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VALOR
POST-CREDITS SCENE

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   RILEY WAS ABSOLUTELY EUPHORIC. She was on top of the world, which wasn't a feeling she'd been anticipating ever experiencing again after losing basically her entire family. For the second time. But a few months had passed with the wind, and Riley was finally feeling good again. She was unstoppable.

   Now, you might be wondering what Riley O'Dair's been up to these past few months. The short answer was: Seeing the world. Well, more specifically: Seeing New York... and the general tri-state area.

   Riley had been spending more time out in public instead of locking herself up in the secluded Avengers Facility, whether it was patrolling or merely getting to know society better. She lounged around in cafes and bookstores, she walked the busiest tourist attractions, and she ate some of the best food she'd had in a while. Life had slowed, but in a way, life was better. You know, ignoring all of the shit that had gone down.

   Now that she was thinking about it, Riley oddly hadn't been back at the Avengers Facility in a while. She often visited Tony or stayed in hotels in the tri-state area. She hardly got to live so freely, so now that she could, she was taking advantage of it as much as possible. If that meant she technically didn't have a home for a while, then so be it.

   Of course, things got lonely, which was when she'd call up Vision, Tony, or Rhodey. Sometimes she'd get mysterious calls from unknown numbers, which always ended up being from Natasha. Turns out—the two were more inseparable than they originally thought.

   Speaking of Tony Stark, he was better. Better than he was a few months ago, at least. He was constantly throwing himself into new projects. His whole thing was relaxing and making the world better, safer. It was more than Riley had done lately, but she figured she deserved some time off.

   Tony's latest project, she'd last heard, was reconstructing the Avengers Facility and making room for storage. He was planning on selling Stark Towers, but his things still needed a place to stay. Riley was excited to go back and see all of Tony's changes after being away for so long.

   It was early in the morning when Riley O'Dair had decided to go on a run. Yes, even though she'd been relaxing and doing whatever she wanted, Riley kept up with her training. You never know when trouble will come calling, after all. Speaking of trouble...

   "Miss Valor," JOCASTA spoke, interrupting the music that had been playing on Riley's cellphone, "you're receiving a phone call from Tony Stank. Would you like to answer?" Before Riley could reply, she was cut off. "It appears my protocols are being overridden."

   Riley slowed down altogether, adjusting her wired headphones as she quietly caught her breath. "Huh? By who?" she lightly queried. Without warning, an all-too-familiar voice began to speak.

   "Guess who?" greeted Tony Stark. "I'll give you a hint. It's your favorite genius."

   Riley leaned against a nearby bench. Sweat beaded across her forehead. She watched as the people raced past her. The people of New York never seemed to settle down for a second. Riley loved it.

   "Hm, well, you don't sound like Dr. Jane Foster, so I'll pick my second favorite," she taunted. "Is it perhaps Mr. Stank?"

   She could imagine Tony rolling his eyes at the nickname. Ever since he received a package with his name incorrectly spelled on it, Rhodey hadn't stopped calling him that. Of course, Rhodey had to tell Riley about it, too, to make Tony's life a little bit harder.

   "You know, you're lucky you hacked my phone," Riley continued. "I was about to decline you."

   "Gonna pretend like that didn't hurt my feelings."

   "That's what you get for nearly skipping Tuesday's pilates class to invent a self-running toaster. Wasn't Vision enough for you?"

   "It's astonishing how un-funny you are."

   A gleeful laugh escaped the 15-year-old. She placed her phone in her lap, adjusting her ponytail. "What's up, old man? You miss me?" Riley teased. "Maybe we need to get you some friends your age."

   "I'm not the one who's only friends are grown adults," Tony chimed in. "But it's funny you say that. Well, it's funny to me, at least. Ah, you'll get that joke in the future. Look, I need you to come in."

   This caught Riley's attention. "For what? Is it bad? There's not another war, is there? 'Cause I'm still processing the last one."

   "Hilarious," Tony sarcastically returned. "I'm serious. I need you to come back to the Facility. Don't make me send my suit after you. Or worse: Happy."

   Riley smiled at the joke, but she was still curious. "...Why?" she interrogated.

   "Since when are you a skeptic?"

   "I'm not skeptical," Riley corrected. "Just curious."

   A sigh escaped Tony. It was loud, dramatic. Just like him. "If you must know, I have a little... mission for you. It's nothing you can't handle—"

   "Uh, on the contrary, there's nothing I can't handle."

   "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Meet me at the Facility. I'll explain more when you get here," Tony remarked. "I'm not saying anything else about the mission. Spoilers are the absolute worst."

   Riley rolled her eyes, standing back up. "Alright, old man. Only because we're friends. If this ends up being stupid, I have full permission to hit you," she declared. "I'm on my way."

   With that, Riley O'Dair made her way to the Avengers Facility. She wondered what this so-called mission was. She assumed it was something stupid. Maybe Tony just needed help with another invention or a question about the interior design of the Facility. What she hadn't been expecting was a babysitting job.

   Yeah, it's kind of a long story.

THE END

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RILEY J. O'DAIR WILL RETURN AS VALOR IN ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING.

ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING IS OUT NOW!

THE SEQUEL, MISADVENTURES IN PARADISE, IS OUT NOW!

○ ○ ○

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

It's over????? What the hell???? I have a lot I wanna say, but I'll try to keep it brief. Firstly, thank you all so much for being so incredible and genuinely interested in this book. I wanted to write this for fun, so seeing how much support this book alone got makes me really happy. I was focused more on character interactions and development than the actual writing portion of this story (which, compared to AIB, is a huge contrast). BUT it's really cool how you guys still came through and took the time to read this book <3

This post-credits chapter leads directly into the actual first book, Adventures in Babysitting. If you haven't read that yet/you wanna reread it for whatever reason, I hope Riley's character development and her relationships with everyone have a little more significance after reading through this book! There's a LOT of parallelism and references between these books, which I think is really fun.

Riley's grown so, so much. She's learning a lot about herself, the world, and what it means to be a hero — which is her ultimate goal/lifelong question she's dying to figure out. It's a process, and I love being able to properly sit down and write out all of her life in this format.

I know it's been a long-ass trilogy, but I'm hoping to see you guys reading Misadventures in Paradise (which is AIB's actual sequel) in the future. I have a lot planned for it and I can't wait for y'all to read it! Thank you all so much for being so amazing throughout this little trilogy.

Until another day.

PS I LOVE RILEY <3