Spider-Man : The Morales Trilogy

Chapter 24

Turns out a couple of hours proved to be 48 hours. Two long yet delightful days in the home of Curtis and Kendra Connors and their three beautiful children. Kendra was happy to have her husband back home with her and his return was already publicized on the news. Miles also informed Dr. Connors that he was in possession of the symbiote for safety reasons and Connors was so happy to be with his healthy family once more that he didn't care.

"You can keep it," Connors had said. "Just as long as your heart and mind are in the right place."

Connors had demonstrated a weird interest in Miles's abilities since he'd seen Miles use them now. Michelle also knew now but Hay and the other unconscious student still didn't have a clue as to what was happening.

Sam too was also recuperating on the bed next to Miles. He wasn't too badly injured and he seemed to have a much faster healing factor than Miles.

"We're heroes now, uh?"

"Not really," Miles answered. "I'd love to be one but something Shockwave said unsettled me mostly because it was true. I'm not a hero. I don't even have a clue as to what I'm doing with these abilities. All I've done is gotten a bunch of people I just met kidnapped."

"You know I didn't mind getting kidnapped, right? It was a kind of fun I haven't had in quite a while."

"Weren't you tortured?"

"It only tickled."

"Yeah, right. I wonder who the stronger one is between the two of us though," Miles said and grinned.

"It's kinda obvious that I'm the cooler one. I can fly and shoot beams of pure supernova energy."

"I can fire electric blasts, think and react faster, cling to objects and leap real high. Not to mention, I have this sick haircut."

"No one cares about superhero haircuts."

"Would you still read Superman comics if they made him some bald guy from an extinct planet?"

"I don't read Superman comics."

"Whatever."

"It doesn't really matter. I only fought Shockwave to help keep everyone safe. Using my powers publicly in human incidents is a risk I shouldn't have taken so stupidly."

"You say human like you're not one of us."

"I'm not."

"You're Kryptonian?"

"Xandarian. My planet is almost identical to Earth but completely technological and much more scientifically advanced than this planet. The native people of Xandar are identical to humans but Xandar is also a safe-haven for aliens within the sector."

"I'm still trying to process you confirming that you're not human."

"Does it matter?"

"Not really. But you look so incredibly human that it's hard to believe you're not. What do you do on your planet?"

"I don't know. I left there when I was 5, so I never joined our military force, the Nova Corps. I grew up here."

"Why'd you leave?"

"It was an accident. A five-year old who could fly definitely wouldn't do anything good with it. I flew too high, too fast. Didn't know my way around. But I somehow found my way here and decided not to bother finding the way back home. I liked it better here. Less fighting. Less responsibilities."

"Haven't your people tried looking for you?" Miles asked. "Your parents."

"I didn't know my biological parents and my adoptive parents fell in battle against a Skrull army. So I lived with my adoptive uncle before I accidentally left the planet. He definitely wouldn't have cared enough to organize an inter-galactic search party for me."

"I envy your origin story."

"Not much of a story."

"It's really cool but aren't you kind of bothered?"

"About what?"

"The city. It's supposed to fall in what, like a couple of days. And we don't even know how it's going to happen yet so how the hell do we stop it?"

"Well, we could use CHERFs," Sam said and chuckled.

"Cherfs. What the hell are those? Aliens?"

"Nope. It's just an interesting term I've seen around on the internet lately. It's kind of cool and it's becoming so popular already. 50K uses on Glitter already."

"Well, what does it mean?"

"Clues, Hints, Easter-eggs, References, Foreshadowing."

"Easter-eggs? References? We're not playing a video game, Sam. I need some serious helpful advice."

"You already have it. Video gaming term or not, you've encountered Smythe and Shockwave. Surely, there has to be a couple of things they've mentioned that you can piece together to deduce their plan?"

"I'm not a detective!"

"You don't need to be a detective. Find the CHERFs. Think back. Remember. What were the weird things they said?"

"They're criminals hellbent on destroying a city. Everything they say is weird."

"Then this city is screwed. Unless, of course, you can think harder and identify the things that sounded weirder than usual. CHERFs they might have dropped unknowingly."

"Sam. You're a bloody hell genius."