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Extracurricular Activities [Spider-Man -- Sigr & Virginia]

"Oh, good point" Spider-Man admitted, when the mysterious vigilante got him with the intern thing. "It's not like I wanted to be stealthy, I can be stealthy if I want to. But I didn't" he tried to defend his capabilities and at the same time try to sound friendly, making a mess of his priorities. The girl seemed elusive, not quite a surprise given their masked hero status, but she seemed specially interested of getting rid of him, even if Peter didn't know why. It wasn't interesting meeting another hero?

"I just..." Spider-Man mumbled when she asked if he wanted anything, driving the point even further when she said that he wasn't a team up sort of person. The notion sounded oddly familiar to him, but he didn't know why as his mind raced to try and find a proper explanation of her interest, to both her and himself. "It's the first time I met a hero... my age. Assuming that you are young as well. If I'm wrong I'm totally sorry" he started to chatter, "but the rest of them are so old... that I feel weird, like the nerd trying to mingle with the football team" he tried to explain, even if the comparison was somewhat odd.

"If I'm wrong I'm wrong, and if you aren't interested in sharing tips or whatever, that's fine" Spider-Man took a step back. "Not all nights include buildings on fire, luckily" he sighed. "I already know that you are one of the good ones, I mean, you stopped that robbery" Peter continued. "Well, I helped a bit too, but you didn't seem to need me so..." even through the mask he sounded defeated. It was somewhat weird to see Spider-Man walk away with hunched shoulders and small steps, instead of swinging from building to building.

Damn, what was with her? They had saved a guy together and it worked just fine, why was everything so hard? It wasn't like he wanted nothing more than chatting a bit, although it was a bit weird her mentioning Stark like that. He wasn't his janitor to clean his messes. Wait, what messes was she talking about? Did she had something against Stark? "Hey..." Spider-Man said turning around. "I don't clean Stark messes, what was with that?" he outright asked. She didn't seem bad nor was she robbing the store, but maybe her evasive attitude had to do with Stark and not himself?

"Do you want to activate the Enhanced Interrogation Protocol?" Karen asked, breaking her silence for the first time in a while, as she didn't want to distract Peter while he talked. "No! No interrogation protocol! This is a friendly conversation!" Spider-Man protested out loud, realizing all too late that the vigilante girl would hear him talking to himself. "Errr... suit's AI got her own ideas..." he mumbled, not wanting to scare her away.
 
So he was young for sure. "Older than you, probably." Maybe a lie, but she could probably make him think she was a college student. That way if he tried to find her he'd look in the wrong place. "But I'm not a hero. I'm just.... I dunno." She didn't have a word for it. 'Hero' had a weight that she didn't feel comfortable trying to bear. It was signing up for more than she was willing to do. "Doing the only thing I'm good at, I guess." There was no social negative to phrasing the things in her head, unlike how she'd be at school. That was part of why she figured her identity would end up safe unless someone caught her in another way. She changed her personality at school, she changed her voice while out at night, and so as long as the scarf stayed on she should be fine. The glasses felt necessary but probably weren't unless there was the chance that she ran into someone she knew, and she only knew about fifteen people. And that was generous. She had only seriously interacted with six people in New York. Her adopted family, three students at school, and her caseworker There'd been some cops, a judge, and a lawyer before that, but they were back in Detroit.

She did not want to share tips or whatever. Savannah just wanted to be left alone so that she could do what she wanted. "I'm not going to hurt anyone who's not doing anything wrong." It wasn't exactly saying that she was 'one of the good ones', but it was her way of agreeing, maybe even reassuring him a little bit that there was nothing to worry about from her. Heroes might get territorial, this was new to her. She definitely didn't need his help, so it was a bit of a relief when the masked man turned to leave. Maybe she shouldn't have stopped to watch him go, but it was dangerous to turn her back on someone who could shoot webbing. The chances that he was going to attack her were basically zero, but until she could safely call them absolute zero she'd be keeping an eye on him if he was around her.

The hero didn't make it as far away as she was hoping before he turned around, but this time his question was one that she was willing to answer. "Stark creates his own villains. They don't just crawl out of the woodwork fully fledged and ready to cause mayhem, they're his fault. He can't keep his house in order and people die as a result." On the side of not his fault (as far as she could tell) was The Incident, the exposing of SHIELD, and that weird blue shit in Missouri. "Affiliating with him means eventually you're going to have to jump in on something that should never have had to happen because that man can't keep his house in order." And he didn't sound like someone who was emotionally prepared for what happened when he couldn't save someone. She might have been wrong in her assessment, but Savannah doubted it. He had seemed to change emotion just based on her words and she hadn't even been mean to him. Well, not by her standard.

She let out a tiny sigh and took a step towards him. "Your suit has an AI?" This whole conversation thing seemed important to him, and it was probably better to not get off on the wrong foot with the guy. She didn't want to make him an enemy. More importantly she didn't want to end up on Stark's radar, but that was something to keep to herself. There had to be a way to get this masked hero to keep her existence to himself for now. Being nice... or at least not making him feel like she was being overly awful. And since his standards for behavior from others seemed high, she had to at least make some minimal effort. "And with an interrogation protocol?" Her tone was a tiny bit amused by that. If she'd had something like that it would have made her life a lot easier, and the fact that this was something his suit was offering only further cemented her theory that he wasn't prepared for all the things that this life was going to throw at him. She had considered saying she had to make her own interrogation protocol, but that was the sort of joke that might not go over so well.

"Never met an AI before. Or a... hero." She said the word like it was going to hurt her somehow. There was no introduction of herself or even a handshake offered, but it was an attempt. She was at least engaged now, giving this some amount of a shot. Just for tonight, maybe just for a few minutes until she could make an escape that would let her have a little more freedom later. Set it up so he'd not talk with her if he saw her again, just know that she was good to go and not going to cause any trouble. If anything he should be happy there was someone else, they'd be able to hit twice as much crime that way. It didn't work if they paired up the whole time. "My goal has generally been to avoid as much interaction with people as I possibly can. If no one knows who I am, no one can try to get at me." Criminals could hunt Spider-Man easily but what were they gonna do with her, wage war on black hoodies?

((I don't recall if Tony took public blame for Ultron as a whole, but I'm sure everyone knows it was him))
 
Spider-Man almost stepped back as the young woman ranted about Stark. She did sound older than him as she said she was, but as she got a bit more talkative than before, she didn't come across that much older than him if any, although certainly less naive and more experienced. He wasn't quite in place to defend Stark, as every time he had been involved in a mess, be that fight with Captain America or the thing with The Vulture, Stark had been involved, even more than he knew. Well, not only that, as defending Stark it would no doubt push that unknown girl away. Things changed once he was interrupted by Karen, as the girl was suddenly closer, when had she stepped in closer?

"Ah... yeah, she's nice and can help with the suit's stuff..." Peter said, blushing under the mask in front of the sudden interest. The costume made him bolder, but as his nervous banter during the fights proved, having powers didn't fix the awkward nerd he could be. The hero could handle that attention, the boy was caught unaware by a young girl that could not only fight, but also had that something dangerous, that aura of living on the edge that he rarely experienced, as his friends were mostly unharmful. For Peter, having the attention of a girl that fought thugs in the night was something unprecedented.

"Then I'm glad t-to be your first hero" he said, briefly stuttering, hoping that the girl didn't notice. Did she? No, he was fine, he didn't make Spider-Man look like a dork. Hopefully. "Do you have a name or something? I know that it's a bit of a childish hero thing but... it would help with, you know, the talking" he continued, partly talking, partly digging his own awkward grave. "That's... smart. I mean, I wear a mask too, or my face would be all around YouTube" Spider-Man acknowledged, although his secret identity had been aired more than he would want to. First Stark, then Ned and Toomes, and recently his aunt. If he wasn't careful Michelle would end up guessing it as well, as she was quite keen herself. Maybe even Savannah? Nah, they had just met, there was no way she could guess anything that soon, why was he even thinking of her at that time?

Feeling a bit emboldened by the change in attitude, Peter stepped a bit closer to the girl, still having enough space to not make it awkward. "I know that isn't your thing but..." he started, "but maybe we could do something together, once in a while? I mean, we both want a safer city, right?" Spider-Man voiced, without noticing that their approaches differed quite some. "It's not like old man Stark is on my case, I don't have to report to him or anything like that, even if he can be fussy sometimes" he continued, not being totally and completely honest, but at least he was more independent and free than a few weeks ago. Karen had been pleasantly silent during the encounter, as Peter already had enough trouble dealing with the mysterious, dangerous looking and... yes, even if he didn't want to admit it, maybe somewhat enticing girl.



Peter trying to act cool is quite awkward and amusing to me. And yeah, I don't think that the Ultron thing was entirely public, since then his backing of the Sokovia accords could seem weird? Either way, as the Avengers had to fight robots that didn't look all that different from his creations, I'm sure that there are lots of people that blame him for that. As the Civil War happened, people probably split between the ones that back Captain America and the ones that back Iron Man, so the nation will probably be divided on that too.
 
Because she wasn't even trying to seem normal, she had dropped almost all the emotion out of her voice. It was something that her father had pushed for and now it felt normal. It was part of the defense, part of the act. Made her harder to read, harder to predict, and for that reason more threatening. She let out a tiny "huh" at his words, filing the knowledge away. That his suit was his assistant was good to know. That he seemed awkward about talking to her was even more so. She caught the stuttering of course, and filed it away as something to ponder later. Perhaps she'd make a pass at him eventually, it would test whether this was a response based on the fact that he was talking to a girl or because he was inexperienced and unsure how to talk to someone who wasn't part of the hero club. But if she flirted like this, then the way she might flirt to investigate and manipulate in school would have to be different. Cutesier, maybe. New York was big enough she would probably never run into whoever was behind the mask during the day, but she needed to keep the two characters separate. And there was no mistaking, at least to her, that they were both characters. She did and said whatever she needed to in order to optimize her situation, the real Savannah was...

Well, it didn't matter.

He mentioned a name, and she forced a pause so that her response wasn't immediate. That would be too forceful, which was not the energy she was going for at the moment. "I don't need one." She and her father hadn't ever used names. "If it's just the two of us, I'll know when you mean me." If he had another hero around she'd be immediately making herself scarce, so that wasn't going to be a problem. "You do it a little differently than I do," she said in reference to the mask. Savannah would easily believe that the costumed hero had decided that this was the right thing to do and wholly believed it, but she wasn't sure he had seriously thought about the drawbacks and the things he might end up having to do. There were no drawbacks to how she did her disguise. Maybe the fact that she couldn't get something bulletproof, but the red spider costume didn't look like it was so she probably wasn't missing out on a whole lot. She moved fine in what she had. Maybe the scarf and glasses were a little unwieldy, but she'd had enough practice securing them that it wasn't an actual problem anymore.

The hero said they should team up, and Savannah arched an eyebrow, inching backwards to keep the distance that had been between them before. It was fine if she was the one closing in but she didn't much like when he did it. "Our methods will... deviate." In ways he probably wasn't prepared to deal with yet. And she didn't intend to give this up, so if he tried to keep her from doing what she needed to she would have to put him down somehow. That was what her dad would say she needed to do, and it was what was in the back of her mind right now. She could kill him, injure him so he wouldn't be able to do this work anymore, any of a dozen different options that would get him to lay off of her when she was working her way. It was going to become important that she figure out who he was if this guy was going to be hanging around. On the other hand this was a chance to gain an ally who had an in with the Avengers and that wasn't nothing. It could provide some protection to her, perhaps get her out of trouble if the others ever took notice of the things that she did and disapproved of them. She'd have Spider-Man to stick up for her and say that she was decent. Did she play the ally game or did she turn him away here and deal with potential hostility later on but more freedom to do what she wanted? The thoughts went through her head quickly as she weighed the two options, expression kept carefully neutral. "Your access to technology will make it easier to find trouble." And he knew the city better than she did, though she didn't say it. That would be revealing that she was new in town - right now it was just as likely that she had been doing her own thing under the radar or had just started out as it was that she'd just come into town.

That was as close to an actual 'yes' as he was going to get. She was starting to get antsy just standing around taking though, so she picked a direction and started walking. If he was ready to go do his own thing he'd be able to, but she wasn't turning her back entirely on him so she wasn't shutting him out. If he wanted to come with her, he could.

The chances that an Avengers affiliated hero would be cool with her finding a drug or arms dealer and threatening to break their fingers or hurt their family unless they were willing to inform for her was pretty low, so she was going to have to reevaluate the rest of her night. Spend time figuring out this guy, she supposed. Find out his weaknesses and see what she could learn about Iron Man from him so that she could better avoid the armored narcissist. The need for a fight was still there though, hopefully her new sometimes 'partner' could assist with that. Maybe if he hung around in the open long enough someone would attack him and then the problem would be solved.

((I am perhaps a little too amused by the idea of Vanna trying to get all her hair under a hood like Peter's. There's no tech in Stark Industries advanced enough to deal with those curls))
 
"Differently, yeah" Peter commented about the mask issue. "At first I got out in some homemade suit with a red vest and a ski mask..." he confessed, even if it was something that anyone could see in the YouTube videos of his first appearances. "Your scarf thing looks way nicer" he said, trying not to look like he was peeking, as he didn't want to make her uncomfortable. That didn't mean he wasn't curious, of course he was. Him doing what he did was sort of a product of the fact that he could, and if he could help people, he just should do it. He had to. But what made a girl... or young woman or whoever she was... do that? She had the training, for sure, but it was still odd. Maybe he was being a bit sexist and her being a woman didn't matter at all, as she looked like she could kick his ass.

"I guess" Spider-Man nodded about their methods differing. "But that's what a team up is about, no?" he added. "I've got your back, you got mine, and each one of us has a different point of view about stuff..." he tried to argue in favor. It was true that he had normally been more involved in stopping crimes that were actually taking place than in doing any investigation, but recently he had a bit of that, even interrogating someone (although that didn't go super well) but he could use someone that was more... street wise, he guessed, although it wasn't like he knew much about that girl. It did seem that his rambling was giving her something to think about, or perhaps she was considering things and his babbling did no good, but either way he managed to stop talking and give her some pause.

"Yeah, if anything happens close by maybe we can help" Peter nodded, following the girl and matching her step. For a moment he thought about offering her a lift, as they could move faster that way, but he thought that she would probably won't like it. I mean, he needed his arms to move, so even if princess carrying her was out of the question out of embarrassment alone, it wasn't possible. Maybe she could climb on his back, but the more he imagined it, the harder it seemed that the nameless girl would agree to it.

"Peter" Karen's voice nagged him as they started walking.

"Karen?" he asked, as it seemed that the AI had a good enough grasp of the situation to not interrupt unless it was necessary.

"Fire, couple of blocks, north east" she announced, putting the live Instagram feed of someone that was recording the disaster in his field of view.

"Seriously? What are the odds?" Peter groaned, as the girl had mentioned a building on fire. "We got a fire, couple of blocks in that direction" he pointed. "Maybe it's not your thing, but I could use and appreciate the help-" he commented, interrupted by Karen once more.

"The fire pattern is unusual, high chance of being arson" she added.

"And it's probably intentional, so maybe we can catch the culprits" Peter promptly shared, eager to convince her to come with him. "We can run or I can swing you there..." he suggested, pushing his luck.
 
"It's easier. I don't like masks." In an entirely emotionless tone she added "your current one doesn't suffer common tactical issues." It couldn't be grabbed and twisted in order to blind him during close combat, and it fully obscured his face without lowering visibility (she assumed). Her scarf could also be used for bandaging wounds if she absolutely had to. Or for strangling someone. She'd never tried, but it had occurred to her because Savannah thought of how to weaponize everything within reach on a pretty regular basis. Her father would never have let her live it down if she couldn't use everything on her person to protect herself in some way.

"Differing points of view isn't exactly a team-up selling point." She didn't need his morals getting in the way of her work. "You don't seem like the kind of guy who gets his hands dirty." Not like she did. "Not necessarily a bad thing, beacons of heroism and symbols for the people aren't... inherently negative." Not when they were fully thought through and handled competently with the right focus. Captain America had been fine. Maybe Spider-Man could get there eventually, but he wasn't right now. "They're just... held back by the public eye." Nobody wanted their kids idolizing someone who broke fingers to get information or was willing to push a dude off a bridge. "I am not." Not a beacon, not a symbol, not a hero, not held back by anything except her own physical abilities. How many ways was she going to have to try and get him to understand? Or maybe he did get it and when she inevitably stabbed someone he'd be fine with that.

He was correct that she would not agree to any way of being carried. Savannah didn't even want to get too close to him. She was still keeping the same distance while they walked, just naturally providing space between them. They didn't need to be close, just close enough to talk. "Helping is what you do, isn't it?" So really what he was asking was if she'd want to tag along. She didn't think he'd skip over the chance to help anyone. It was his job to save people, after all. She'd kick anyone's ass as long as she thought they deserved it. There was a big range of 'deserve it' that may have depended a little bit on how she was feeling at the moment. Right now she needed to get the stress out, and pretty much anything would work.

Her head jerked when talking started again. It wasn't the fact that the talking was happening,it was that Spider-Man wasn't stammering or being awkward. Even before he told her that something was wrong, she had already assumed that was going to be the case. When he pointed she nodded, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose. “What kind of building? If there could be civilians inside you need to go now.” By himself. Moving with her would slow him down. Otherwise it could give them the beginnings of motivation. A business could be revenge, a warning, or the beginning of insurance fraud if it wasn’t someone who just liked to watch things burn. Arsonists who were in it just to watch things burn rarely went after places people lived. She took off down the street in the direction he had pointed, footsteps still quiet even while running.

If the guy was still around then Savannah would be able to help. Spotting people who looked suspicious was a talent, one her father had said came to her naturally. She'd trained it for years and was pretty confident in her ability to pick out any lesser criminal promptly enough. Her clothing was in no way fireproof, and her need for layers would make it hard for her to strip something off if it caught fire.
 
As tempting as it was to keep talking into what that girl considered "getting her hands dirty" it didn't sound very heroic or wholesome, but her arguments towards what she did, or at least what Peter thought she was implying, sounded awfully alluring. Sure, he was naive and didn't think that vigilantism was good or that people like The Punisher were any better than criminals, and yet, he could feel himself buying a bit into her discourse, specially since she was acknowledging that heroes like him had a place, or at least weren't bad per se, even if she seemed to have a different viewpoint. All of those considerations, and a topic that would be interesting to broach in a calmer moment, were set aside in Peter's mind as Karen warned him of the fire alarm.

Precious seconds were lost as Spider-Man doubted what to do, but soon the girl urged him to act and she didn't have to say it twice, as he just shoot a web upwards as if it was a sixth sense and soon was swinging above the street while she silently ran down there. The building itself was a quite old three story one, with a narrow base and somewhat out of place surrounded by more modern ones. The flickering flames that could be seen sprouting from the broken windows illuminated the faces of a few curious New Yorkers that approached to see what was going on.

"Karen, do you have something for this situation?" Spider-Man questioned, even if he was already darting through a third story window into the place.

"I'll watch for thermal alerts and smoke levels. Adjusting vision to low visibility. Fire makes hard to scan for life forms" Karen resumed, the AI's voice sounding almost urgent, worried if you didn't know any better. Spider-Man started to move through what looked an abandoned housing building, working through low visibility rooms making sure no one was left behind just in case.

In the meantime, the building seemed yet untouched at street level, although the fire was moving surprisingly fast and there was no way of knowing when the upper floors would crumble and collapse. The building was surrounded by narrow service alleyways, and as soon as Savannah arrived, she could see that something was going on in the back of it. Fire flared wildly there at ground level, something that was odd to say the least and more than a bit suspicious.

(Feel free to portray the arsonist that it's operating in the back of the building as you want. They could be just a normal thug discreetly dressed or some kind of goofy villain with a cheap colorful suit in orange and red and some makeshift flamer, any gender. I'll take care of the reasons for their acts and the ones behind it once they are defeated and interrogated, so have fun with them)
 
Savannah's thought processes weren't wholesome, they were efficient. She figured the whole hero thing could work if there was one guy in a flashy suit who acted as the public face and took care of the robot and alien invasions while people like her handled the rest of it, but she didn't know that many heroes would be willing to take that deal. They seemed in general like people who thought they were legitimately doing the right thing. And it wasn't even like she was suggesting doing things that were all that bad, she wasn't pushing Punisher level murder. That guy was out of his mind.

Off he went. For a second she seriously considered heading in another direction and spending the rest of her night alone, but she didn't know how well he could track people and if they ever ran into each other again she'd have ruined the goodwill she'd built up - not that it should be a lot - and need to come up with an excuse. The whole swinging thing was problematic for her, until she figured out how to deal with the webs and his use of them it was best to play nice. She also didn't know how bulletproof his costume was, and it would be weird unless it seemed relevant. At least he listened when she told him to do things, that made it easier.

He went into the building and Savannah stopped in the shadows to observe the people looking on. The people who'd stopped or come out to see were easy enough to pick out, but none of them looked particularly suspicious. The moment she realized something was up at the back she was in motion again. She skilled around the corner and immediately spotted a man in a red hoodie with a cheap white plastic mask. He had a messenger bag over his shoulder and was putting something into it. He noticed her as she came towards him, and seemed to have the sense to recognize that, no matter how small she was, she was a threat. As heroes continued to crawl out of the woodwork it was a smart idea to assume that someone going right at danger was probably a threat themselves, and the man immediately took off running down an alleyway.

He may have been taller and stronger, but this was what she trained for. Savannah wasn't going to be racing any enhanced humans but she was fast. Speed and agility were trained into her muscles, she had years of being told that she wasn't fast enough, that she couldn't turn corners sharp enough, and it had crafted her into hunter. Her father would have said to shoot the man in the leg, and she could hear his voice in her head with the command. It wasn't the right one, though. Not in this case. It woulds top the man but it would get her in more trouble than it was worth. Instead she pushed herself harder and put on a burst of speed, slamming into the man from behind. They tumbled to the ground and she landed on top of him. She didn't really have any interest in dragging this fight out and though her fingers curled first around a knife, that got abandoned pretty promptly. It would be something she had to explain to Spider-Man, and that wasn't worth it. If she put him at odds with her this fast there would probably be no recovering from that. She didn't care in a personal sense, but she definitely didn't want to have to fight Spider-Man and Iron Man.

Instead she twisted the man's arm behind his back until she felt his shoulder dislocate. He let out a yell and she pushed his face down into the cement. "Shh. You'll get me in trouble."
"Trouble? You just--"
"Dislocated your shoulder, yes. If you don't be quiet I'll start breaking your fingers. Or do the other arm, whichever I feel like. " She kept his sensitive injured arm cranked painfully behind his back with one hand while she cut the strap of his messenger bag so that she could open it up. Inside was a small plastic container. She shifting to use her knee to hold his arm back so that she could unscrew the container and sniff it. Kerosene. "Now, we're all going to have a nice chat and I expect you to behave. Otherwise I'm going to make you drink your entire bottle." She wouldn't, the idea of it was grotesque and overkill, she just needed him to think that she would. Savannah didn't get pleasure out of causing needless pain. It was the fasted way to incapacitate someone though. Pain needed to have a point. In this case the point was to discourage movement and because she didn't have anything to tie the guy up with. That meant that she had to use pain and the fear of pain as a motivator.

Maybe Spider-Man wouldn't show up. Maybe he'd assume she had it handled and not search for her or track her or whatever he could do with his AI and ability to easily access rooftops. Not like they were all that far away, hadn't even rounded a corner. Still Savannah could hope because it would make things a whole lot easier on her if she didn't have to worry about someone else's morality getting in the way.
 
Room after room, Spider-Man moved as fast as he could, but with the smoke and fire it was hard to be thorough. It really was some kind of abandoned apartment building, at least on that floor, and there wasn't anyone there, neither curious people, homeless or victims. Most of the third floor was hell and the building was at serious risk, with the fire creeping into every corner as Peter ran downstairs to the second floor in search for anyone else. It was true that with the fire on the third floor, anyone that was warned could have walked down and outside without trouble, or at least trouble that he knew about, but since it was arson there were bound to be things he didn't knew about.

...

"Okay, agh! Please!" the thug didn't struggle under Savanna's grasp, but he did whine a lot and even sob a bit. "I was just- fuck! hired to do this!" he protested. "The building should be empty it's-Fuck! My arm!" he was definitely sobbing now. "It's probably some kind of insurance scam please..." he begged to be released.

...

"The second floor is colder, although not much" Karen chimed in as their reached it. "No signs of life either. Smoke levels reaching dangerous heights" she warned, but Peter wasn't going to leave it unchecked. The second floor didn't differ much from the third one besides the fire having less of a presence there. Long abandoned apartments full of bad graffiti and trash, but no signs of people or even a pet to rescue. Why would anyone burn a place like this? Were real state interests at the stake? It was a maneuver to condemn the building? Those questions and many others didn't have much time to linger in Peter's head, as he was almost done with the floor it and soon headed to the last one. His usual chatter was absent due to the thin air and the urgency, specially when he noticed a human shape in the middle of the main corridor.

It was an old man, still breathing even if he was unconscious on the floor, bleeding a bit from a hit in his head. Spider-Man made good use of his strength and carried him as gently as he could over his shoulder, kicking the main door from the inside out and leaning the man to rest on the sidewalk, far enough from the building to avoid some scattered debris to falling on him if something happened. First responders were starting to arrive, lights on the distance, and on that wonderful way that New York has of doing things, soon a woman approached the costumed hero.

"I'm a doctor!" she said, kneeling next to the man as if she didn't mind Spider-Man's presence much. She was a middle aged black woman with a mixture of compassion and worry in her eyes. "He's fine but he should get checked..." she said, looking at the hero as it wondering about his presence. "What are you still doing here? Go to see if there is someone else inside!" she bossed at him, prompting the hasty return of Peter to the building in flames.

"New York, never change" he sighed, venturing inside the place. As it turned out, as far as he could see that floor was the only inhabited one, with a couple of furnished apartments with yet no one inside. No, there was some noise behind him. A cat hissed at Spider-Man before heading out of the building himself, as the pet rejected proudly the hero's help. Going out the building once more, Spider-Man noticed the cat going to the old man and the doctor and waiting close, while Peter decided to climb around the corner to take a look using the height advantage. The fire department had just arrived, and even if he knew little about fires, they would probably be able to still contain and save the place, even if the third floor would be unusable.

...

"Please, if you let me go I'll tell you who paid me" the man sounded pathetic. "I wouldn't last much in prison! Please!" he didn't dare to fight back, but he did squirm a bit, looking in pain.

Crawling around the building in search for his... partner? Colleague? Acquaintance? Peter wondered where she was and what she was up to, noticing her down on the ground and lowering himself close by. "What do we... coff... have here?" Spider-Man asked, his voice a bit coarse, more focused on recovering his breath than assessing the confusing situation.



I did write the thug a couple of lines to reveal why he's there, but feel free to work anything you want before and after them. If you need more wriggle room for something specific just tell me.
 
When the man started crying she got off of him, though Savannah seemed entirely unwilling to entirely trust that he was as non-threatening as he was trying to appear. "Prison doesn't have me," she commented, picking up the man's bag so that she could continue looking for evidence, "you should keep that in mind." She stayed crouched within reach, so that if the man tried to do anything she didn't like she would be able to stop it pretty promptly. Maybe not with a knife, but definitely with a stun gun. "For now shut up, wait, and think about your options." She'd talk to him when she was good and ready. Right now she wanted to go through his things and let him sweat. She wasn't going to accept any deals here, but she didn't want the man to shut down. This would end in her knowing everything she wanted and this man in jail, because that was what she wanted and this criminal wasn't one that was going to be able to help her in the long run.

Ugh, there was Spider-Man. That he dropped down from above wasn't surprising, and she took the chance to look at his web as well as she could. Really all she knew about it was that it was strong enough to hold his weight and that he didn't actually produce it from his body, it came from the black things on his wrists. She supposed it was theoretically possible he did make it by like, throwing it up or something and then utilized it like he did, but that seemed unlikely. And gross. Either way, she knew he could use it in different forms but had no idea how that happened. But she knew where it came from so she could potentially disable it if she ever needed to. Still no immediate intention to fight him, but Savannah recognized that just because she didn't want to fight someone didn't mean that someone wouldn't want to fight her.

And she still didn't think this team thing was going to work out very long. Maybe with someone else, but not with this naive newer hero.

"If that's what your voice will sound like when you grow up, you'll be popular," she commented, treating it like an observation one could make about scenery. It was mostly to see how he responded, and because she was still trying to figure out where she knew his voice from. Voices weren't exactly unique though, so it could be anything from actually knowing him to the hero just sounding like someone she'd seen on TV once. It was more than just that she'd watched the YouTube videos of him though, that was for sure. If she prodded a little bit maybe it would help, or at least give her enough that if she heard him or the person who sounded like him again she'd be able to pick up on it immediately and put that to rest. Savannah didn't have any intention of going out of her way to find his identity or anything, that seemed like a waste of time and would probably get her in trouble she didn't want to deal with. She just wanted to put that tingle of familiarity to rest.

"But seriously, does the fancy suit not filter your air?" She knew exactly why he sounded like he did, "that seems like an oversight." It had an AI and wasn't made of normal material, so it had to have some other tricks. Except maybe not air filtration, apparently. "This is the guy who started the fire. Doesn't seem like much of a mastermind or a hardened criminal, and he says he'll tell us who paid him if we let him go. I'm not sure." She didn't trust deals like that. He could send them on a wild goose chase and then they'd have neither criminal. Her attention moved back to the man and she frowned. "Now talk. We'll decide what happens once you've told us everything." There was the chance she'd have to defer to Spider-Man, but Savannah would do her best to make sure that he didn't make stupid decisions. If things went a way she didn't like she could just work on her own time. Wouldn't try and get the guy from the cops or anything but she could follow him home if she had to.

((uuuugh I wrote my whole post and then my web browser crashed and I couldn't recover it.))
 
Even if Savannah got off him, the arsonist didn't move beyond his pained squirming, the coward too afraid to do anything beyond sobbing quietly. It was no wonder than he was scared of going to prison, nor was his crime a particularly brave one. His bag was full of implements to start fires, varied and properly tagged and isolated in receptacles and bags, so at least when it came to that he seemed to be proper and prim. The man seemed to take her advice to heart and didn't say a word, not even when Spider-Man made his appearance.

Spider-Man tried to utter a comment, cut some kind of remark when the girl joked about his voice, but Peter wasn't quick of mind for those kind of things when it came to Michelle and he was no different when the vigilante messed with him. Turning around to rise his mask just below his nose and cough a couple of times, Peter soon felt better and managed to lower his mask before turning back to face the still scared arsonist and her. "It does help, but the third floor was hell and I went so fast that I breathed in all of it" he explained, sounding a bit bothered. "Thanks for worrying though, I'm fine" yes, he definitely sounded a bit bummed, but soon his attention was focused on the troublemaker squirming at their feet.

"He seems in pain and scared, he could tell us anything" Spider-Man voiced, a hint of worry in his voice. Sirens sounded close, and the fire department had probably already started to work on the fire. Maybe police wouldn't find them there, not immediately, but they weren't gone specially far as to put things hard. Peter wasn't happy with the idea of letting a criminal go, although he had done nothing against the one that gave him the information he needed weeks ago. Well, nothing beyond leaving him stuck to his car until his ice cream melted, so maybe they could give this one a pass? "I managed to get the unconscious old man out of the building, I hope he's fine, but he could have died before the firefighters got there" he said, deciding already on his mind that he couldn't let someone like that go free.

"A-an old man?" the criminal spoke. "The building was supposed to be empty! I'm no m-murderer I swear!" he promised, looking up to both of them with pleading eyes. He had no warranty of getting any kind of deal, but he started to talk anyways, hoping for the best. "My arm..." he whined a bit before starting. "I was hired to burn the building so they could build on the spot. It was the only way, city council wouldn't let it be demolished otherwise" he explained. "But they told me it would be empty! I promise!" he sobbed once more, still on the ground and finding no comfortable posture for his arm.

"Well, who hired you?" Spider-Man asked, confused at the whole deal. If the arsonist didn't hit the man in the head, who did? It didn't seem an injury one made when falling because of the smoke or panic.

"Please, I will stop doing this... I'll return to my aunt's home in Montana and start a new life..." the man begged. "I'm not a sick man... I was an insurance expert before losing my job... I just need the money..." he continued with his sob story, although it ringed true for Peter, maybe the aunt part softened him without him noticing. "I don't know anything about the old man... and I don't know who paid me, he was just a suit like the ones that fired me" he tried to explain. "But if you look into the ones owning the land where the building is I'm sure you can find him, just please..." he begged, looking at the pair with hopeful eyes.

"You got him" Peter said, managing to avoid adding a 'and you got him well' as she seemed to have roughed his arm quite a bit. It was true that he hadn't been there when she got him, and he had injured and roughed criminals in the past, so he didn't think about it any more. "So what do we do?" he shrugged. Maybe Ned could help with the whole digging into the corporation owning the lands, he was a talented hacker and his guy in the chair after all.
 
The man had run and tried to fight back when she tackled him, so she had subdued him. She hadn't even gone that far, and that was her defense if she got called on it. The dude would survive.

"Yeah, that's the problem." She already had a lie for the police if they showed up, it would just require talking faster than Spider-Man could start. "Your arm will be fine. Go to the emergency room and they'll get you what you need, then you ice it." Probably not a great thing to do to a guy who was so in need of money that he had been willing to turn to arson, but if he wasn't going to go to jail he could pay for his crime like this. "I'm like half your size and I've had worse." Okay she was less than a foot shorter than the guy, but he had broader shoulders so she had a little more justification in her comment. He was also, y'know, and adult man and she was a seventeen year old. Not a totally normal seventeen year old, but that wasn't the point.

"If he gets arrested it could put whoever hired him on alert, and they might start destroying evidence," she said a little thoughtfully, rolling over their options in her mind, "so if he says his work is done and leaves, they'll think they got away free. If they were trying to stage the fire as as a method of or to cover up a murder, it's more important to get the big guy, right? This could be about the building, the old guy, or both." And attempted murder was a big deal. Especially if someone with money and power was behind it. That was exactly the sort of person she'd like to get to hit.

Savannah made a 'stay there' gesture in the man's direction and then grabbed Spider-Man's wrist, tugging him a few steps away so that they could speak quietly without the arsonist hearing them. "Honestly I don't care that much about the burning of an abandoned building, it's not what I'm here for. If that deviates from your definition of justice we can turn him in. Jail might not be good for him depending on who did this, though." She didn't really expect that a hit would be put out on the dude in jail but it was a small possibility. Seemed like an idea that Spider-Man wouldn't like, though. "If he's out of jail we can use him. He can send information if they contact him again or if he remembers any details, he can contact us. It's not exactly hard to put together an email address nobody will be able to trace to me." So it wasn't out of empathy that she was willing to let the guy go, it was because she saw use in it. "He seems legit. He might be a better liar than I'm capable of identifying, but that seems like the class of person who'd be better at fighting back. Or who aren't unemployed."

Had she known that Peter hadn't gotten any information from the old man she would have tried to send him right back to find out why someone might want to try and kill him or burn the building down, but she assumed that Spider-Man had done it. It seemed so basic to her that she didn't think that someone wouldn't have done it.

If he hadn't pulled his hand away before that point this was when she released the hero's wrist and turned back to the criminal. And... sort of victim, if what she did to him made him a victim. "Describe the guy who hired you as best that you can. Physically, how he talked, what he smelled like, the presence he projected in the room." She glanced over at Spider-Man, "can your AI record the details? That way we get exact wording." She could put together some possible profile sketches as a starting point, though they would only be much good paired with additional information. "Reluctantly I begin to accept that a partnership may be in the works for this." Ugh. This wasn't what Savannah wanted at all, she should have been able to just disappear into the night and not had to deal with the costumed hero again. New York City was bit, they could just... not ever see each other again. Except now they had to investigate the arson case and maybe a murder case and she did not want to do that. Well no, she did. This all sounded fantastic and incredibly up her alley, she just didn't want to have to do it with someone else. Well, there was someone, but it wasn't this spider based goody two shoes hero.
 
The eyes of Spider-Man's mask widened, mimicking Peter's surprised face when the girl talked about how the arsonist getting arrested could tip the bad guy behind it. "Yeah, I hope that the old guy is fine, I left him with a doctor..." he mumbled, little to add to her ideas. Giving how her process of thought was, either she was very smart and wily or she had been doing this longer than he thought, maybe both. It seemed that she wanted to have a word or two in private, so they walked a bit from the arsonist since he wasn't going anywhere. "I'm fine with letting him go, I've... kinda done something similar before" he commented. It wasn't the same as interrogating a would be criminal and letting his ice cream melt, but still.

The girl seemed to be somewhat tech savvy as well, and had a solid plan to boot. "If you have a smartphone on you, can you set the email now?" Spider-Man asked. "This thing doesn't exactly have pockets..." he gestured to his tight outfit. Normally he would be communicating with Ned and he would sort that out, but he was busy that night. Maybe Karen could do it, but it was her plan so he didn't say a thing about that. Plus, Karen was nice, but he didn't want to depend that much on her. Unlike Tony, Peter had his own, even if accidental, powers and smarts that... well, maybe not rivaled him, but he was younger. Depending on the suit could end up being a liability.

"I like the idea. The email also gives me a way to contact you" he commented, as he haven't thought of how they were going to reach each other once that night was gone. Peter had the feeling that she just wasn't too happy with him around, but other times she seemed friendlier, as if she couldn't decide on what she thought about him. Not that Peter had his ideas any clearer either, as she was one tough vigilante that may or may not have special powers and whose age, even if young, was unknown. "So... you can let me go, I'm not going anywhere" he commented, suddenly aware that she was still grabbing him by the wrist.

"Yes she can" Peter said when asked about Karen's recording capabilities, not revealing that she did record everything by default as that would make the young woman nervous. Maybe he could take a look at the images later and see if there was something he missed about her? That would be disrespectful of the privacy of a fellow hero, or something similar, so he probably wouldn't. He was sure that at least a quick peek would be had, since Ned was for sure going to ask about her once Peter told him about that night's escapade. "I'll send you the video to the email" he commented, helping the arsonist to sit against a wall and be as comfortable as possible while he talked.

"He... he came to my house" he started mumbling. "He knew who I was, that I had been fired, that my expertise as an insurance expert were fires" he continued, eager to share so he could go. "He had all my account information, the money I owe to the bank..." he shared, as he seemed to be going through a rough patch. "He was middle aged, not specially tall... brown balding hair, with..." he tried to explain with his healthy arm. "That thing when someone combs up long side hair to hide a bald? And he was slightly smaller than me" he added. It was clear that this man wasn't hard to scare since that one didn't sum up an imposing presence, it seemed that just his financial information and the correct attitude were enough to push this desperate man into arson.
 
His mask reflecting his expression seemed unnecessary, but hey, any reason for her to be able to "You left him with someone." Yeah okay. He wasn't thinking about this as a murder attempt but an arson, so she didn't say anything about the potential problems with leaving a guy with someone he'd... probably just found on the street. "I don't necessarily like it," she said, still speaking softly enough the man wouldn't be able to hear her, "but it's what I think is the best option right now." If they needed to find him later they could use his IP address if he responded to an email from her, and if not... well, it would be harder but Spider-Man was Stark connected. Savannah would get the guy's name and hope that he didn't lie to her. He seemed like he'd be compliant enough, but she didn't trust criminals.

She let out a tiny sigh and pushed her fake glasses up her nose. "Yes." It was a prepaid burner phone and she only had so many minutes of any kind of access, but she could waste a few of them setting things up now. The email she gave him was string of numbers and letters that meant nothing and had been selected as randomly as a person could select numbers and letters without drawing them out of a hat. Of course he would want to contact her. She could ignore the emails if she didn't feel like dealing with him, but it would probably be problematic in the long term. Ugh. Well, she'd gotten herself into this mess and she wanted to see the end to this mystery, so she'd deal. After that she could wash her hands of Spider-Man and get on with her life. "Don't make me regret this," she informed the costumed hero a little bit stiffly. She didn't make any threats, but that was because she didn't want to pick a fight. He should understand that she was telling him not to try and use it to track her down.

Spider-Man helped the guy sit up and she stood a tiny bit away with her arms crossed, not really being judgmental about it. it was the right thing for him to be doing, after all. She hadn't considered giving the man help, which Savannah recognized wasn't... fantastic. He wasn't as bad as she thought, she should probably have readjusted her behavior.

"Give me your email," she told the man, "Easier if you don't have to try and remember mine. Oh, your name too. So that she could find him if she felt like she needed to. "If you lie to me I'll know, and I'll find you." It seemed like a casual enough threat that Spider-Man wouldn't get all antsy. Wasn't like she was threatening to kill the man or anything. And if he lied to them and just ran off, it'd be problematic. It was going to make it harder to find whoever orchestrated this, and it could be potentially dangerous for this guy. That part didn't bother her as much, but she thought she might feel a little bit bad if the guy got murdered or beat up by someone else.

Dude knew where this guy lived? Shit. "Right. Okay. So here's what happened. You lit the building up and didn't stick around to see the cops show up. Guilty about what you did - or to celebrate your new money, whichever - you went to a bar, got totally hammered, and ended up accidentally pissing some guy off. Spilled your drink on him or something, whatever. He fought you, you lost, and that's why you're going to the hospital." She paused a moment to make sure the man understood before continuing, "don't talk about it unless you get asked." This guy was clearly not going to be a functional liar without a little prep. She sounded openly annoyed, though whether it was because of her dislike for the arsonist or the situation in general was impossible to parse out.
 
"Not on my mind" Spider-Man said slowly, trying to decipher what she meant with the whole thing about not making her regret that. She seemed fine before the fire and now was trying to distance again? Peter really sucked at reading people, specially women. "I just want to clear this thing up" he said, somewhat tense. He was getting tired of her constant nagging, she didn't like that he left the injured old man with a good hearted New Yorker, she didn't like staying in contact with him... Maybe she was right and how they helped people didn't match? It was weird, because the case seemed to be going fine, perhaps it was a personal thing. In the end of the day, there was a limit on how far could you trust someone masked.

"Jo-Jonathan Doyle..." the arsonist answered, "Joyle80@StarkMail.com" he promptly added. "It's the truth! I left my driving license at home, but I swear..." Jonathan pledged, sounding and looking completely honest. "Do you believe me, right Spider-Man?" he asked, looking for some support in the gentler costumed hero.

"Yeah, yeah, I believe you..." Spider-Man nodded, even he felt awkward by how much of a wuss that guy was. He also thought that it was somewhat amusing how seamlessly had the two of them fallen into some kind of good cop, bad cop routine, but once again he had the feeling that the girl wouldn't find it as funny as he did.

"A bar, drinks, a fight, got it" he nodded, looking depressed. "Drinking and causing a scene was why they fired me after all, but that was because Anna left me for the neighbor guy. Just because he's all muscular and fit doesn't mean..." he started to rant, simmering in his own self pity.

"Come on Jon, can I call you Jon?" Spider-Man said, crouching besides the man. "Think of this as a second chance at life" he said, tapping one of his knees. "I don't mean to make this sound weird, but that was a great fire, even I got almost choked and the building probably has no chance. It's clear that you know your thing, but you must use that knowledge for good" he lectured. "It's your responsibility, I'm sure that there are many places where a fire expert like you can get a job, right?" Peter said, trying to cheer the guy up. He looked towards the girl, if she wanted to at least echo his thoughts, but he didn't have hopes about that.

"You are right. I can sell fire alarms, or maybe open my own detective agency specialized in arson..." the guy mumbled.

"That's it, positive thinking" Spider-Man greeted, helping Jonathan get up. "It's everything set up? Do we call it a night?" he asked, looking at the girl.
 
He was tunhappy now, she'd maybe gone too far. Savannah frowned underneath the scarf and tried to soften the tension with "I wasn't... trained for teamwork. Trust no one, assume that everyone is going to be the one who takes you down." If they were going to do this, and she was pretty sure they were, she needed him to listen to her. If that meant being open about her teamwork skills (ignoring the fact she had done great with one other person), so be it. "I have to protect my people, I figure you probably get that." It was more likely than not that he had a loved one or two, and they both knew what could happen to friends and family if a secret identity got out. He had two good reasons now, it should be enough to get the hero off her butt when it came to her attitude.

Also she didn't want to be working with him, it was just necessary at this point if she wanted to investigate this.

The arsonist gave his name and email address and she emailed him promptly so that he'd have hers and then tucked her phone into her pocket. "Smart," she commented a little distantly when he said he'd left his license at home. It wasn't as great for them, but it had been the right decision if he didn't want to get forcibly ID'd by someone. Jonathan looked to Spider-Man for assurance and she resisted the urge to roll her eyes, but stopped fighting it when he mentioned his ex. It was dark and she was a few steps away so nobody saw, but it made her feel better. She was happy to leave the reassurances to Spider-Man but he looked her way and suddenly the spotlight was on her. A spotlight that Savannah was entirely unprepared for.

"Don't think a detective agency would be your style." She realized that maybe she shouldn't just leave it at the negative and cleared her throat. "Your knowledge could be useful for any variety of things. You could work for the police as an arson investigator with the right certifications. You could..." she hesitated, clearly floundering in her attempts to think of positive things, and sighed. "You seem more desperate and misguided than malicious, that just doesn't mean a lot to me or the law. But you get another chance. If you think anyone in your life might say you drink too much, go to AA. If you can't let go of your anger on your own, see someone. That's the kind of thing that can eat you alive, don't let it. You can do better, so... do it. One bad thing doesn't make you a bad human being." She said it like pulling the words out of her was the equivalent of pulling out one of her own teeth, but those were the best words Savannah could manage. She could have lied and come up with all sorts of positive things, but it hadn't occurred to her in the moment. "It's not what I judge by," she was there to stop the actions, she didn't really care about the quality of person they were, "but... it matters a lot to some people." So he could be good by their standards.

She wasn't going to apologize for fucking up his arm, though. He'd run from her as a criminal, she'd treated him like what he was.

The short teen shoved her hands in her pockets awkwardly and took a few steps back as though making it clear that she wasn't going to try and stop the guy from running as Spider-Man helped him up. "If the old guy is still there you should get his name so you can find out later if someone would want to kill him. My empathy skills are a little underdeveloped." He didn't need to know she could lie when she wanted to. "Otherwise yeah. There's not a lot to go on, but I'll get Jonathan to message me more specific facial details if he can remember them later, and see if I can put together some potential faces." There were programs that will allow her to pick out features and put them all together like a police sketch. This was more detective work than she was used to or comfortable with, but she sort of knew what she was doing. If nothing else she was good at figuring things out on the fly.
 
Peter was surprised, looking at the girl he was still trying to understand. First she explained how she wasn't trained for teamwork and how she wanted to protect her people, things that he could understand, as the mask was precisely to protect her loved ones. Even so, he didn't say a thing and just nodded, but then the girl struggled to talk positively to Jonathan, something he totally didn't expect nor saw it coming at all. Even if awkwardly, she was giving solid advice, showing that in some degree she cared and wasn't just some toughened vigilante. Peter felt a bit bad for judging her hastily, as it was clear that beyond the scarf, glasses and all that, there was a young woman that didn't just want to serve some kind of sense of justice, but also the people that were affected for the lack of it.

"Good job" Spider-Man acknowledged once she was done. "The place is probably swarming with firefighters, cops and ambulances and... well, even if I don't think they would resent me... I'm not exactly an Avenger yet so can't just stroll by and just chill with the cops" he commented. "I can follow the ambulance to the hospital and make sure the old man arrives safely. Once there it shouldn't be hard to get his name" Spider-Man added, although he wasn't thinking his plan through yet. "I'll also ask someone I know about taking a look into the bureaucracy to see what we can get about the building" he commented, thinking of the million questions Ned would have about this the morning after. "I'll report everything to that mail you made and we can use it to sort of... hang out?" Peter commented awkwardly, unable to find a better expression. "To see this sorted out, of course" he promptly added.

"See you, mystery woman, I don't want to miss the ambulance..." Peter said before firing a web line that promptly took him out of there. Trying to not think about his new vigilante comrade and if he had made a good impression or not, Spider-Man focused on returning to the already smokey but not flaming building, seeing that the old man seemed to be doing better, as the woman he had left him with talking to the ambulance EMTs as they loaded him on the vehicle. It was getting late and the next day was a school day, but Peter could squeeze a bit more of time to make sure things were okay.

"I established a secure email address that can't be traced to you at SpiderMan@StarkMail.com" Karen suddenly said, startling Peter a bit after how silent she had been. It was creepy how she could anticipate needs and read situations, but she didn't always get things right, something that only made her more endearing, even if it undercut on her usefulness. "Thanks..." Peter mumbled, following the ambulance swing by swing until they got to a hospital. "I should have put a tracker on the old man..." Peter remembered. "There is still time to put one on the stretcher once they get out of the ambulance" he realized, doing it so as soon as he could. That way he should be able to follow it until they got him to a room, all counting with Karen's help of course.

"It stopped" Karen warned after a while, finally. After a round by the ER room and several corridors and floors, it seemed that the stretcher had stopped in a room before heading back down. Spider-Man crawled by the hospital facade, arriving at the window of the room the old man should be in. The old man was resting there, his head bandaged and seemingly stable. Squeezing in by the slightly ajar window, Peter could check on his medical report that he was fine, just a small concussion that caused him to be hold for observation and he should be released in the morning. "Arthur Norrington..." he whispered, noticing the old man's name on the report. "You gave me a scare, I'm glad that you are fine" he mumbled, before heading out of the room by the same window he got in. "Karen, send our mystery woman a photo of the old man and the recording of Jonathan's interrogation together with Arthur's name" he said, wanting to keep her reported in as he promised, before heading home.
 
She didn't have a response to his 'good job', just kept her hands shoved in her sweatshirt pockets and looked a little bit awkward underneath the glasses and scarf. "I guess that makes sense. I'd figured they'd be fine with you." It was actually a little bit weird. He had Stark connections and he'd done nothing but good, but apparently that wasn't enough? Maybe he needed to practice having an imposing presence. He came off awkward and inexperienced, but he'd probably grow into it. At least, she figured he would. 'Hang out' wasn't the word that she would use, but she didn't fight it. "Being able to arrange a meeting place will make things easier," she ended up agreeing, because that was a truth.

"Good luck." She didn't have anything else to say, she just hoped he'd get it done. It was only once Spider-Man had swung off that Savannah headed towards home. Well, the subway she would need to take to get home. She was a little bit wary the whole way back to the house that she was being followed, but by the time she was in the yard it seemed unlikely. He wasn't a better liar than her, so he couldn't have been faking the inexperience.

His email was responded to with just the word 'thanks'. There was nothing to sign off with, and she didn't really need to anyway. The picture had been from in the hospital which meant he'd somehow gotten in, and if Spider-Man had broken into the hospital she had perhaps underestimated him a little bit. It wasn't a very criminal thing he was doing but he had gotten the information she asked for and she could appreciate that. Then she slipped through her partially open window and into her dark room, padding across the floor to take off her things and stash them in the closet. She got dressed again, in clothes that were just pajama-like that she could excuse them if her adopted 'family' came in. Savannah wasn't yet comfortable enough to sleep in normal pajamas or whatever other people slept in. She wanted to be able to do things if she needed to.

The next morning she was up and ready for school on time and with only a little bit of exhaustion. She had kept her sleep schedule as close to what she preferred it as possible so her body wouldn't get used to having more rest. She'd also needed time to do some of her exercises in her room and then go for a jog that her adopted 'family' knew about and seemed to approve of. They were giving her a lot of freedom, probably out of concern or because they didn't know how to connect to her. The fact that these strangers were willing to take her in at all, someone they hadn't seen since she was too young to remember them, was stunning. For that she did at least feel a firm desire to keep her life away from them. These were good people. Even though she didn't want them to, one of her adopted... people drove her to school and Savannah played nice and friendly with the woman the whole way and thanked her politely when she slid out of the car, backpack slung over her black faux-leather jacket. Her hair had been tamed about as well as it could be without being pulled back or the use of product, and she carried herself with a quiet confidence as she walked towards the school. Time to decide if she wanted to find her 'friends' or not. Michelle interested her and Peter and Ned were going to be useful for figuring out mainstream culture and because she needed companions who weren't openly weird. They were nerds, but they were normal.

Popularity would definitely have been too hard. Not just because of the amount of social effort that would be needed, but because she already wanted to punch one of the 'cool kids' in the teeth.

((Cute thought: Savannah sleeps in day clothes pretty much everywhere and on the floor if she's in a hotel, unless she's with Peter. She has no concerns about safety if he's there, so all her best rest is when she's curled up with him. Snuck into his room, on the bus on the way to an academic competition, things like that))
 
"...and then she was like 'Good Luck' and I swung away" Peter finished telling Ned what happened the night before, or at least an abridged version. He kept his voice low as they went to school, but even then it was clear that it had been an eventful and exciting night. Ned was already aware of the whole hospital visit and the mail thing, since Peter had told things in a pretty scrambled way, but the gist of it was clear.

"So I miss out one night and you met some kind of professional vigilante girl?" Ned wallowed in despair as loud as a whispering tone allowed. "We can take a look at the paperwork and stuff after school, to see who the building belongs to. Or during if it gets specially boring" he commented, wanting to take part on it.

"Yeah, but I can't be everywhere at once. The arsonist dude should keep in contact with her, or at least I would if I was in his place, and the injured old man should be out of the hospital sometime today..." Peter planned. "There is school with all it entails, and even if my aunt is being cool, I don't want to scare her..." he continued, not to mention the weird possibility of Stark wanting something of him, although he doubted so that much. "I guess that at some moment today I should talk to her, unless she does it first, but I don't know..." he mumbled, unsure.

"That's why I'm the guy in the chair, I've got your back" Ned said, proud of being a helpful sidekick. "So it's Spider-Man and this girl going to become a thing?" Ned asked excited, facing what it would be Spider-Man's first team up since he knew him.

"They're not a thing!" Peter protested embarrassed, completely and utterly misunderstanding what Ned meant, waving his hands defensively.

"Who're not a thing?" Michelle asked, appearing out of nowhere with that gift she had of being at the worst place in the worst time. Or perhaps the best, depending on perspective.

"No one is a thing!" Peter suddenly said, not making much sense. "Pairing characters in videogames is just weird!" he managed to add, squeezing an excuse out of desperation.

"I don't care if it was half-baked, Hawke and Merrill were made to be together" Ned managed to follow suit with an even more otherworldly comment, this time about Dragon Age 2 of all things.

"But it was half baked, and everyone knows that Isabella fits Hawke more-" Peter clung into Ned's distraction like it was a life boat.

"Whatever" Michelle cut it out, rolling her eyes.

"Hey Savannah!" Peter noticed the blonde girl, waving to her in the distance. He was wearing some jeans with a white shirt and an earth brown jacket and felt immediately less cool than Savannah with her nice hair and black jacket.

(Awww, that's super cute!)
 
There were so many faces. This school wasn't huge by New York standards and she knew that, but there were still so many people. So many other teens, it was almost overwhelming in a way. Savannah knew that there were a lot of people in New York, she knew that there were a lot of students in high schools, but she'd never been expected to play well with this many people. She was supposed to be one of them, and she didn't think she could. She wasn't like any of these people, and she didn't think that she wanted to be.

She recognized the voice, but not for the reason she was supposed to. Her shoulders tensed and Savannah glanced around quickly, trying to figure out where that spider asshole was. He'd said he wouldn't try to learn anything about her, what was he--

Oh. It was Peter waving at her. She relaxed and lifted a hand in response and moved towards the group, but after a few steps, things started to click. No. No way. But he sounded the same, and he had the same slender build. She stopped close to him, sizing him up and realized that the height difference between them was about the same as her and Spider-Man, too. She didn't realize how intently she was staring until Michelle piped up with "Is this the thing?"

Immediately Savannah's gaze jerked away, going from Peter to Michelle and then down to the ground. "Wha- no. The what? No." She was a little bit flustered at being caught, though not for the reasons that would be most likely assumed. It wasn't optimal if people thought she was into him, but it was easier than explaining that she was actually a vigilante of sorts who spent her nights running around and beating people up and she suspected that her new friend might be doing the same thing but in a skintight suit and while being a lot more friendly. That'd go over well.

It seemed so unlikely, this skinny nerd was a super hero? But she was a skinny crazy haired homeschooled girl here, she had been a traumatized victim briefly for the police, she played some middle ground in her new home, anyone could be lying about themselves. The comparisons were there though, and she had to follow up on that. She needed to know, this couldn't be left alone. Maybe she'd be wrong. She hoped she was wrong, she couldn't be this close to a hero. It was too dangerous for her. This was why she pitched her voice. Nobody would have that moment with her because she sounded several years older and she had adjusted what personality traits she showed when she was out. This was more hiding her identity than she had been the night before, really.

"When's the next academic... whatever-it's-called meeting? I'm still not sure I want to join but yesterday was fun and my guardians are a little overbearing right now." Topic change, right now please. She wasn't going to call them parents just to keep people from asking questions. She'd had parents, she didn't want to disrespect them. So she'd call them everything but parents and just answer questions if they came up. And if anyone actually asked her how her parents died, she'd start crying and they'd feel like terrible people. It was a pretty good system, Savannah figured.
 
Normally Peter would be too busy trying to look out for Michelle or talking to Ned for noticing, but since most of his focus was on the blonde newcomer, he thought for a moment that she was checking him out. Was that something that girls did? More exactly, was that something that girls did to him? Peter wasn't that much of an oblivious nerd, he knew that on the locker rooms some guys were surprised that his nerdy self had that lean definition on his body, so that was something worth checking out, right? Not that it really showed with the generally unflattering and somewhat baggy clothes he wore, but still. Before he could even check if it was true, Michelle destroyed the moment in a totally Michelle fashion.

"The thi- nonono, not a thing at all" Peter's flustered protests and denial mixed with Savannah's, creating a chorus of embarrassed rebuttal. Peter managed to glance at Savannah, and she looked terribly adorable with a bit of a color in her face. Maybe there could be a thing there, did he even want a thing at that moment? He was already busy enough without a thing to want a thing, and yet it maybe was too compelling of a thing to completely reject the idea. Peter had still in mind how his last thing went, so with his Parker luck this time maybe the whole Savannah's family could be a super villain team.

"I told you it was a videogame thing" Ned came to the rescue. "And I think I that the word thing lost meaning over repeating it by now" he said, oddly positioned as the voice of reason for once.

Peter's eyes opened widely when Savannah asked about the Academic Decathlon, not expecting her positive feedback and happy that he could have Savannah close by. She mentioned her guardians, not parents, a detail that didn't fly under Peter's radar even if he didn't register her question as a desperate topic change. Well, he wasn't asking if she wasn't sharing, after all he lived alone with his aunt so it wasn't that weird, was it? "No idea, but we'll be happy to have you there" Peter said, miraculously extending his happiness to the group instead of saying that he would be happy and cause yet another awkward moment. "Captain?" he asked, looking at Michelle.

"Yeah, even if mister Harrington is the teacher at charge of the team, he can be a little bit distracted" Ned commented. "So many things depend of our O Captain! My Captain!" he added, dramatically.

"Watching Dead Poets Society again?" Peter asked, not entirely surprised by Ned's lyrical moment.

"Robin Williams was a genius" he said, unchallenged.

Peter was torn, because on one hand he wanted Michelle to call for a club meeting that day so he could be with Savannah a bit more, but on the other hand that would eat straight into the time Ned and him had to chase the bad guys. If she called for a meeting he couldn't skip it, that would make Michelle to focus on him more and he would need an excuse for Ned too, not to mention that he would leave Savannah with Flash nearby and even if she fared better than him, Peter didn't want that.
 
What she was doing was technically checking him out. No matter what her intention was, the action was there. It just wasn't for reasons of attraction. She wanted to size him up, figure out what his body was like, and in general get a good look at him, but because she wanted to know if he was Spider-Man.

Well, at least his embarrassment took some of the pressure off of hers, though she managed to be a little bit amused by it. She definitely didn't have time for a thing. Savannah wasn't opposed to having... some form of romance in her life, it just didn't seem like it would work well. She was balancing so many things and the kind of boyfriend she'd need seemed so impossible to find that mostly she didn't think about it. Right now she just needed to get her life in order and get back into the swing of things. Her dad had never tried to train her into not believing in love, he probably wouldn't have been able to even if he'd given it a shot. She just didn't know if she had time for it, and would spend way too much time worrying about someone. What she did brought danger to the people around her, after all. "Which game? I mean I probaby won't know it, but apparently video games are all the rage these days and I'm interested." Not really. She was playing up how little she knew about pop culture stuff, and her tone and expression said that.

How did they not have properly planned days for practice? That was nuts. Savannah was a fan of organization and routine, and it was especially important in team stuff. If she was going to end up with the team for something she wasn't super invested in, she could put some work into organization in order to look like she was more interested and connected with them. Then they would think positively about her and she would have community connections with minimal work. Plus she could learn more about how teenagers.... teenagered.

Ned quoted a tiny piece of a poem and Savannah's eyebrow looked between him and Michelle, unsure about how to interpret the dramatics. She got ready to say something, but didn't end up actually getting anything out. "I'm busy," Michelle said cryptically, "maybe you can help Savannah be a real girl." She'd seen that Savannah had opened her mouth to respond to Ned and Peter's exchange, and had deduced - correctly - that the blonde hadn't seen the movie being referenced. "She doesn't know anything."
"I know who Robin Williams is," Savannah said defensively, "I just... don't get the reference. I only know that as the poem by Walt Whitman. Which I assume is what's being referenced based on the title of the movie." Her mother had liked poetry. "TV wasn't a big thing in my house." After the... accident it had just been documentaries and recorded fights, on occasion an old home video when her dad had a little too much to drink. "But that's a bit of a grim thing to put on Michelle, isn't it? I mean that might be her thing..." Wasn't grim in the movie, but she had no way of knowing that.

Savannah knew the poem by heart. If they didn't know the original context she could continue what might become her demonstrating an eclectic 'home schooled kid' knowledge.
 
"Dragon Age 2" both Ned and Peter answered at the same time. "Maybe starting from the first is better?" Peter wondered, not knowing if Savannah had the hardware to play it.

"Or just go the Mass Effect route if she prefers science fiction" Ned added, shrugging. "I'm not sure if she's a sword and sorcery or a spaceships and stars girl" he said, sizing her up.

"Well... why choose?" Peter asked, once again both of them speaking at the same time "Star Wars then" they nodded, convinced that it got the best of both worlds.

As the nerdy duo were distracted from the whole checking out, awkward moment by their own fandom, they didn't notice Savannah's discomfort with the lack of schedule. They were a bunch of busy kids, so sometimes meetings were scheduled on the back of a rapidly fired instant message apps through the phones. It was true though that the closer they got to an event or contest, the more structured things became. As Michelle disregarded the possibility of a meeting as she was busy with who knew what, it seemed that her comment made Savannah spring and share a few more things about herself, catching both Ned and Peter by surprise.

"Oh no, in the movie is nothing grim..." Peter commented, wanting to ease Savannah off and make her feel part of the group. Peter's body language was anything but subtle, even if unconscious, so he shuffled closer to the blonde girl.

"See? She's already a real girl! There are no strings on her, to hold her down, to make her fret, or make her frown..." Ned skipped from one pop culture bit to another, this time Pinocchio.

"It's way too early for songs, Ned" Peter frowned, not sharing his love for musical pieces. Well, except for Moulin Rouge or Les Mis, of course. "It's a free afternoon thing then, maybe we'll have a meeting tomorrow" he said, looking at Michelle trying to guess what she was involved with to be that busy, but the girl was opaque.
 
She didn't necessarily know what kind of gal she was when it came to games. Realistic fighting would appeal to her, but that wasn't something that Savannah was going to say out loud because that seemed like it might be weird. "I know what Star Wars is." She didn't know Dragon Age or Mass Effect, but she could look them up later Savannah supposed. Or the other teens would introduce her to them. "And I do like swords." This was a true fact. She wasn't so sure about the 'sorcery' part. The stars were very far away and none of her concern, she didn't think of them often.

The information got a nose wrinkle in response. "But it is a reference to the poem? That seems weird." After a second she shrugged it off, glancing at Peter. He was closer than he'd been before and she smiled slightly, though it wasn't a smile she felt on the inside. "You'll have to show me the movie." She didn't really want that. It didn't sound like a bad time though, she just... friendship was hard. He was probably a super hero. It was all a mess that would end even messier. Someone would get hurt, and Savannah didn't want to hurt anymore. But school friends were important to her image, and they weren't bad. There was something to be said about having people around now, though. There was a warmth the she remembered vaguely. A comfort between Ned and Peter (and Michelle on the sidelines) that he enjoyed. Savannah wasn't sure if she was appreciating it from a friendship perspective or some other way because she didn't know how teenagers were supposed to be friends with each other, but it was... nice.

Ned made another reference and she wanted to roll her eyes but restrained herself. It wasn't until a second later she realized that she could have done that, and had been thinking perhaps a little bit more about not seeming unlikable than she needed to. It hadn't been a planned restraint. "I know what that's from at least," she said, like she deserved some sort of award for knowing an animated kid's film that pretty much every kid in America had knowledge of. "And Peter's right, it's too early for songs." Savannah wasn't one for musicals at all. She didn't understand the appeal of people randomly starting to sing when feelings could be expressed in film just as easily with words that didn't have to be to the tune. Plus nobody actually started randomly singing about their opinions and feelings unless they were desperate for attention. She'd never met anyone who just broke into song like that, but she was pretty sure they'd be incredibly needy.

Michelle was quite adept at making everything she did sound mysterious. It didn't help that sometimes she did weird things that people didn't understand, and she responded to Peter's look with a blank and unimpressed expression. He might as well have been looking for clues to her later engagement in the brick wall behind them.

"Tomorrow will work for me." Probably. If she was right about Peter being Spider-Man, she might have to drop the group. It was a bit of a conundrum - if he was practicing for the academic whateverathon she would have time to herself to do the things that she wanted to do, but it would be during the day. That wasn't when she worked, and that wasn't when the people she wanted to find would be out. The seventeen year old student and vigilante still needed to find an informant or two still. Find people who would sell each other out for safety but weren't skilled enough to find out things about her and sell her out. "But I've got time after school for... whatever." Something. Ned and Peter didn't seem like the teens who smoked and partied or whatever else. Was Dungeons and Dragons still a thing? It was probably still a thing and these were probably the nerds who'd play it. She had time for a movie or something, but that would probably mean going to someone's house and... eugh. That was meeting parents and her guardians maybe talking to parents and then too many people were tangled up her shit.

Right now she should be planning for lunch, that would be a good time to ask the group about Spider-Man a little, gauge reactions
 
"One... one of these days" Peter commented when Savannah asked him to show Dead Poets Society to her. For a moment he felt comfortable as she smiled, but there was something uneasy there. Something about her eyes, those eyes, that made him wonder about her smile, but it was a fleeting moment and gone after a split second. There was something there worth his attention, something that made him want to be closer, curious and interested on Savannah, but his natural shyness and the presence of his friends kept him from doing anything stupid. That she was beautiful was beyond question, but there was more there, an underlying question he couldn't even figure to ask. Peter frowned and just let the notion past by his head, as girls being a mystery for him wasn't anything new.

"You two are plotting against my lyrical soul" Ned said, feigning theatrical outrage. "Teaming up against musicals, that's a low blow" he commented, shaking his head. He was about to add another, probably weird, affirmation to his repertoire when the school bell sounded as a warning, as classes were about to begin soon. "Saved by the-" Ned started, a bit of a jokey tone in his voice.

"Don't even dare. No early nineties weirdness either" Peter nipped Ned's chant at the bud, before it could flower into further retro flavored awkwardness. "We can maybe make plans during lunch?" Peter asked as the group started to slowly fragment and drift to their respective classrooms. "My aunt will be working so my house is free!" he added, somewhat boldly and louder as they were already a few steps apart.

Ned raised a thumbs up in the air as he went away, while Michelle... wasn't even there and Peter didn't even notice her sneaking away. Peter cast a last glance towards Savannah, almost tempted to check her out as he thought she was doing earlier, but feeling to out of place to do so and just waved and rushed over to the classrooms. The morning moved at a decent pace, after all that school did all it could to keep the nerdy and smart students it housed entertained and educated, so it wasn't as much as a drag than expected. Even with the spare time Peter had here and there, he couldn't quite plan an afternoon that covered all fronts.

He could be with Savannah while Ned investigated the case, but the mere thought of the two of them alone in his house rendered him flustered. So the investigation would have to wait until a bit later in the afternoon when they all split ways, or so he thought, but that still left the question of what would they do for fun that afternoon. Peter checked his phone and the mysterious girl from last night didn't communicate further, so maybe she was sleeping? Well, a vigilante had to sleep sometime, or so he thought.
 
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