One week later:
"What kind of idiot voluntarily chooses vanilla?" Lucas asked disgustedly holding the door open at the ice cream parlour.
Jocelyn stepped out and glared at Lucas holding her vanilla ice cream cone in her grasp. "What kind of idiot likes mint ice cream? You might as well just get frozen toothpaste." Jocelyn retorted.
Lucas rolled his eyes and let go of the door, allowing it to close on it's own and followed Jocelyn down the sidewalk in Queens.
"Frozen toothpaste would still be better than that flavour you call vanilla." Lucas teased with a grin, taking a lick from his cone.
Jocelyn chuckled and nudged Lucas playfully, resulting in his smile to grow. It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon and the two friends decided to go out for ice cream. After the jet crash a week ago, Jocelyn assumed she would never see Lucas again. But S.H.I.E.L.D. had taken him off witness protection now that Owen and Anna were locked up, allowing him to continue a normal life. S.H.I.E.L.D. had registered Lucas to Midtown to complete school and therefore causing a friendship to spark between the two teenagers.
Jocelyn and her friends had made up the following Monday after Homecoming. Gwen sobbed sadly, begging for her forgiveness and Jocelyn accepted it happily. Now, the four friends were closer than ever and even added a new addition to their group.
Lucas fitted in perfectly. Dave and Ellie became fond with him after the first time they met, when he offered to help cook dinner and help Ellie with her flute practice. Ellie began teasing Jocelyn that Lucas was 'boyfriend material' and fawned over the green-eyed boy frequently but Jocelyn keeps having to explain that they were just friends.
"Have you heard from Happy recently?" Lucas asked curiously glancing to the shorter girl beside him. Jocelyn's hair was clipped back to reveal her giddy smile and bright eyes. The two stepped into a small park, carelessly walking around to waste time.
Jocelyn shook her head and licked her ice cream cone. "Not since Tuesday. When he texted me to check my bed for a suit, curtesy of Tony Stark." Jocelyn reminded and Lucas hummed remembering the memory. "Why? Have you?" Jocelyn looked over at Lucas.
"Yeah. Just about my living situation." Lucas stated with a shrug. "He told me that since Owen is locked up, the apartment next to yours was available." He implied, glancing at Jocelyn unsure how she would react.
Jocelyn's eyes widened and looked up with a hopeful expression. "You're moving in next door!?" She asked excitedly that her friend was moving in so close.
Lucas chuckled and nodded. "Looks like you are stuck with me, Flower." He stated with a smile, glancing at the girl walking beside him.
Jocelyn smiled happily while licking her ice cream, making her appear as a little kid. Lucas stared at her and his smile widened seeing her reaction, relieved she was okay with it. He didn't exactly have many friends and enjoyed Jocelyn's company. He would hate to scare her off by doing something wrong, genuinely happy that Jocelyn was in his life.
A distant alarm sounded loudly and rang threw the park. The two teenagers froze from walking, both have stopped enough crime in their lives to know that it was a bank alarm. Jocelyn huffed sadly and Lucas groaned annoyed.
"Will we have time?" Jocelyn asked Lucas.
He pulled up his wrist to read the clock. "It is 3:57. Gwen, MJ, and Harry don't arrive till 5 for the movie. We should have plenty of time to stop the crime and pick up snacks." He admitted and dropped his hand back to his side.
Jocelyn nodded in agreement, taking one final lick of her ice cream before chucking it into a nearby trash. She turned on her heel to face Lucas with an idea and a smirk.
"Last one to the crime scene has to do the other's Spanish homework for a week." Jocelyn challenged.
Lucas chuckled and tossed his ice cream out after Jocelyn's. "You're so going down, Flower."
***
Jocelyn was laughing hysterically, clutching her stomach to try and hold it together. Lucas was standing in front of her glaring harshly at the teasing coming from the girl. The two teenagers were wearing their superhero suits and masks to hide their faces, standing in the alleyway beside Jocelyn's apartment complex.
Jocelyn's suit was identical to her last one. Except there was more black in the suit which sharpen the few purple strands. There was also a purple wind symbol on her wrist, that was a charm on the bracelet Tony Stark gifted her. She was one of the few lucky individuals to try out his new micro-engineering. By a press of the charm, the suit would appear on her within seconds. It made changing a lot easier.
Lucas' suit was black with dark green accents. It reminded Jocelyn of the suits Owen and Anna wore once, using the same fabric and style. The only difference is that there were hints of green and he wore a green mask on his face which his half of it. Unlike Jocelyn's suit, Lucas' was covered in dirt.
"Are you done?" Lucas asked annoyed with his arms crossed.
"I-I'm s-sorry..." Jocelyn chuckled. "But you should have seen your face-" She bursted out laughing again, remembering what happened minutes ago.
After stopping the bank robbery, the duo stopped a car thief and an attempted bakery mugging. Inside the bakery, Lucas warned the robbers to drop their weapons and he was mid-speech when Jocelyn used her powers to throw a table at the robbers taking them off guard. Panicked, one of the robbers dropped their knife and threw the first thing they could find towards Jocelyn.
Which, was a potted plant.
But, Jocelyn mindlessly flicked it aside by a swoosh of her fingers aside and resulted with it flying towards Lucas. Jocelyn wasn't used to working with others and wasn't aware of being so cautious. Sure she used to be a team with Spiderman but they got along so easily that she never had to think about it.
Speaking of the web-slinger, ever since the jet crash he reappeared back on the streets. Aura and Spiderman have yet to cross paths with another, both saving lives and staying out of each other's sights. Last time Jocelyn saw Spiderman was the ferry accident. She just hoped that Spiderman wasn't ignoring her purposely.
"Well I was more worried about being shot at then a flying plant." Lucas remarked annoyed.
Jocelyn's giggles slowly faded, standing up right to look at Lucas in the eyes. He was glaring at her and she stood there grinning. He couldn't see her mouth but knew by the tone of her voice that she was enjoying this.
"I thought you could communicate with plants? Could you not hear it shouting?" Jocelyn asked teasingly.
Lucas rolled his eyes knowing that Jocelyn was just teasing him at this point. "Shut up." He mumbled.
Jocelyn giggled. "Fine, fine, I'll stop." She surrendered placing her hands on her hips. "Come on, we should head up before they all arrive." Lucas nodded in agreement, his arms relaxing to his side. "Race you!" Jocelyn shouted excitedly, facing her palms to the ground and white magic formed to fly her up.
Lucas rolled his eyes and raced after Jocelyn, using his powers to draw some roots to lift him up to the correct floor. Jocelyn landed on the fire escape stairwell and seconds later Lucas landed behind her.
Jocelyn glanced inside her window seeing her bedroom door open and her dad was walking back and forth in the hallway outside of her room. She would have to shut the door before he noticed a superhero sitting outside his daughters window. Crouching down beside the window, Jocelyn used her fingertips to raise the window up slowly and flinching whenever it squeaked softly.
"Will you hurry up?" Lucas whispered impatiently behind her.
Jocelyn rolled her eyes and let go of the window when it was opened. She took off her mask with her hands and glared over her shoulder, up at Lucas.
"I don't see you helping." She retorted quietly.
Lucas just shrugged and allowed Jocelyn to go back to work. She moved her hand through the window and slowly moved her fingers to the left causing the door to mimic her hand movement. She grinned victoriously when the door shut without a sound.
"The coast is cle-" Jocelyn was interrupted by a shove behind her.
Jocelyn summersaulted through the window with a yelp and lied on her back on bed. Lucas chuckled, poking his head through the window and overtop of Jocelyn's face. She glared harshly up at him and Lucas grinned amused.
"You should have seen your face." He smirked.
"Shut up, Luc-"
"Jocelyn!?" A voice squeaked.
Jocelyn's eyes went wide and Lucas went stiff. The two slowly looked off of each other and towards the direction of the voice towards the corner of the room. Standing there was Mary Jane with her mouth gaped open. She was standing next to Gwen and the closet the girls were raiding through. Gwen was staring at Lucas in shock, unaware their new friend was a hero too. And Harry was sitting at Jocelyn's desk with his eyes wide, glancing between his two best friends in superhero suits piecing it together.
"You're Aura!?" Harry asked quickly in shock and excitement.
Jocelyn shot off the bed and too her feet glancing between her friends, barely missing hitting her head with Lucas'. She began waving her hands frantically, a panic expression falling on her face. "Shhhhh! This isn't what it looks like!" She pleaded standing in the center of the room.
"You just closed the door from across the room." Mary Jane pointed out in shock, trying to make sense of what she just witnessed.
Jocelyn bit her lip nervously and nodded in agreement, not knowing how she could lie her way out of this one. She took a deep breath and clenched her gloved hands.
"You guys can't tell anyone." Jocelyn begged quietly. Behind her, Lucas slipped through the window and closed it slowly. He slid off the bed and stood next to Jocelyn, glancing among her friends worried.
"This is so cool!" Harry shouted excitedly springing off the chair to his feet.
"You...Aura..." Mary Jane mumbled putting everything together. She shook her head in disbelief. "This is the secret!? All those times you ditched us was because you were Aura?" Mary Jane asked finally beginning to understand. She wasn't mad or disappointed but rather in shock that her closest friend was keeping this secret from her.
Jocelyn rubbed her upper arm nervously. "Guilty..." Jocelyn mumbled. "Look, I know this is weird. But please-"
"Jocelyn!?"
Jocelyn glanced over and groaned seeing her bedroom door open and her dad standing their with a laundry basket. His eyes wide seeing his daughter in an identical copy of a superhero suit. He glanced at her friends in the room, seeing the same shocked expressions and another hero standing behind her.
Jocelyn mumbled under her breath. "Look Dad, I can explain." She stepped towards the door frantically.
The light went on in Dave's mind and he clicked everything together. The fact that his daughter is actually a superhero and fights villains in her spare time, destroying his attempts of keeping her safe. Dave remembered all the stories he hears about Aura fighting crime and almost dying. And just thinking that the hero was actually his daughter, made him feel lightheaded.
His eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fainted from the truth.
Jocelyn gasped and cupped her mouth not knowing what to do. Her friends were freaking out in her room, Lucas was giving teasing comments behind her, and her dad just passed out in the middle of the hallway. This is not how she planned telling her friends and family.
Ellie walked through the hallway and stopped beside her unconscious dad confused. She narrowed her eyes, kicking his arm softly before glancing up into the open door. Once seeing the sight in front of her, she nodded understandingly.
"Gwen," Ellie said looking at said girl. "You owe me $5." She reminded referring to her passed out dad.
Gwen didn't reply, still staring at her two friends in front of her wearing superhero suits. Harry was grinning ear to ear and Mary Jane looked like she just witnessed a puppy get murdered.
Lucas took a step towards Jocelyn and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Well that could have gone better." He admitted, giving her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. Jocelyn groaned and hid her face in her hands, wishing the ground could swallow her whole and escape this horrible moment.
Well, at least the truth is out now.
***
End of Part 1
***