Adventures in Babysitting ↠ Peter Parker [1] ✓

09 | She's Not Afraid

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ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING
ix. SHE'S NOT AFRAID

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  RILEY O'DAIR FEARED NOTHING. Well, at least, she wasn't afraid of most things. She didn't mind the dentist, she wasn't afraid of heights, and she couldn't care less about the dark. Sure, she had a rational fear of the Hulk and disliked bugs, but otherwise, Riley was fearless.

   By the time she was 15-years-old, she had been exposed to death, blood, and war. She fought battles against dangerous aliens when she was 11, and when she was two, she murdered her parents before she even knew how to shoot a gun (which was when she was four). She had seen and done things most children would and should never be exposed to, and that was what made her so brave, courageous.

   Riley never had a normal childhood. Instead of playing with dolls, she was dismantling bombs. She never built sandcastles with her family at the beach because she was too busy learning how to create useful inventions. She was mentored how to fight mostly by an ex-assassin named Natasha Romanoff, and she had academic debates with Tony Stark and Bruce Banner when she was 14.

   But, despite this, Riley was still sheltered.

   Yes, in the most backward way possible, Riley was sheltered. To what, you might ask? The real world. She didn't know how most things worked. She didn't understand what working 9-to-5 meant or what customer service actually means. She didn't know what a bedtime or curfew was. She only knew the life that was given to her. That life, perfectly constructed by the government, was absent from a lot of things, including things like poverty, homelessness, and how dangerous ordinary people can become when they're in need.

   Now, Riley wasn't afraid of most things. She didn't understand why parents told their kids, particularly their daughters, to never go out at night alone. Of course, she was more than qualified to protect herself if she had to. Whoever tried to cross her path would soon realize that she was the most dangerous thing between them.

   Hair pulled back into a messy braid, sweat collected around her face as Riley went for a late-night jog. Training and exercising were very important to her, probably because they were one of the few things she did in her free time. Most of the bonding she did with the Avengers was through training. Even though she was genetically enhanced, she had to maintain her physique for future catastrophe.

   Because, in her opinion, world peace was an unreasonable load of bullshit. There would always be wars to fight, and that was where she and the Avengers stepped in. And they always had to be ready. Riley was just being open-minded.