“Busy night?” Mr. Hill asked me, sitting in the garage watching the TV as I wandered in.

“Startlingly. Met the Daredevil of Hell’s Kitchen, the Fantastic Four, probably pissed off Wilson Fisk without him realizing it, and met the local Director of SHIELD for New York.” I puffed myself up, hands on my hips. “Dynamo is on the board!”

He digested all that without batting an eye. “What’d you do to piss off Fisk?” he asked directly.

“Stole from him all the samples of, and destroyed all the notes about, a fear-inducing hallucinogen that has amplified effects on Powered individuals. Oh, and I might have burned down one of his drug labs.”

“Huh.” He rubbed his chin. “But ya didn’t kill whoever made it,” he pointed out, brushing away the other stuff.

“No.”

“Then it’s just a matter of time before it spreads.”

“Brought it to the FF for their Schmot Guy to make an antidote for. I imagine that he’ll have one in a couple days, given his brainpower.”

“Oh, that means you met Grimm, their Rock guy. He an Avatar like me?” Mr. Hill asked, curious now.

“Yes. Made him a Slurry to drink, and muffins. They tasted a bit different to him, but he loved them. Totally willing to pay for the recipes.”

“I made a few phone calls. There’s a punk named Flint Marko running around, can turn himself into sand. Think he’s an Avatar?”

“It all depends if it’s permanent or not. If he can return to flesh, no, it’s just a form of morphing. If he’s sand all the time, yeah.”

He scratched his chin. “Maybe I should sit down with him, give him some pointers. He’s been doing stupid stuff like robbing banks and stuff, getting into trouble.”

“Like you don’t get into trouble.” I rolled my eyes, and he just grinned contentedly.

“Gotta make a rep one way or anuther,” he remarked. “Got an offer in from Fisk. He wants me to teach that crew of kids SHIELD is looking after a lesson.”

Which included Peter. “They hitting his operations, are they?” I asked knowingly.

“They aren’t the cops, and trying to bribe SHIELD is a bad idea. Fisk is just small fish to them, however much he wishes otherwise. What do you think?”

“Can you combine it with something else that’ll actually make you money? None of them are at your power level. I imagine that if you play it right you can make them do half the job for you. A good thrashing isn’t bad for kids, improves their moral fiber... and it’ll get your name out there.”

“You gonna get involved?” he asked pointedly, smiling at my remark. He’d fought lots of heroes who thought they could pick on him because the Champions beat him up. He was good at delivering object lessons, too.

“Maybe on the other side, and then only if they partner someone with you. I can’t take you out without magic.”

“Well, that’s good to hear.” He scratched his chin again. “Let me make some more calls, see if there’s some interest somewhere fer sumthin’.”

------

I went up on the roof to greet the sun, letting Renewal wash past me.

Secret identity would end up being not so secret, but I couldn’t do much until I had an identity here. SHIELD could arrange one quick, and so could illegal means... or having a really good lawyer.

Getting involved with the SHIELD squad of superkids would be interesting, but the key thing would be aggregating them with Xavier’s recruits.

Setting up some alchemical crossover with Parker’s chemistry talent should be nice. I’d also have to find some way for the other kids to contribute. I definitely had to set up some revenue streams to start buying platinum and upgrading my gear.

That would take care of my mornings and early afternoon, without a doubt.

Working as The Dealer would take care of occasional evenings, and the rest of the time I could do stuff as Dynamo as I wished.

Bursting onto the scene with all my powers at once... no, that was a really dumb play in superhero world. Play the mask game with masks, subdivide the power set into completely different things, and prosper.

I still had something else I could do, too. Nothing said I couldn’t have a third identity with a skill set that had nothing to do with the other two, for another look at fun in superhero world.

And it was all about the fun and doing crazy stuff, wasn’t it?

But that was going to require more information and networking in weird directions to set up. Well, wouldn’t hurt to see about setting up at least part of it.

The best thing a Spider should be skilled at was theft, after all...

===============

Some indeterminate days later...

Electricity crackled over me, was promptly vented down into the pavement and grounded out beneath me.

“Yo, Crackles, you got something else?” I asked the guy with electricity dancing all around him.

He’d dropped the bags of money to blast me, and was staring at me in consternation. “How are you doing that?” he demanded, looking a bit frantic.

“Come on! Do you know nothing about electricity and the path of least resistance?” He could probably shut down a good chunk of my powers by just absorbing the bioelectricity, so I hadn’t even bothered to use them.

He was backing up towards a side door quickly, money still on the ground. He gnashed his teeth, looking around, and made the wrong decision.

“You can ground things out, but what about them?” He whipped his hand out to the side, and let go.

The people he was aiming at screamed. The Red Eyes were looking at all of them emotionlessly, registering a dire threat apathetically.

My TK line whipped down around his hand and I jerked it around at me. The blast traveled down the line, into my bracelets, and they gleamed as the juice came into them.

“Uh-oh,” he muttered, staring at them.

There was a hum as the motors engaged, withdrawing the cables with great torque and speed. We hurtled towards one another as I raised a fist.

He hit me with another blast in mid-air, thinking to catch me when I wasn’t grounded. The Red Eyes barely acknowledged it as a threat.

His reflexes were fast enough to follow the discharge down my arm, and along the thin steel cable trailing on the ground. The Eyes only acknowledged what was dangerous...

I clocked him hard, saving his teeth, but breaking his jaw for daring to threaten civilians. My wire didn’t let go, so he didn’t go flying, but his feet went out as his jaw sagged and I leveled him instantly. Staggered and dazed on the ground, he stared up at me in shock.

“If you ever threaten to kill people like that, I’m just going to crack your skull open, and that will be that,” I warned him, drawing back an open hand. “I get you want money. I might have a job for you when you get out, come find me.

“Oh, and your brain is polarizing because of your condition. Start alternating the polar charge of it automatically every minute or two, and get control of yourself, all right? You’re potentially one of the five best electrical engineers in the world, and you could be making a fortune. Leave off this petty shit.”

I forced his head down to the ground, and sat on him coolly after spinning him around three times and wrapping him up in wire. Then I took out a disposable cell phone I had picked up that morning, and noted the charge was low. “Hey, Crackles, charge this up.” I tapped it on his temple.

“’lek-tro!” he swore up at me through his lolling mouth. “Name ith ‘lektro!”

“Sure, ‘lektro. Charge my phone, you’ll be much less uncomfortable. Oh, and alternate your brain polarity, please.”

He glowered at me, but there was a spark, and my phone charged up. “Thank you. Brain polarity!” I glowered down at him, and mine had more teeth. He gave up and shifted the current in his brain, and I immediately saw a confused light go on in there. “Yeah, that’s the look. You’re not just bipolar, you’re incredibly bipolar. It’s why you’re running around in a costume instead of designing a superconductor chip only a Powered electrokinetic can make and on your way to becoming a billionaire.” He goggled up at me. “Yeah, Schmot Guy. Told ya.”

The number I called rang only twice before it was picked up. “Director Carter’s office,” a professional woman’s voice with a non-specific accent on the other end replied.

“Hello! This is Dynamo, I hope Miss Carter told you about me,” I answered calmly.

“Ah, yes, Miss Dynamo. The Director hasn’t given me an answer for you yet,” the secretary replied smoothly.

“That’s not actually why I’m calling. I’m currently at the Bank of New York in Queens which was in the middle of being robbed by a fellow in green and yellow calling himself ‘lectro.”

“E! Lek! Tro!” the guy with the broken jaw blurted out with difficulty.

“He’s a full-Powered electrokinetic with some anger issues. I don’t think the local police are going to be able to contain him, so I was wondering if SHIELD could send down someone with an inhibitor collar to help take him into custody?”

“Oh! Let me check.” I was put on hold for thirty seconds. “The New York Shieldmen can be there in a couple of minutes to help.”

“Thank you for your help, miss-?”

“Natalia Roman,” the voice on the other end answered, and I blinked. “Will that be all, Miss Dynamo?”

“Yes, Miss Roman. Thank you again.”

“It was no trouble.”

Click!

I looked at the phone in my hand thoughtfully.

Peggy Carter had a Black Widow for a secretary? How amusing was that? There was no way she didn’t know, as I was sure all the Widows were Tatted, and Peggy herself had been Marked in her nasal cavity, Sama’s preferred place to conceal the thing.

Heck, that might be THE Black Widow’s daughter or something. The Widows weren’t barren in this world, Briggs would have made sure of that...