“...and remember, your final project must be uploaded to the class folder before the deadline. It automatically closes after that so late work will not be accepted.” Gwen’s teacher and student advisor, Mr Barnes, ended class with a reminder.

Students began to filter out, either heading to their next class or off to do something in their free time. Gwen closed her notebook and prepared to leave when Mr Barnes called out to her.

“Ms Stacy, a word before you leave?”

Gwen sighed. This was a conversation she had been putting off and it looks like Mr Barnes had decided to go to her rather than wait.

She walked up to the front desk with all the enthusiasm of a person going to an execution.

“What’s up, Mr Barnes?” She said with forced cheer. He was one of her favorite teachers. Patient, willing to point you towards supporting material, and actually interested in getting to know the students he advised despite pushing 60. Too bad that last quality wasn’t something she wanted to deal with at the moment.

“Gwendolyn.” Mr Barnes replied neutrally, causing Gwen to twitch. She hated being called by her full name. “I noticed you never responded to my question about cancelling all your classes for next semester.”

“Yeah…” Gwen hedged. “I’m dropping out.”

There was no judgement in the older man’s eyes. Instead he just nodded sadly and asked, “Money troubles?”

She nodded. It was an open secret at this point. She had no income, not enough credit to cover more loans on her own, and financial aid resources were overtaxed as is. There simply wasn’t an option for her to cover tuition. Well, none that she was able to come by quick enough or legally.

“Well I’ll certainly miss you.” Mr Barnes sighed. “Do you have any ideas what you will be doing outside of school? I’d be happy to reference you to some of my colleagues if you’re looking for work.”

“I have a few ideas. I thought about trying my hand as a freelance web developer or indie game designer. Possibly some other things but nothing solid for now.”

“I see...well, I can’t help with web development but a friend of mine works with Wayne Entertainment. If you have anything solid I can reach out and pitch it to them. Might be able to get some more benefits than their normal contract.”

Gwen smiled, a warm feeling in her chest. “I’ll keep it in mind.”

Mr Barnes nodded seriously. “Do that. And if you ever get the chance I urge you to return to school when you have the chance. You have a bright mind, it would be a shame to see it go to waste. Now go on, I’m sure you have finals to study for.”

Gwen smiled, said her goodbyes, and jogged out of the classroom...directly into a passing student.

None of Gwen’s normal spider enhanced grace was on display as the two of them crashed to the ground in an awkward pile of limbs, but she was the one back to her feet as she rushed to help the other girl up.

“I am so sorry!” Gwen apologized, absently noting she had run into another blonde haired blue eyed girl, although her hair seemed more brownish than Gwen’s own. “I wasn’t watching where I was going, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” her fellow blonde said, hurriedly adjusting her glasses and accepting Gwen’s help up. “Just be careful I guess?”

Gwen apologized again silently cursing she couldn’t just turn invisible to escape the awkwardness, but eventually the other girl waved her off.

“It’s fine!” she repeated for maybe the third time. “And it was nice to, um, run into you I guess but I have to go meet a friend. So if you don’t mind?” she made a vague gesture out towards the door.

“Ye-yeah! I, uh, go ahead.”

-o-

“‘Yeah, go ahead’. Brilliant Gwen. You’re a real people person.” Even hours after the confrontation Ghost Spider was still stewing on that one conversation.

Just when she thought it was out of her head, it would pop up randomly and she would agonize over everything she could’ve said differently to not come off as a spaz. Ghost Spider pushed the memory away for the hundredth time and focused on web swinging through the city.

Soon enough she was back at the now burned out husk of a warehouse from last night. The police had already come and gone and someone had cleared out the insides of it completely but it was still the best starting place to continue searching for whatever the Falcone’s were planning. A quick check of the surrounding buildings showed that a few were partially cleared out overnight. But moving things took time and needed a space to put them. With the police no doubt watching the area for any blatantly illegal merchandise, Gwen was willing to bet there were some clues left behind in the rush. She just had to find them.

She passed through a few more places, but nothing special stood out.

Ghost Spider was about to call it a night and head home when she noticed a limousine idling in the shadows by one of the more out-of-the-way warehouses. Not exactly the kind of vehicle you expect in this part of the city.

Figuring that was suspicious enough to warrant a quick check, Ghost Spider silently swung to the roof and slipped inside through a skylight. Shifting to invisibility was hard on her stamina, but a small use of it was enough for her to make her way to the base of one of the ceiling lamps. The light coming off of it would keep her hidden from casual glances so she settled in and tried to make out the words from the group down below.

“Careful you bumbling buffoons! These magnificent works of art are worth far more than your sorry skins. Damage even one of them and I’ll make sure you end up in ice!” A small deformed man in a tuxedo threatened as grunts worked to pack crates into a moving van.

Ghost Spider recognized him as Oswald Cobblepot, AKA The Penguin, from her father’s files. According to him, Cobblepot was one of the Gotham crimelords that specialised in white collar crime. Art theft, gambling, and information trading for the most part, though he certainly wasn’t above getting his hands dirty. He also managed to squirm out of prison more times then her father was happy with, but that could be said about a lot of criminals in Gotham.

“It’s just some paintings.” one of the stupider thugs said loud enough for Penguin to hear him.

The villain walked/waddled to the man, grabbed him by the collar, and pulled him close.

“These are some of the greatest works of art in the modern era, you simpleton! They will be the crown jewels in my upcoming auction. You should consider yourself lucky to even come within five feet of these masterpieces, something that definitely wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for the police poking around warehouses!”

“Well maybe that wouldn’t be an issue if you didn’t deal in stolen paintings?” A sarcastic voice called out to the whole group.

Everyone’s eyes, Ghost Spider’s included, snapped to where the voice came from to see a man in a tight black bodysuit with the image of a bright blue falcon across his chest.

“Nightwing! Get him!” The Penguin snarled and began backing up towards the truck.

While the bird themed supervillain began to make his escape, his goons tried to overwhelm the intruding hero….physically….with their fists. It went about as well as expected.

Nightwing punched his way through them so quickly Ghost Spider didn’t even get to finish debating if jumping in was a good idea. The media had painted her as kind of a villain and a metahuman showing up in the middle of a fight might cause an unwelcome distraction.

So she simply kept an eye out for any surprises as Nightwing stopped the Penguin from opening the truck door with a well thrown birdarang. It clipped the villain’s hand, causing him to recoil in pain and turn back to the hero.

“So the original boy wonder is stalking warehouses, quite the step down from saving the city.” Penguin mocked, brandishing a trick umbrella with a dagger poking out the top. “The Bat too busy with your replacement or were you just kicked out of the nest?”

“Just doing my duty to clean up the streets.” Nightwing’s smirk had lessened and the cheer seemed a bit forced now. “And waddya know? Two thieves for the price of one!”

With a snap of his arm, Nightwing sent another birdarang arcing through the air. Ghost Spider’s eyes widened in surprise as the shuriken flew directly at her hiding place and she kicked off the ceiling. Landing in a crouch on one of the crates she glared at Nightwing. That had just been rude.

Still crouched, Ghost Spider jabbed an offended finger at him. “I am not a thief!”

“Really? Care to explain what happened to that unmarked crate you ran off with then? I’d check the warehouse records but there was a small fire.”

Gwen paled underneath her mask. He knew about that? How?! There were no cameras in the area and she really doubted Falcone was going to tell the cops about his illegal warehouse goods! ...oh. Of course. The gangsters must’ve woken up at some point and saw her run off with it. Then it was just the rumor mill at work.

“Ask the mafia goons that lit the place on fire, I bet they would love to tell you all about it.” she deflected.

Nightwing opened his mouth to respond but the Penguin took a gamble with the hero being slightly distracted and tried to stab him from behind with his umbrella. Not that it accomplished much. Nightwing leaned back avoiding the thrust and batted the umbrella away with a swipe of an arm, a swift kick to the gut had the smaller man battered back into the side of the truck.

The Penguin snarled in pain and brought his umbrella back between himself and Nightwing, who had retreated a bit to keep both the Penguin and Ghost Spider in front of him.

“Girl! I don’t know what you were tasked to steal from me, but delay this meddlesome do-gooder and I will reward you triple the paltry sum you were hired for.” The Penguin shouted to Gwen.

“I’m not a thief!”

Sadly despite her denial, Nightwing had moved past the friendly banter stage and decided to just capture everyone. Gwen couldn’t exactly blame him since he could’ve died if the Penguin managed to stab him, but it was certainly annoying as she jumped over a thrown bolas and webbed to a nearby wall to avoid more birdarangs.

Easy enough, but it had the side effect of pulling her far enough that Nightwing couldn’t keep the both of us in his field of view. So when he turned to track Ghost Spider, the more immediately dangerous one, the Penguin took the opportunity to toss out several gas grenades and the warehouse began to slowly fill with an ominous pink vapor.

“So long boy wonder, with this paralytic gas to keep you out of my feathers it’s time for this bird to fly the coop!” The Penguin cackled as he slammed the door to the moving truck shut and floored the accelerator. The truck lurched forward, sliding to point directly at Nightwing and gaining speed quickly.

Nightwing dove out of the way...directly into one of the clouds of gas. The gas apparently didn’t need to be inhaled to take effect since Ghost Spider could see his movements slowing despite him holding his breath.

So Nightwing wouldn’t be chasing after the Penguin at this rate, now was her opportunity to show she was a hero!

A webline attached itself to the back of the truck and Ghost Spider lept off the wall, pulling herself towards the fleeing vehicle when an unfortunately well aimed shuriken sliced through the strand of silk. White eyes widened dramatically as Ghost Spider nearly crashed into the ground, rolling and springing off her hands to bleed off her momentum. There was a loud crash as the truck tore through the light warehouse siding and disappeared towards the city.

“Not letting both thieves get away.” Nightwing said, swaying slightly as he fought against the toxin in his system.

Ghost Spider’s temper, long frayed from her own internal torment over her embarrassing moment earlier in the day, finally snapped.

She stalked towards the wobbling vigilante and sidestepped a surprisingly fast punch. “I-” she drove her own fist hard into his stomach, “-am not-” an uppercut to his chin that nearly rocked him off his feet, “-a thief!” and finished it with a straight punch to his nose.

Ghost Spider stood over the now unconscious Nightwing, breathing heavily and feeling somewhat numb as the paralytic in the air slowly overcame her symbiote’s natural defense. The sound of distant sirens snapped her back to clarity as she looked down at the body in front of her.

“Oh...shit…”

-o-

Gwen took another bite of her wrap and just tried to blend into the background.

Last night had been a disaster. No new leads, the Penguin got away with a stockpile of stolen art, and she had beaten a hero into the ground because she had been embarrassed and pissed off. She was just going to hide from anyone she knew for a few days until she felt like less of an idiot.

Naturally that was when Barbara slid into the booth across from her followed by a somewhat stiff Dick Grayson.

“Hi Gwen! Been looking for you all day, you aren’t avoiding us are you?” the redhead asked playfully as Dick sat down as well.

“Kinda avoiding everyone. Did something stupid yesterday so I was hiding out until my ego recovers. I’ll tell you later if you want.” Gwen added on when she saw Barbara’s interest peak. “You okay, Dick? You have something on your face.”

Dick gave her a sort of wincing smile that made his black eye even more noticable. “Yeah...new sparring partner at the gym. I got a bit sloppy and got hit for it.”

Gwen gave a sympathetic wince of her own. Partly because it did look painful, and partly because it was her fault.

“Ouch, sorry.”

Dick waved her off. “Don’t worry about it. It just looks bad, I’ve had worse.”

“I dunno, I think it makes him look better.” Barbara sniped, but her heart wasn’t in it.

There was a brief silence.

“So...you were looking for me?”

“Hmm? Oh, right! Do you think you could hand in my final essays for our shared classes? I’m going to be busy next week and they won’t let me turn them in early for some reason.” Barbara said.

“I guess so.” Gwen acquiesced. “You doing something or just looking to run off early and beat up Dick more?”

“Hey.”

“First off I do not beat up Dick. I can, naturally, but choose not to.” Barbara smirked.

“Hey!”

“I’m helping out a friend who’s stopping by town for a few days.” she continued as if she didn’t hear Dick’s protests. They both looked out over my shoulder and Dick waved at someone behind me.

“Speak of the devil I guess. Here she is now.” Barbara murmured as a familiar looking blonde joined us at the table. “Gwen, this is Kara Danvers. Kara, Gwen Stacy.”

“Oh,” Gwen said a little faintly as she recognized the girl she had crashed into the other day. “We’ve met.”

She really hoped Kryptonians couldn’t hear internal screaming.