Chapter 217: Summer’s End. 2016 CE

A/N: Fun Fact, you remember when I said that Pluto was originally going to have a human love interest instead of Thena? Yeah, it was either going to be Gwen or May.

—

As the sun was setting in the west, a group of men and women were gathering in the backyard of a house in Queens, New York. it was the last day of summer, tomorrow, the kids and teens will have to go to school again, and these groups of people have decided to ‘celebrate’ it by doing a private barbeque party.

The group consists of a bunch of families, first is the Greek gods-looking Smiths, then the cop family of Stacys, the Filipino Leeds, including their lola, and finally, Peter’s italian milf model-looking aunt, May Parker.

Helios and Peter walked into the yard, where the rest of the group finally noticed them.

“Peter!” May exclaimed as she walked towards him, hugging him. “Where’ve you been?”

“I-I was doing my internship…” Peter murmured.

May put her hands on her hips, making a mad face towards Peter. “Peter, are you lying to me? Mr. Smith said that there is no ‘internship’ today.”

Peter’s eyes widened as he heard it. “Uh.. i was—”

“He was stalking a girl he likes, May.” said Helios besides Peter with a smirk, making even the other adults turn towards them.

May raised her brow, seemingly interested in the topic. “Stalking? Peter, I know it’s natural for you to feel that way towards a girl, but stalking is not appr—”

“Okay! Okay May! Can we talk about this later?” Peter whined, secretly complaining to Helios, who just shrugged.

“We’re not done talking about this Peter,” said May. “And you have to tell me who this girl is.”

Peter could only sigh, and Helios was seemingly satisfied with himself. He then walked towards his mother, where she was grilling on the side with Gwen’s mother and Ned’s mother.

He saw a bunch of sausages and some burger patties being grilled, it smelled really good, and he couldn’t wait to have a bite. As he was about to take one of the sausages that was already grilled, his mom slapped his hands away from the food… it was strangely painful…

“Ow!” he winced. “What was that?!”

“Wash your hands, young man.” Thena sternly said. “And this is for the adults, for you, you have to cook it yourself, there in the other grill with Gwen.”

“The adults and the non-adults are segregated now?” Helios questioned. “This isn’t 19th century US… it’s… ageist…”

“It’s your fault that you’re late.” Thena pointed out. “What are you doing anyway? Helping Peter ‘Stalk’?”

“I was at school.” Helios answered nonchalantly. “Doing ‘club’ stuff.”

Thena hummed. “Grill your own food, with Gwen.”

“Sure…”

Helios then turned around, and walked towards the other corner, where Gwen was grilling some sausages for herself, while Ned was picking out some burnt ones, eating it.

“Hey.” Helios greeted the two of them.

“Oh, hey.” Gwen smiled. “Did Peter really stalk Liz? Or are you just messing with him?”

“What do you think?” Helios smirked, positioning himself in front of the grill, besides Gwen.

Gwen just shook her head in amusement, but soon, the smell of burnt meat entered the two’s nostrils.

“Aw crap.” she cursed, quickly picking up some tongs and taking out some burnt sausages out of the grill. “Again?”

“You’re not really good at this.” Helios chuckled.

“Tell me about it…” Gwen grumbled.

“Hey, I can eat these too, right?” Ned suddenly asked.

Gwen smiled rather forcefully. “Sure Ned…”

“Sweet!” and Ned dug in.

Gwen just sighed at the sight of Ned eating the burned food. She burned a lot of food, trying to seemingly grill the food for everyone.

“The fire’s too big.” Helios pointed out. He crouched down so his eyesight was right in front of the fire, and pointed his fingers at it, not a second later, golden lights appeared around the fire, seemingly putting out the fire inside the grill.

Gwen panicked a bit, she looked around, and sighed in relief as she noticed that no adults were watching. “What are you doing?” she whispered to Helios. “My dad could’ve seen you!”

“What? I was crouching down.” Helios shrugged. He then conjured a lighter, where he continued to make a fire on the grill again, the fire was much smaller this time.

Helios nodded and stood up. “There, the barbeque shouldn’t burn too quickly now.”

“Thanks.” Gwen murmured. “So you gonna help me grill all this or what?”

“Sure.” Helios hummed, opening another batch of sausages and vegetables, before cooking it with Gwen together.

—

As the day got darker and darker, the group sat at one table, already eating their food, so they were opening some wine bottles, of course, only the adults were drinking it, while the teens were drinking orange juice.

“Hey Mr. Smith, have you seen the news about the magic stuff in Greenwich?” asked Ned’s dad. “As a man of science, what do you think of that? Well, with all those enhanced and aliens detected around the world, at least it can be explained with science. But magic? The world’s getting weirder and weirder.”

Before Pluto could say anything, Ned’s Lola tapped her son on the shoulder. “Anak ko, don’t you forget? We are also a family with magic. Maybe Ned can go to that place in Greenwich, and he could do magic too.”

Ned’s dad just sighed, but he didn’t say anything, instead, he looked towards Pluto, expecting an answer.

Pluto just shrugged. “Magic is just science that we haven’t learned yet,” he said. “When Thor summoned his lighting, was that magic? I’ve read a paper on the research of Asgardians, in their world, magic and science are the same thing, so it’s not healthy to assume that science and magic are two different entities, as they are not.”

“So you’re saying that we, normal humans, can do magic?” George raised his brow. “If what you’re saying is true, then maybe I’ll bring my boys to that place, and maybe we can finally catch that Spider-Menace.”

“You’re listening to J Jonah Jameson, George?” Thena questioned curiously. “You have a deep hatred for that hero.”

“I prefer the term ‘Vigilante’.” George scoffed. “First we have a big green guy destroying Harlem, yet he becomes a hero instead of getting arrested, then that Loki guy, he’s still out of prison for all his crimes. And now there’s this spider guy who doesn’t even act like an adult…”

“I don’t know, he seems harmless.” said Ned’s mom.

“Harmless!?” George exclaimed. “He’s a menace. He’s undermining the authority of the police! If everybody starts to wear a suit and swing around the city without accountability, this city will collapse, this spider guy and that guy with a red suit in Hell’s Kitchen is just the start, I know it.”

“I’m more worried that that spider-boy’s going to hurt himself.” said May, drinking her wine. “I mean, from the photos he doesn’t even look 18!”

As the adults bicker about the existence of Spider-Man, Peter just sat there awkwardly, listening in to the complaints and hopes of the adults.

Suddenly, Pluto said something to him. “What do you think, Peter?”

Peter froze. “W-What?”

“What do you think of this Spider-Man? Do you idolize him?”

“W-Well… I-I think he’s cool…” Peter murmured, making Gwen giggle, amused at the sight.

“Cool? What do you mean? Do you want to be like him?” asked Pluto again, seemingly enjoying Peter’s suffering.

“Y-Yes— I mean, no… no no no no.” he said flatly. “It’s a dangerous thing to do.”

“Good,” said May. “If you see those kinds of things happening, turn around and run as quick as you can, got it?”

“S-Sure…”

—

As the barbeque event came to a close, the parents took their kids to their home. However, Helios seemed to ‘escape’ his room, and he flew to Gwen’s home. He now sat on the roof of the home of the Stacys, staring at the stars above, with Gwen sitting with him, doing the same thing.

Helios brought a bottle of wine, but Gwen didn’t want to drink it at all, as tomorrow is a school day, and, well, she’s a ‘good girl’, so Helios drank alone.

“You want to volunteer to work on the homecoming dance?” asked Helios in surprise. “Why?”

“Why not?” Gwen shrugged.

“Because your schedule is full Gwen.” Helios pointed out. “I mean, you’ve got the robotics club, we have to make preparations to recruit the freshmen tomorrow, your martial arts class, and the band, well, you never came to practice anymore, so maybe you can go this year?”

Gwen sighed. “I don’t know Theo… maybe I’ll quit the band… I mean, I like playing music with you, but…”

“I get it… Shy Gwen strikes again.” teased Theo, making Gwen elbowed him from the side.

“I’m not shy… just… a girl playing drums is just… well… not girly…”

“What? Who says that?” Helios scoffed. “It’s the modern world, you can do whatever you want. You’re lucky you’re born in the 2000s, back in my parents day—”

“Yeah yeah yeah, the ancient Greeks won’t allow their women to go outside.” Gwen rolled her eyes. “You say that a million times already.”

“Exactly, so why think like that?”

Gwen put her head on her knees, hugging it. “I don’t know… I just… want to look girly to a certain someone.”

Helios just chuckled. “Well, that ‘certain someone’ probably doesn't mind you playing drums. In fact, he probably thinks that it’s kind of cute.”

Gwen giggled. “Cute?”

“Yep.” Helios hummed. “Anyway, so you really want to volunteer?”

“Yeah, you wanna volunteer too?” asked Gwen jokingly.

“Nah, if I volunteer, the girls will come flocking too, and they’ll just be deadweight to you.” said Helios with a smirk, making Gwen scoff.

“Wow, didn’t know that you became a narcissist.” Gwen said with fake disgust. “Maybe you don’t need help finding freshmen to join the robotics club after all…”

Helios just chuckled, putting his head on her shoulder. “Maybe, Baymax is quite adorable too, probably being surrounded by girls is not so bad.”

Gwen snorted, but she just put her head on Helios’s head, watching the stars above quietly with him.