Shadows had a bad habit of following people around. Everyone had their shadows, their inner darkness. Some more than others. Marina herself was familiar with them. Shadows loved to feed off the people with the most light in order to keep an even playing field.
Some people thought you could shed the darkness away, that maybe one day the shadows would disappear. They were wrong. No one could just wish them away. Anyone who thought that was naive. Although eventually, people forgot about shadows. They were the lucky ones.
Marina hoped she could be that lucky. But the chances were slim. After all, she had met the person with the most shadows. Even he was incapable of forgetting. Instead of shoeing the shadows away, he basked in them. He waited for the day they would consume him. Fortunately, that day had not yet arrived.
"So what's new, Tony?" asked Marina.
The two were doing their annual Monday night video chat.
"Well, kid, I think we got a lead on Hydra."
"Really? That's great!" she said.
The billionaire chuckled. "Yup. Hopefully, we can get the last of 'em. Rumlow has been a thorn in our side for a while."
The blonde smiled ecstatically. "So what's the lead?"
"Sorry, kid. That's above your clearance level."
"Ugh, that's not even fair. I don't have a clearance level," whined Marina.
"Which is exactly why I can't tell you," Tony taunted. "And you can't hack your way into my files this time. The only person who could hack into that mainframe is me."
Marina rolled her eyes at his cockiness. "So, I'm guessing I'll have it done by Wednesday."
Their childish banter continued for the rest of the night. It was nice for Marina to have someone to look up to. Sure, Tony was not exactly father figure material, but she didn't really need one anyway. All the girl wanted was an adult who would be there for her. Tony was the first person in a long time to gain her full trust. It felt refreshing to have someone like that in her life.
When it started getting late, Tony signed off for the night. Marina tucked herself into bed and allowed herself to drift into a well-earned sleep. Unfortunately, someone had other plans.
Her phone began ringing and suddenly, the sound of Netflix Trip by AJR was being blared into her ears. Marina quickly sat straight up and bustled to answer the call.
"Hello?" asked the blonde in a sleepy state.
However, the voice on the other end of the line was quite frantic. "Marina someone deleted it! It's all gone!"
The caller's panic woke the girl from her tired condition. "Amadeus? Slow down. What's going on?"
"I don't know. Basically all of our Spidey research was wiped from my computer! Including half the sightings!" he replied.
"What?! Do you know how hard it's gonna be to get that all back? Why was everything deleted in the first place?" asked Marina.
"I bet it was Peter! He doesn't even believe in Spider-Man and none of this happened before he started helping out," Amadeus accused.
Marina paused. Was that something Peter would do? I mean I don't know him too well, but he doesn't seem like the kind of guy to do this.
"Okay, Deus. Let's try to keep it calm. Are we sure this was him? What if your laptop was just glitching out?"
"But what if- I mean it's just..." Amadeus stuttered. He sighed. "Look, I'm sorry if I sound a little... angry. It's just that... I kind of wanted it to be Peter..."
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COLORS || P. PARKER
Fan-Fiction"Marina? You mean like Marina and The Diamonds?" "No, like Marina and the mind your own business, you creep." In which a girl doesn't need powers to be a superhero Or Marina Hopkins has been couped up in Avengers Tower for far too long. When Stark...
