Illuminant [Marvel]

The door creaked open as my mother came in, extending her hand to turn on the lights, to realize that the lights were already on.

"Franklin, are you home? What you did outside wasn't very nice." She set her bag down and sighed.

"Yep, I'm home." I formed a ball of light, tossing it into the air and catching it.

"Cut it off, " she told me, shielding her eyes. 

As soon as I snapped my fingers, the ball dissipated into nothing. "Sorry, " I sheepishly apologized.

"What was that? Inappropriate things in the sky are not okay, Franklin." She crossed her arms and looked at me, a very intimidating look, I must admit.

"Wait, wait, wait, I can explain," I raised my hands.

"Continue," 

"There was this obnoxious guy. He was bugging me about this weird organization for dress-up spies, nothing serious," I explained to her. All I did was annoy him. After that, I came back home, which led to this."

"And that is all?" 

"Of course, Mom. You don't believe me?" I asked her, trying to catch some sympathy points.

She looked at me weirdly, I could tell that she knew something was off but decided to leave it.

"Okay... I'll leave you to it then." And she left, leaving me in the living hall.

[Next Day]

At my school,

"Morning, Pete," I called out, leaning casually against the locker next to his. "You see my masterpiece last night? I'm thinking about calling it 'Dickstinction.' Has a nice ring to it, don't you think?"

Peter groaned, slamming his locker shut. "Franklin, do you ever stop? Do you realize what you've done? SHIELD is going to come after you with everything they've got! And don't get me started on NASA!"

"Where's Ned? He's with you usually, right?" I asked him.

"He isn't coming today, he said he got a fever or something." He told me as I formed an 'O' with my mouth.

"Okay, Peter, what do you think of a superhero crossover?" I asked him, a grin on my face.

"A superhero- what?"

"Spider-Man and 'Illuminant'. A crime-fighting duo, what do you think?" 

"JJ is already my biggest hater, if he finds me with you..." 

Peter raised his hand, imagining the headline already. "'Menace Teams Up with Walking Disco Ball to Terrorize City.' Yeah, that's gonna go over great with Jameson."

I snorted. "Walking Disco Ball? Come on, Pete, give me some credit. I'm the Illuminant, just like the news told,"

Snap...

Now, school was over, we had free time, and I looked at Peter and smiled stupidly. 

"Peeeter~ wanna take me along with your bullshit?" I grabbed Peter and took off.

Peter and I stood on the roof of a building, the wind blowing over our hair.

"So, let me get this straight," Peter said. "You want us to go on patrol, you and me—partners."

"Exactly. Partners. A duo~. The dynamic duo~, Pete. We patrol the streets, keep the bad guys in check, and maybe... just maybe... make things look a little cooler than just a guy in a red suit swinging around."

Peter gave me a skeptical look. "And you, glowing in the dark, are supposed to be my backup? Not gonna lie, Franklin, I'm not sure how much backup you'll be when people can spot you a mile away."

"Bitch, I know when to shine, when to not, I mean, I can takedown them before you can blink.

I smirked. "Don't worry, Pete. I've got perfect control over my powers. When it's time to shine, I'll shine. But when it's time to stay under the radar, I'll be like a... a shadow." I flicked my fingers, sending a small burst of light up into the sky, watching it disappear quickly. I also formed a mask, similar to the one I used in the bank robbery, and wore it.

Peter sighed, clearly skeptical but nodding. "Fine, let's get this over with. But if I get caught because of your glow-in-the-dark nonsense, I swear…"

"You won't get caught. You've got me now," I teased, giving him a wink.

He rolled his eyes. "You're a mess, Franklin."

Without another word, Peter launched himself into the air. I followed very slowly, trying to follow him..

We didn't have to wait long.

Down below, in an alleyway, a group of shady figures were gathered around a black van, unloading suspicious-looking packages into their truck. My instincts flared, and I tapped Peter's shoulder. "LOOK PETER, COCAI- COKE!" I shouted excitedly.

"There, down below," I whispered. "Looks like a drug deal or something."

Peter nodded. "Alright. Let's take care of this clean. You know the plan?"

I grinned and cracked my knuckles. "We swoop in, you web them up, and I'll dazzle them with the light show. No one's gonna want to mess with us after that."

"Alright," Peter said. "Let's do this."

With synchronized precision, we dropped down onto the alleyway. The criminals didn't notice us until it was too late.

Peter landed silently, entangling the first guy in the webs before he even had a chance to react. The second one barely turned around before Peter swung a web at his legs, knocking him off balance. As they struggled, I stepped forward, hands raised.

"Gentlemen," I said. "Let's make this quick."

I formed an orb of light and tossed it into the sky, blinding everyone except for me. I quickly disarmed all of them, in light speed, as I am light... that was unnecessary but you know, I'm trying to flex.

The criminals stumbled around, disoriented by the sudden explosion of light that filled the alley. One of them tried to reach for a weapon, but before he even got his hand close, I snatched it from him—faster than they could blink. I didn't even need to make a dramatic show of it. I just wanted to prove a point. 

"Ah, ah, ah," I said, wagging my finger as I hovered just out of their reach. "You guys should really rethink your life choices."

"I'm way faster than you guys and at this point, anything you do that is negative to us is useless, so you should just give up and go to jail for trying to smuggle... 5 kgs of coke... that's all? Okay. Poor but nice try."

"Fr- Illuminant, I don't think it is necessary to give a monologue."

"Wh- NO, Of course it is, don't you know?"

But suddenly, just like in the movies, a dumb guy rushed on to me.

The guy lunged at me with his bare fists now—because, as you know, I already melted their weapons into harmless puddles of metal earlier. "Really? Your big move is punching me?" I chuckled, dodging his swing effortlessly.

"Franklin," Peter muttered from his corner, webbing up another guy who'd barely moved since the light show. "Can you not make this a comedy skit? We're supposed to be wrapping this up."

"I'm just saying, Pete, this guy clearly doesn't know what he's up against." I ducked another wild swing and gave the guy a sympathetic look. "Buddy, you'd have a better chance trying to punch the moon."

The guy, fully enraged, lunged again, but I dashed out of the way, appearing behind him quickly. I gave him a light tap on the back. "Tag. You're it."

I formed a small beam on the tip of my fingers and shot at him, sending him flying away, as I heard a crunch, oops, did I break his back?

"Fra- damn, Illuminant, you're not Batman, you can't just go and break every criminal's back, poor guy." Peter shouted at me.

"Oops..." I scratched the back of my head, realizing the crunch was louder than I expected. "Okay, okay, it wasn't that bad. I mean, he's still breathing. Probably just... a little bruised?"

"So... should I bring some rope?"

"Franklin, this isn't camping. You don't just 'bring some rope' for tying up bad guys!"

"Well, excuse me for improvising," I shot back, crossing my arms. "Not everyone comes equipped with an infinite supply of sticky string, Spider-Man."

Peter muttered under his breath, clearly annoyed. "Fine. Just... stay here. Don't do anything while I clean this up."

He shot a web at the groaning guy I may or may not have slightly overpowered, securing him to the wall alongside the others. "Seriously, Franklin, you need to work on your whole 'subtle superhero' act. You're supposed to stop bad guys, not turn them into chiropractors' worst nightmares."

"Chiropractors are there for a reason, I'm giving them livelihood and giving these guys a punishment."

"Them? You are torturing a single guy."

"Oh, I didn't realise we were keeping a record."

"You're impossible, Franklin. Absolutely impossible."

I smirked, leaning back against the alley wall as Peter started securing the rest of the criminals with his webs. "You say that now, but when the world recognizes us as the ultimate duo, you'll be singing a different tune. Maybe even writing a catchy jingle about it."

I looked at the criminals who were innocently sitting down and raised an eyebrow: "You guys weren't going to help your friend?"

"Absolutely not. I think he is autistic."

The rest of the criminals just stared at their friend, now slumped awkwardly against the wall in a heap of his own poor decision-making. One of them muttered something under his breath, but no one seemed eager to move or try to escape. I raised an eyebrow and glanced at Peter.

"Pete," I said, crossing my arms. "Did I really break his back? Like, really?"

"Okay, Illuminant, no need to rant how you traumatized that guy." 

"Soooo... how do we inform the police?"

Peter's hand hovered over his phone for a moment before he realized the danger of using it here. Instead of dialing emergency services, he glanced at me.

"Okay, I'm not using my phone. They could track me, and that's way too risky," he muttered under his breath. "We need to do this the old-fashioned way."

I raised an eyebrow. "And what's that? Shouting 'Help! Call the cops!'?"

Peter shot me a look. "No, idiot. We're getting out of here, and you're going to handle this."

I blinked. "Me?"

"Yeah. You. I'm pretty sure SHIELD has your number, and your little light show doesn't need a phone to get attention."

"Okay, so I just make a signal in the sky and the cops come to us."

"Exactly," Peter said with a small nod.

I pointed my palm at the ground and focused my energy onto it, intending to form a beacon of light, that stretched across the sky.

I concentrated, my fingers crackling with power as I focused on the energy building up inside me. Slowly, the light began to form, first as a small point, then growing larger and brighter. I directed it upwards.

"Alright," I muttered under my breath, "this should do the trick."

With a final snap of my fingers, the beam shot into the sky, forming a beacon, just as intended. I also needed them to know it was me, should I just write my name in the sky, like a bat signal?

With a smirk, I flicked my fingers again, and the beam morphed into something more specific. Slowly, it reshaped into ILLUMINANT.

"Now, they know, can we continue this patrol?"