Spider-Man: The New Age- Book 1 in The Vindicators Series

Chapter 17

Connor groaned and arched his back in a stretch as he walked out of his bedroom. He yelped as his toe banged against a table in the hall.

"Stupid spider sense, you'd think it would alert me to that kind of stuff," Connor muttered.

Connor jumped as Maia said, "You'd think with your night vision you would have been able to see it."

Connor turned to see Maia sitting at the main computer, looking over her shoulder at him.

"Its 3 in the morning, I'm tired," Connor defended.

Maia forced a laugh and turned back toward the computer.

Connor walked over to her and peeked over her shoulder.

"Whatcha workin on?" He asked.

Connor watched in silence as Maia wordlessly opened up a new tab on Google Chrome and pulled up a news report.

Maia waited patiently as he read the article.

"It seems that The Vindicators are not just a trending topic but also a bunch of copycats. Their suits are based completely off The League of Avengers! Looks like their nothing but a bunch of sidekicks trying to be heroes again," Connor read.

Maia closed out of the window and looked down at her hands.

"Maia," Connor said.

Maia looked up at Connor with tears streaming down her face. Taking off her glasses, Maia set them down and wiped the tears from her face.

"Maia, don't listen to that reporter, you worked hard on those suits and they did just fine," Connor said.

"I want them to do more than just 'fine'. These suits keep us alive and they represent how the entire world views us. Do you really want the first thing people think of when they think about us is a bunch of sidekicks?" Maia asked.

"What I care about is keeping the world safe and keeping you guys alive. Not our image," Connor said.

"I'm an inventor, I take it personally when someone criticizes my work," Maia whimpered.

Turning away from Connor, Maia put her glasses back on and opened up a design software on the computer.

Connor studied her for a moment and then let out a sigh of resignation.

"You realize we have school in like 5 hours right," Connor said.

"We better hurry then," Maia said.

****

Connor woke with a start as he felt someone nudge him with their foot.

"Huh? What?" Connor asked.

"What have you guys been doing all night?" Dick asked.

Connor looked up to see everyone looking down at him. He glanced to his left to see Maia curled up next to him with his shirt wrapped comfortably around her.

"I can explain," Connor said quickly.

"Please do," Jean said.

"Why were you guys even up last night?" Dick asked.

"Uh, we were making new suits for everyone," Connor said.

"We literally just got suits yesterday," Dylan said.

"I made different ones because people were calling us sidekicks," Maia said groggily.

Sparks began to fly off Dawn as her body began to vibrate.