Light of a Thousand Stars

20- Lira

Theresa decided that she definitely was not getting any more sleep. She sighed and tried to rid herself of her depressing thoughts by maybe patrolling a little. She pulled out her helmet and stared at it. What are the chances? She shook her head, probably really high. But she needed this. Who was she for rules anyways? She pressed her finger onto the back of her necklace, the small button clicked. The familiar warmth enveloped her as the armour crawled up her neck and down to her feet. She gabbed her hoodie again and tossed it on. She inspected herself in the mirror. She nodded, pleased with herself. Wait! She had a spare black eye mask in her bag right? Sure enough, she found it.

The window wouldn't open.

"Excuse me miss, what are you doing?" A female irish voice asked, causing Theresa to jump.

"F.R.I.D.A.Y.!" Theresa whisper-yelled in surprise, "I just wanna get a breath of fresh air."

F.R.I.D.A.Y. was silent but the window unlocked and Theresa creeped out whispering a 'thank you' into the empty room. She let herself free fall for a second and was about to catch herself when someone else did it for her.

"Never fear!" A terribly familiar voice began, "Nova is here!" He snicker to himself. They were floating in mid air and she didn't know whether should pretend to freak out or actually freak out or stay calm or-

"Um, are you-"

"Oh my gosh!" She squeaked, "I-I, um, let me go!"

"Wait let me land-" Sam was interrupted by Theresa who was trying to distance herself from her fa- no, the other teen. She managed to shove herself right out of his arms and continued to pummel. With lightning fast reflexes Theresa stopped her descent, the light blue energy emitting a soft glow around her. She heard a gasp behind her. Shoot. Sam. Theresa didn't think and shot off as fast she she could, well, not really. The highest speed of the Nova helmet was actually light speed, which might have taken her to the moon in a second. In this case, Theresa just ended up near the statue of liberty in a second. She perched herself on the lady liberty's highest spike on the crown and let out a breath, the glow fading as she stopped flying. Seeing her. . . father again also caused her to remember her half-brother, Jesse (the second). He had disappeared without a trace, much like his namesake, ironically, years before Darkhand rose to power, taking Sam's original helmet with him. He was gone when Theresa was ten. On Theresa's 14th birthday, her parent gifted her her necklace, a Stark tech enhanced charm, with abilities exactly like the helmet, and another Nova helmet Rocket (the raccoon) stole from Xandar. The Nova corps were not amused but allowed it nonetheless.

"Hey!" A voice called from behind her causing her to jump off the tip of the crown, but caught herself mid-air. She twirled around to see Spider-man in her face along with Nova. In addition, Spider-girl was also farther back, unnoticed by their 'parents', wagging a finger at Theresa.

She cursed, "Crispy tart raspberry pie!"