𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐓𝐖𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐃; 𝐌𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬

𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐎𝐆𝐔𝐄

- ̥۪͙۪˚┊❛Chapter Zero-Loss Of Innocence❜┊˚ ̥۪͙۪◌

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾✦☽༓･*˚⁺‧

EVERYONE HAS A LOSS OF INNOCENCE in their life at some point, right? Whether it's learning about the birds and the bees or starting to understand a certain adult joke in a show you watched as a kid, everyone has a loss of innocence in some way.

Well, Raven had lost her innocence in one of the most tragic ways possible. Could you imagine living a life where your own parents would sell you to people in order for them to do experiments on you just for a few dollars in their pocket?

Yeah, well, Raven's parents, if you would even consider them parents, had made it to where Raven didn't even have to imagine that.

Raven's parents weren't the richest people in the world, they barely had any money. They practically living out on the streets of New York City, fighting to pick up pennies and nickels left on the sidewalks, having to eat the leftover food from the garbage, the only way to get a shower being when a car drove threw a puddle and splashed water on them. They couldn't take living like this much longer, especially with them having a baby girl.

But, they were offered a deal. A shady and very creepy scientist, Melvin Baxter, had been conducting experiments on a new type of living substance he had discovered, and he wanted to test how it would affect the human body and the brain. So, he was in need of a test subject, and he had his eye out for the young girl, Raven Roberts. He was very suspicious but he was rich, and that was enough for Katherine and Benjamin Ramirez to completely give up their daughter.

Being forced into these horrible living conditions, the young girl was their own personal lab rat, not really having the ability to consent to or deny anything they wanted to do to her. She practically had her own life sold to these people and she sold her own rights as well. If Raven even tried to make a choice for herself, they would immediately shut her down. Melvin had told Raven that she wasn't a human to them in the first place, told her she was an object to them and that they could do whatever they want to do with her.

She didn't wish to be there. At some point, she even tried to escape. Only for her to be stopped, and she ended up being scratched, which left her a nasty scar directly over her left eye. They were tormenting her and making her life a living hell. They sometimes wouldn't feed her or let her drink anything. She was never allowed outside; in fear she would try to escape. And, she had to sleep strapped onto a bed. She had been experimented on multiple times. One of the experiments, where they used the venom from a radioactive spider and injected it into her body, she could've possibly been killed, but she luckily managed to survive.

However, the mutant gene they had predicted for her to develop, had never shown up. She was theoretically supposed to develop the ability to
create, shape and absorb a whitish-green venomous energy from her fingertips. But, it was never there. Or, at least it never manifested. But, as a result of the experiment, because of her exposure to the radioactive material, Raven was slightly sick. So, she wasn't a mutant.

But this didn't mean Raven wouldn't be haunted by these experiences and that didn't stop the experiments from getting any less bad. In fact it got worse, as Raven's recurring on-and-off illness had become more frequent.

But luckily, she ended up being saved by none other than Spider-Man himself, also known as Peter Parker, who had became aware of what the scientists were doing, and decided it was up to him to put an end to it. In the heat of the battle between the web-slinging hero and the other scientists, Raven, while she made an attempt to escape, had been attacked and pinned down by the one in charge himself, Melvin Baxter.  He told her he didn't want her to leave and that if she were to leave, she wouldn't be able to leave alive. Right when he was going to kill her, Raven ended up being swooped up by Spider-Man himself, and he had instantly taken Melvin Baxter down.

The hero didn't know what to do with Raven. He didn't know who her parents were, but he was well aware that they were the ones who put in this position in the first place, so he knew it wouldn't be the best thing to take her back to them. However, two of Peter's closest friends, a good couple, Serena and Christopher Roberts decided to willingly take her in as their own.

Peter was a close friend of the family, and he often came to visit, and Raven, despite not knowing his identity as Spider-Man, developed a tight-knit bond with him, he was like an uncle to her. Hell, he practically was practically like a godfather to her. But, for the sake of her safety, he and her parents agreed to keep his life as Spider-Man a secret from her.

Even though raising a child who grew up in a lab that has a strange illness as a result would be difficult for the average individual, the couple surprisingly handled it well. Given that they live in the same New York as Spider-Man, this wasn't the strangest thing they could've seen. And, given Christopher's history as a scientist himself, he figured out ways for her to medicate her sickness, or at least reduce the frequency of her symptoms.

Despite how unfortunate her life was, Raven grew up dreaming to be a hero, and help those around her, like how Spider-Man helped her. And given that he and her parents were close, she had recurring interactions with him throughout childhood. He was basically an uncle to her. She was practically the biggest Spider-Man fan out there. She idolized him, and wanted to be just like him. Maybe even be his sidekick.

Obviously, he said no. But, it didn't change anything. She still wanted to make it possible. She took a lot of martial arts classes and gymnastics classes as well. And, she was a genius when it came to physics. She wanted to be a hero in some way and at some point in her life. She even would attempt to make her own web shooters and swing around with them, only to nearly kill herself, and get saved by Spider-Man yet again.

While both Spider-Man and Raven's parents didn't approve of the whole concept of it, given that they didn't want their daughter to be a part of the whole superhero crime-fighting business thing, she was still persistent about it. In one way or another.

This doesn't change the fact that Raven still grows up feeling a slight inch of anger and vengeance every single day of her life due to all of the torture she endured. The anger will forever remain a tattoo in her brain. And the memories of Melvin's torture will also forever haunt her. But she's always strived to prevent the same thing that happened to her from happening to other kids like her, and to rid New York City of all the villains and threats.

And, then here she was; a failed mutant experiment created in a lab that had been getting sick as a result. She wasn't doing any saving. She was just a kid, a kid who had no idea what she was doing. But this isn't the only life she lives. She also goes to school, Visions Academy.

She's known to be quite the student. While she is very good at her work and passes almost every class, there's only one class she hasn't really passed yet. How to grow up. How to wake up from her childish dream of being some sort of superhero when she can't even go a month without getting sick.

She couldn't have imagined her life being anything else, and she couldn't imagine the idea of anybody living a life even remotely as crazy as hers, except for her idol of course. But, after Peter is brutally murdered by an enemy, and she comes across a symbiotic creature, she discovers that there's plenty more people who are, in a way, like her.