Chapter 8

"Uh, Peter?" Supergirl said. Spider-man opened his eyes just enough to see the blond girl crouching down to look him in the face. "Doesn't your school begin in twenty minutes?"

His eyes flashed open. He was already in his regular clothes and his backpack was at his feet while he sat in the recliner. "Wha-what?"

"It looks like you fell asleep as soon as you sat down." Supergirl said. "Are you sure you should be going?"

"I-yeah. Fine." he stood and took off for the door. "Gotta go, see you later!"

With her X-ray vision, she followed him down the elevator. Korra's door opened and the Avatar made her way to the refrigerator, wiping the sleep from her eyes.

The moment Spider-man was out of the building, Supergirl opened the door to his room and stepped inside.

"Um, what are you doing?" Korra asked.

"I'm looking for something." Supergirl said.

"Okay, but what?"

With one hand, Supergirl picked up the bed. "I don't know exactly. I've already looked all over this place for hidden cameras. Now I guess I'm looking for the notes he's taking on us."

"He takes notes on us?" Korra asked.

"I don't know, but he does do a lot of typing on this computer." Supergirl said. She examined the monitor for a moment, then remembered she needed to turn the tower on first.

"Yesterday you seemed kinda happy." Korra said, "I thought you were done with the whole paranoid thing."

"Yeah, for a moment I did feel myself trusting him, but then I remembered the last time I let someone in." Supergirl said. "And the time before that." She put a hand to her chin and tried to think of a likely password.

"So...how long have you been alone?" Korra asked.

The question froze Supergirl for a moment. "Technically, I haven't been by myself for very long. But I've been alone for...months it seems, I haven't been keeping track." She typed failed password after failed password until the computer threatened to lock her out.

Giving up on this particular effort, she turned to see Korra strapping one of Spider-man's spare web shooters to her wrist. Mimicking his finger placement, she tried to shoot a web, but the trigger didn't budge. With a frown, she examined it more closely. Brimming with curiosity herself, Supergirl put on the second web shooter.

"I'm not sure how to make these work." Korra said. Supergirl shot a web out immediately at the far wall. "Huh. Maybe this ones broken." she pushed on the trigger with her spare hand until a web shot out and stuck to the computer monitor. "Oops." she pulled away and the web extended from the shooter, knocking over the monitor. "How do you get it to stop...webbing?"

"Let go of the trigger."

Korra released the palm trigger and the web cut off and fell to the floor.

"Alright." Supergirl said, "We should probably-oh!" With a tap on the trigger, she set off another web that knocked over Korra's glass of water. "My bad." She bent down to evaporate the water with her heat vision.

"I could just bend that out." Korra said.

"It's okay, I got it." Supergirl stood and her head hit Korra's hand, setting off another web. "Um, maybe we should get out of here."

"I think we're gonna be in trouble." Korra said.

"Naw, it...I think it dissolves, right?"

"Yeah, into a powder. Which he will definitely notice."

In seven hours, Spider-man returned from school. Korra and Supergirl sat on the couch, trying their best to look unassuming.

"Alright, are you two ready to get to work?" he asked.

"Uh, yeah, sure." Supergirl said.

The girls quickly fled to their rooms before Spider-man could get to his.

"Um, guys?" Spider-man called out. "Any particular reason you were in my room?"

Korra leaned against her door. "We, uh, wanted to see how your web shooters worked."

They could hear him sigh even through the walls. "Well next time you want to see how my stuff works, please let me know in advance. Or at least test it in your room so I don't have to clean up the mess."

Soon Supergirl and Korra were standing at the base of Avengers tower, hundreds of feet above in the hangar, Spider-man stood with two crash test dummies.

"Alright, you two ready down there?" he asked.

Supergirl examined the earpiece, not sure where the microphone was. "Yeah, I guess. What exactly are we doing?"

"Saving these dummies."

"Oh, okay. Go ahead and drop them then."

"Already did." Spider-man said.

In a panic, both girls looked up to see the rapidly approaching dots. Supergirl flew straight up while Korra looked around for an idea before deciding to stand directly underneath her dummy and waving her arms in a circular motion that created a whirlwind. Korra's dummy entered the vortex, and was whipped around in a circle as she gently lowered it to the ground. Having caught hers in her arms, Supergirl returned to the ground and set her dummy down.

"Alright, lets see how you did." Spider-man said, hopping off his web. "Korra, yours looks good, maybe a little unappreciative of the spin cycle, but he'll live."

"Mine's fine too." Supergirl, "Like we didn't know how to catch stuff." she crossed her arms.

Spider-man looked up at her for a few moments before examining her dummy. "Actually, yours is pretty dead."

"What?!" she exclaimed, arms shooting down to her sides.

"Well yeah." Spider-man said, "I mean, did you match it's momentum and slow down? It didn't loose all it's kinetic energy just because you touched it. If this would have been a real person, they would have broken bones where your arms were."

"I..." she crossed her arms again and looked away out of the corners of her eyes. She hadn't thought about that.

"Alright, let's move on to something else." Spider-man said. He pointed down the street. "Okay, first we race to the top of that building, then the next one, and the next one."

"Why? I can just fly there in a second?" Supergirl said.

"Well, maybe the last lesson was to teach you about inertia, and this one's a test to see just how fast our Avatar friend is." Spider-man said.

"You're on!" Korra said. She stood on the balls of her feet, ready to sprint.

"Okay then. On your marks...get set...Stop!"

Both girls lunged forward, but stopped before moving more then a few feet. They both turned and glared at Spider-man while he chuckled.

"Works every time. GO!" Spider-man leapt in the air, shooting out a web and swinging towards the target building.

Korra spun and formed a ball of air underneath her that she sat on and used to zoom down the street. Once she was at the base of the building, she jumped in the air and shot fire underneath her feet to boost upwards. Supergirl was waiting for them at the top, pretending to yawn and stretch like she had just woken up.

"You guys are so slow." She said.

"While you're busy taunting, I'll be busy winning!" Spider-man yelled as he jumped to the next building.

"That's what he thinks." Supergirl said casually.

Doing her best to keep up with Spider-man, Korra burst herself into the air with her airbending and landed on the roof of the next building. She ran to the edge of the building and saw Spider-man crawling the wall more than sixty feet above her. It was a high jump for her, too high.

Once again, Supergirl was waiting for Spider-man at the top. "I think Korra's having a little trouble." she said.

Spider-man looked down the see Korra clinging to a window sill and puling herself up.

"Alright, that's good enough." he called down to her.

"No, I got this!" she yelled up, "Just gimme a second." she planted her feet against the building, then put a gust of airbending underneath her to propel her two stories up and grabbed another window sill. She repeated this process once more and grabbed the edge of the roof and pulled herself up. She smiled triumphantly and put her hands on her hips.

"What's next on this pointless training run?" Supergirl said.

"Well aren't you just full of vinegar this evening?" Spider-man said.

"Sorry I don't exactly see the point in these exercises."

"So you're saying there's no point in saving someone falling out of a building?"

"No." Supergirl said, "I'm just saying, that you guys can take care of the falling people and stuff. I'll be the one fighting the bad guy."

"That's not how a superhero team works." Spider-man said, "We all need to be able to fulfill a number of different roles depending on the emergency we respond to. There's not always going to be someone to beat up. And even if there was, what would happen if you ran off to fight them alone and they gained the upper hand."

"I really don't think that's likely." Supergirl said, "I pretty much only have one weakness, and I doubt it's even in this dimension."

"Don't be so sure." Spider-man said, "I've already found a number of ways to take you down. And if I can do that, then you can be certain-"

"Excuse me?" Supergirl put her hands on her waist and scowled at him.

"Wh-No. If that sounded like a challenge or anything, it wasn't supposed to. I-"

"No, let's see this little strategy of yours." Supergirl said.

She stormed into the Avengers Tower before Spider-man could adequately explain himself.

"Webs, what's with blondie?" The Thing asked as he passed by.

"I'm not sure, but she wants to fight." Spider-man said.

Luke Cage appeared from behind The Thing. "Hold on, like full on, legit fight? Or just practice fight?"

"I don't know, but it's not going to happen if I can help it." Spider-man said as he continued on after Supergirl.

Korra took a second to catch her breath as Luke Cage and The Thing exchanged looks.

"Sounds to me like a full on fight." Luke Cage said.

"Time to make the call." The Thing said.

Korra looked at them, but they hurried after Spider-man while Luke Cage pulled out a phone and sent a number of texts. By the time she had made it to the observation room outside the training room, a small crowd had gathered.

"Alright, a hundred on the blond girl." Human Torch said.

"I'll take dat bet." said The Thing.

"What?" Human Torch exclaimed, "How can a heavy weight not bet on the heavy weight?"

"Cuz I seen what webs can do ta heavy weights." The Thing said, "So my money's on him."

"I dunno, from what I hear she had him pretty good the other day." Luke Cage said, "Put me down for Supergirl."

"Now that's what I like to hear." Human Torch said, "Wolverine how about you?"

"Much as I like to see webs eat the dirt, he's got my bet." Wolverine said, his feet on the desk in front of him.

"Widow?"

"Hey, I just came down here for a little practice." Black Widow said from the back of the room, "But I will say that the room can't simulate a pit of wet cement for anyone to fall into."

"Seriously." Spider-man pleaded his case, "I meant nothing buy it. I'm just saying that you're going to find a few villains out there-"

"Save it bug boy." Supergirl said. She floated to the far end of the room and spun around to face him. "I'm gong to show you exactly what I can do. And why I don't need you constantly on my back. Besides," she nodded towards the observation room, "we've already drawn a crowd."

Spider-man huffed as the room changed to the deck of a S.H.E.I.L.D Helicarrier. "Alright, let's get this over with."

Supergirl stared him down from across the room, debating on how much to hold back. She wanted so much to let loose and show everyone what she could really do, but even underpowered she didn't know if Spider-man could survive a full force attack.

Iron man burst into the observation room. "It hasn't started yet has it?" His boots lowered him to the ground and he made his way to the mirror. "Good. Jarvis record this."

"Yes sir." said the robotic voice.

"Still trying to figure out how the spider sense works, huh, shell head?" Wolverine asked.

"I think I've almost got it." Iron man said. "If an opponent comes at him with a forty eight degree angled attack aimed at his left clavicle, there's a sixty-eight percent chance he'll dodge to his left."

"Oooh, sixty-eight." The Thing mocked. "Keep it up tin man, and maybe one day you'll actually be able to almost hit him once."

"Give it a rest Tony," Black Widow said, "Some things are just beyond science."

"Balderdash." Iron Man said.

Suddenly Korra didn't feel so bad. Apparently she wasn't the only one that had trouble hitting the webslinger.

"Alright, let's go!" Supergirl flew across the room at breakneck speed.

Having predicted a charge, Spider-man countered with one of his own. When they were a few feet apart, he slid on the ground underneath her, grabbing the bottom of her cape as she flew past. His arm felt like it had nearly been ripped out of it's socket, but he held on and flipped over in the air as Supergirl stopped and turned. With his momentum, Spider-man flew over top of her and brought the cape over her face. He placed his feet on Supergirl's shoulders as she reached up to pull the cape. With one hand he webbed her hands down, and with the other he brought the cape around both her arms.

Supergirl began to spin so fast she created a cyclone in the room. Spider-man held on, but he could feel the blood in his body moving towards his feet from the extreme centrifugal force. Letting go, he flew towards the wall as he shot webbing at the spinning Supergirl, wrapping her up even more.

His head cracked against the wall as he crashed into it, and the impact made him dizzy. In the center of the room, Supergirl grunted and leaned side to side as she tried to pry her hands free. Spider-man had assumed the cape had to be fairly durable to withstand her extreme speeds and friction, but what he couldn't have known is that Supergirl would never rip this last remnant of her family on Krypton.

Spider-man hopped on her shoulders as she continued to try and pry her hands loose. "I hope I made my point." he said.

"Get off me!"

"I will, but I want you to realize that if this had been a villain and you didn't have any back up, you'd be in pretty big trouble." Spider-man said.

"I SAID"

Her body began to emanate an orange glow and Spider-man's feet grew hot.

"GET"

His spider sense flared up. The danger was coming from Supergirl, but there didn't seem to be anywhere in the room he could go to escape.

"OFF!"

As Spider-man jumped as far away as he could, the room erupted in a solar burst. The heroes in the observation room were temporarily blinded by the sudden flash of light.

"Sweet Aunt Petunia!" The Thing said

"The heck is that?" The Human Torch yelled.

Smoldering and smoking, Spider-man landed against the artificial helicarrier deck. It took him a moment to realize the intense burning pain he was in, but when it did he immediately began to roll around the floor, tearing off pieces of his suit.

Korra and the Avengers burst in the room, led by Luke Cage, who threw a fire blanket over top of Spider-man. Thirty feet away, Supergirl's knees wobbled from the intense loos of energy and she slide down to the floor. Korra and The Thing made their way over to her and untied the cape now that the webbing had been incinerated.

The moment her hands were free, Supergirl pulled the cape away from her face and turned around. "Spider-man, is he...?"

"A little charbroiled, but he'll be fine." The Thing said.

"What exactly were you trying to pull?!" Wolverine demanded.

"I...I..." Supergirl stammered. All around her, the Avengers glared.

"Spidey can get on your nerves, but that's no reason to-"

"Guys..." Spider-man said weakly. Wincing, he pushed himself up. "...s' fine. I've...had worse." Black Widow and Luke Cage gingerly tried to helped Spider-man up while the rest of the Avengers continued to glare at Supergirl. Korra quickly left the room.

"I didn't mean to hurt him." Supergirl said.

"Then why'd you try to blow him up?" Wolverine said, "There's a difference between real world rules and training rules. In training, you don't try to take the other guy's head off."

"Logan, guys, knock it off." Spider-man said.

"Spidey, I appreciate you standing up for your team, I really do." Iron Man said, "But there's gotta be a-"

"Look, just give us a minute." Spider-man said.

The Avengers looked around at one another as Korra returned with a bottle of water.

"Fine." Iron man said. "But we're not going far. And we need to talk after this."

The Avengers began to leave the room as Korra opened the bottle and pulled out the water with her bending. The liquid began to glow as she held it up to the exposed burns on Spider-man's face.

"Ah, what are you doing?" he said under the tingling sensation.

"I know a little bit about the healing properties of water." she said, "I'm going to try to heal your burns as best I can."

"Your a healer?" he said. "Sweet."

"Emphasis on 'a little'. Don't get your hopes up, I'm not very good."

Spider-man turned his attention to Supergirl. She staid were she was, hands and knees on the ground. Slowly she looked up at him. "I'm so sorry."

"You can hold off on the apologies for now." he said, "What was that really about? It seems like every other day your fine, but then the next you're looking for a reason to fly off the handle."

"I know. I didn't meant to, it's just...I wasn't sure how strong I was, and...and..."

"She doesn't trust you." Korra said, lifting up Spider-man's arm and applying the water to it.

"Well that much I've gathered." Spider-man said. "But you know, trust is a two way street. If we're really going to do this, then I can't be the only one who trusts. I mean, I've told you my secret identity. I've invited you with me out around the city so you wouldn't be caged up in the apartment all day, and this is despite numerous objections by some from the Avengers. And most recently, I figured you'd want to fight super villains, so I tried to get to know you and how to fight with you so that we could fight them. And all I've gotten out of it was a bunch of second degree burns, three nearly sleepless nights, and a headache that feels like it's going to split my head open."

"You don't know..." Supergirl said, "What' I've been through...what I've had to do..." Tears came to her eyes, so she stood and turned away from them.

"Well then tell us." Spider-man said, "We can't really get to know you and empathize with you if we don't know what you are and what you can do. I mean, I think I've figured out that you aren't a human," Korra gave him a quizzical look, "But I need to know for sure. This is going to sound dumb, but...help me help you."

Supergirl glanced back at him. "You don't want to know my story." she said softly.

"I do." Spider-man stood, slowly because of the pain. "Because no matter how bad your past might be, it doesn't define your future. I'm not much of a believer in destiny. You make your own lot in life, good or bad."

Several quiet moments passed as Supergirl stayed with her back turned to them. She rubbed her arms for comfort, then turned around. "You're right. I'm not from Earth. I'm from the planet Krypton. I lived there until I was sixteen, when my uncle discovered that the planet's core was about to explode. He sent his son, my infant cousin, to a distant habitable planet to survive. My father copied the pod and sent me to the same planet." Tears began to stream down her face, "When I woke up, my planet was gone. My friends...my family. The only thing I had to remember them by was my cousin who had grown into a man by the time I awoke.

"And your planet. Your people brought their militaries against me. They thought I was irrational and unstable. Even after I saved there cities." her face began to turn to anger. "So I ran. I had nowhere to run to, but I ran. Until I found someone. A Kryptonian who said he had a way to bring back my planet and my family. He was the only one who understood me, and he wanted everything I wanted...I...loved him. But he tricked me. To bring back my own planet, I would have had to destroy the Earth. I couldn't do it. No matter how many times the people on this planet had tried to hurt me, I still knew there were people that weren't full of hate and I couldn't let them die."

"I killed the boy I thought I had loved so that my planet could stay dead. But he didn't die. He came back, and he brought back Krypton, but the energy he used threatened to destroy the universe. So I had to destroy it. I had to kill my own planet." By this point Supergirl was quivering with fury. She had stopped looking at either one of them and stared at the ground with ferocious intensity, but now she looked up at Spider-man. "That's why I am what I am. I don't want to let anyone in because I don't want anyone to betray me...and I don't want to lose anyone else..."

She continued to glower with anger for a few moments, but the moment her expression softened, Korra rushed in, hugging Supergirl as tight as she could. Stunned for a moment, Supergirl neither said or did anything, but suddenly it was like something melted inside and she hugged Korra back, burying her face in the Avatar's shoulder.

Spider-man stood there, wondering what he should do. His instincts had been screaming at him to do whatever he could to lighten the mood, but as he listened, he dared not make light of Supergirl's story. Korra looked up and motioned for him to come.

"Are you sure?" he said, hesitantly taking a few steps closer. "I'm not sure I should be-" In a flash, Supergirl grabbed him and pulled him into the hug, squeezing him tight. He grunted, but hugged them both back. "This is the most painful healing hug...I've ever been a part of."