One night Rose finished up with helping Candace clean the living room, then quickly retreated to bed. She had been exhausted as her body healed up quickly, so it wasn't uncommon for her to do that. Candace turned to Aaron, who was typing on a laptop.
"I think Rosetta needs glasses," she admitted.
Aaron looked up, "What?"
"I tossed her the remote to put it away, it should have easily been in her peripheral, but she just didn't see it. Since she's going back to school soon, might as well get it checked."
"If you think so, but I can't take her to the eye doctor until the weekend."
Candace waved her hand, "I'll take her tomorrow, I get off early."
So Rose ended up going with Candace to get her vision checked, she swore it was fine even if she was well aware her left eye was severely messed up. The older woman was secretly hoping this would help the teenager trust her more, an odd sort of bonding moment.
"Mrs. Coleman," the male doctor was looking at his clipboard, "Rosetta's right eyes is perfectly fine, but her left one has been damaged in some sort of way. Any idea what caused it?"
Candace glanced at Rose, who had been messing with the strings on her hoodie. She looked up at the adults, who were looking at her.
"Oh I got punched in the eye," she finally explained.
"That would do it," the doctor sighed, "Well glasses or contacts can help, but if you probably need to get surgery to fix that permanently when you are older."
"Can she get a prescription?" Candace asked.
He nodded, "Yeah, your insurance will probably cover it. With all this Blip nonsense I'm sure you could get a pair of glasses by them."
"Thanks for your help."
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Rose clutched the straps of the dark red backpack Aaron let her use for school, walking into Midtown High. Her hair was dyed brown, she managed to get new brown contacts, and she had a new pair of black rimmed glasses with thin rectangle shaped frames. There were a handful of new scars shown across her face and body, not to mention the bags under her eyes from exhaustion (Rose always told herself she needed to fix her sleep schedule). The hallways were filled with students she had never seen before, but there were about half she knew she walked past at least once before the Blip. She walked into her first period class, sitting in the back as always.
"Hey loser," MJ was next to her, she apparently also got Blipped away.
Rose turned to look at her, "Hey, see you were also in the unlucky 50%."
"Yeah," the other teen leaned back in her seat, "Do you know about anyone else?"
"Parker Blipped, no idea about Ned."
"I saw him when I was getting my books, what are the odds we all got hit?"
Rose shrugged, "Low."
"Does that mean we're lucky that we're all unlucky?"
The Avenger let out a single laugh, "I like that way of thinking MJ."
MJ's eyes examined Rose for a second, the other teen took notice.
"You alright?" Rose asked.
"You disappeared right before the Blip, Ned told me you got strep throat apparently. I was curious if it came back when you were blipped. Oh and you look like shit, covered in scars and all that," MJ rambled on.
Rose waved her hand and slumped into her chair, "When I came back I was in a rough patch, hence the scars. But no, I'm not sick anymore."
"Well at least you didn't die like Iron Man or something."
Rose's breath hitched, she pushed her glasses up to try and hide it, "Yeah... could have been worse."
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"Rose!" Ned exclaimed as she sat down at the lunch table, "Why haven't you answered your phone?!"
Rose dug through her bag as she went to grab her lunch, pulling out a dead smart phone in a black case.
"Oh," she mumbled, "Forgot that was in there, I'll charge it later."
"You have glasses," Peter acknowledged.
Rose pulled out a granola bar and chuckled a little bit, "Yeah my vision is fucked in one eye, just never noticed I guess," she totally noticed.
Ned leaned closer to Peter and Rose starting to whisper, "What was it like Peter? Did you come back from the Blip and run right back into battle?"
Peter pushed his best friend away, "I don't want to talk about it man."
Ned threw his hands up, "Fine fine, but you better tell me one day."
Rose didn't speak much after that, Peter adopting a similar idea. Ned and MJ noticed, but tried to not press about it. The assumption was that it was because of the Blip, a perfectly valid reason to want to be quiet for a bit. When someone had the audacity to grab Rose's shoulders from behind, it seemed like something inside her snapped a bit before she immediately regained composure.
"Parker! Coleman!" Flash, Flash Thompson was back and he made himself well known, "I was worried I would have to pick some new fuckers to have fun with!"
Rose's fist clenched a bit, but Peter gave her a glare that said "calm down."
"Read the room Flash," Ned replied.
Flash's only response was gripping the NA's shoulder's harder, a grin spreading across his face. Rose didn't move, debating what would be the best method to punch him. Peter didn't want to start anything though, so he stood up and shoved Flash back a bit.
"Back away Flash," Peter demanded, "We aren't in the mood, nobody in this cafeteria is in the mood."
A few beats of silence later, Flash backed off with a huff.
MJ looked at Rose, who was letting out a breath she didn't know she was holding, "You normally don't take his shit, why'd you just go silent?"
"I'm exhausted," Rose sighed, "I'm not going to waste my energy on him."
"Maybe you should sleep," Ned added.
Rose put a hand to her forehead and spoke in as sarcastic as a voice as she could, "Wow why didn't I think of that."
The group exchanged a small laugh, maybe things could return to normal.
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Once Rose and Peter walked out of Midtown, she grabbed his wrist and pulled him away.
"What?" He asked, going along with it.
Rose pulled out her sketchbook and showed the page she scribbled on, drawings of a girl flying and words messily written down saying things like Is the burning worth it? and Estimate I could last five minutes.
"Parker, you've seen the clip of me flying up to Sokovia when it was in the air right?" She spoke on whispers.
"Of course."
"I want to try and do it again, but better," Rose pointed to her sketches, "I was thinking about Sokovia and I remembered at one point I helped hold Ultron back. I shot a solid beam of energy from my hands."
Peter tilted his head, "I thought you could only do quick bursts."
Rose nodded, "So did I, until that day. If those quick bursts were enough to go against gravity, imagine if I had a constant source of propulsion."
"But your hands-."
"I'm not saying I could do it for long Parker, I could only hold the beam for around a minute before I gave out. But whenever I use my powers I get stronger, think about how long I'll last now."
Peter thought for a minute, seemingly calculating something in his mind.
"Why tell me about this?"
Rose shoved her book back into her backpack, "I wanted to know if I am insane and will just get myself killed, so I went for a second opinion."
Peter scratched the side of his head, "I wouldn't if I were you."
"Elaborate."
"My powers don't hurt me Rose," he gestured to his entire body, "I can use them as much as I want without consequences. Yours burn your skin, drain your energy, and who the hell knows what would happen if you try and fly."
Rose shoved her hands into the pockets of her jeans. She remembered the first time she used her powers, she remembered how much it hurt. Her palms tore open, her skin nearly boiled, and they were a bloody and infected mess for a few days. Now she was used to the pain, layers and layers of scars built up a protective layer that prevented bleeding, and usually she would only need to run her hands under some cold water to call it a day.
"Well..." Rose began, "What's the worst thing that could happen? I get some more scars? They are sore a bit?"
"I don't know, maybe blow your hands off or something!" Peter threw his hands up.
"You're being dramatic Parker," she rolled her eyes, "You've watched me explode like a bomb, you really think suddenly my hands will shatter like glass?"
Peter thought, he thought about all the Outriders surrounding Rose, he thought about her crouching down, he thought about Captain America yelling for everyone to get away, and he thought about the shockwave that followed after.
"Ok fine, but I'm going to be around to make sure you don't kill yourself," he finally said.
A grin spread onto Rose's face, "I'm picking you up tonight, be ready."
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"Those portals are unfair," Peter complained after he and Rose teleported to a field in the middle of nowhere.
Rose only chuckled a bit, "And if this works, I'm going to come back stronger after the Blip. The Nameless Avenger is going to be a terrifying name."
"Is that your goal?" Peter sat in the tall grass, he was in the Spider-Man suit but the mask was clutched in his hand.
She shrugged, pulling her blue hoodie off, "Eh, I don't really have a 'goal' at the moment. Just figured I might as well."
"Well you might as well get a new suit too, you look like a Walmart brand hero."
Rose's eyebrows furrowed, "Parker what the hell does that mean?"
The blue and red Avenger laughed, "I forgot you are boring. You are wearing leggings and a t-shirt! What happened to your uniform or whatever?"
"Oh I don't know," she sighed, "I had to fight Thanos... twice."
"...right, that happened. Well any idea where you could get one?"
"Mr. Stark made mine, maybe ask Fury for one or something."
They kept up small talk as Rose mentally prepared herself, rolling her wrists and jumping up and down slightly. She tied her hair back, a few strands of artificial brown fell loose and fell next to her face.
"Alright Parker," she put her feet together and stood straight, "I'm ready."
Peter stood up and backed away, "What happens if you fall?"
"I die or get close to death."
"I- ok don't do that."
"That's the goal. Tell me when my eyes start glowing."
Rose took a deep breath, glancing at Peter. He gave a thumbs up after a few seconds.
"They're glowing," he said.
She jumped, shot a blast of energy from each hand, and took to the sky.
Peter watched from the ground as a solid beam of light came from Rose's hands. She flew up about thirty feet before the light stopped and she began to fall. He panicked a bit, but right before she hit the ground she started up again. The next beams didn't stop her dissent, but Rose at least didn't get hurt as she hit the grass and dirt. She stood up and stumbled a bit, laughing.
"That could have gone better," Rose's laughter slowly died down.
"That was pathetic," Peter teased.
"Well I guess I'll just have to try again," she rubbed her hands on her shirt, preparing to go again.
Peter checked his watch, "Well I got another hour before I'm going to bed, so go on."
Rose gave a firm nod, jumping up.