

"....." She goes quiet.

"Hey. If you don't feel comfortable talking to me about it. You can talk to my friend Peter Parker, or Cindy Moon. I wouldn't recommend talking to Gwen Stacy or my sister Nia, but if you want to, go for it. It can be, no it is, a dangerous world for those of us with powers."

"No, it's fine. I…can fly, and I'm really strong. I don't get hurt easily, and I don't know what to do. I'm sorry… I just confused, and don't have anyone to talk to and ...." She starts breaking down crying, but I squish her cheeks up to regain her focus. Her skin offers a fair amount of resistance, but my strength overcomes it.

"Hey, hey, listen to me. It's okay to feel scarred, to need someone to talk to. You just woke up after months in a coma, suddenly finding out your parents and your brother is gone. You suddenly have powers you don't understand and that's more than a little scary. Life's hit you with wave after wave of sudden events. No one knows exactly what you've been through, but many, many people can empathize. And even if they can't, they can listen. I'll listen. If you ever need someone to talk to, I'm here. Hell, I'm literally here right now. Okay?"

"Okay..." she sniffs. She's not ok, but she's at least coherent. 

"Okay, just make sure that if you EVER see a purple man, you run away as fast as you can. You call me IMMEDIATELY. He's dangerous in a way you can't fight against. Do you hear me?"

"But I don't have your number…"

"Oh yeah. You'll probably need this." I take a phone pack out from my bag and hand it to her. "There's a phone and a couple of other things in there. Just follow the set-up instructions. My phone number is already saved on there. Do you still want to go to class?"

"I..I don't know. No…"

"Okay, let's just stop by the office and I'll go tell them. Either your foster-parents can take you home, or I will."

"Thank you…" she sniffles.

"No problem Jess."

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