"Dad, I'm fine." Peter paused then added, "Your fine, not my fine."

"Pete, it's in the 20's and you're out of the suit." Tony scrubbed his hand over his face as he reviewed the data from the Iron Spider.

"I'm literally a half a block from the house. Can you check media reports and scrub everything you can on both Miles and me from tonight?" Peter didn't think anyone had taken a picture of him but he didn't want to expose either of them. The only way he knew to do that was to erase everything so neither one of them showed up anywhere.

"FRIDAY's already working on it." Tony had the news reports from the fire pulled up. Multiple reports mentioned the possibility of arson. "You want to tell me if your going into the fire was just you being Spider-Man and helping people or if you were actually looking for the arsonist."

Peter grimaced. "Both." Since his dad now knew about it, he might as well get a little help. "If I send you some information do you think FRIDAY can do a little digging?" He didn't want to mention that it was a mutant involved out in the open.

"Karen isn't helping?" Karen had the horsepower to do most research, if Peter was asking for FRIDAY's help, Tony wondered if Karen's systems were malfunctioning.

"It's outside her expertise. You'll understand when I send it to you." It was frustrating not being able to just tell his dad what was going on but he didn't have a option right now. "Dad, I'll call you in the morning. I'm 10 steps from the front door."

Tony growled. "Fine. Call me in the morning. I love you Pete."

"Love you too dad." Peter disconnected the call and pushed the front door open. Bobby, Johnny, and Wyatt were on the sofas in the living room. Shutting the front door behind him he took a deep breath. "Hey guys."

Johnny stood up. "Spider-Man." His tone eased a little. "Did you get her out ok?"

Peter nodded. "So the Human Torch? How do you not burn everything down?"

Johnny sighed and lit himself up. "I can control what it does." Johnny shrugged, "Doesn't mean I haven't had the occasional mishaps."

Wyatt sighed. "Mishaps as in set the curtains on fire...which is why we don't have any...well, didn't. I guess everything is ash now."

"We have extra bedrooms. Consider yourselves our new roommates." Peter glanced over at Johnny again who had retaken his normal form. "Assuming you want to."

Wyatt stood up. "I told Johnny that being mad because you thought he was the arsonist was ridiculous. He'll get over it. So, yes, we would very much appreciate a place to stay." He looked at Peter. "Bobby already showed us his ice form and everyone else has seen the suit...my turn."

Peter sighed and triggered the Iron Spider.

"Cool. Is it nanotechnology like Iron Man's?" Wyatt studied the suit, marveling at the technology.

Peter nodded and retracted the suit. "I have other suits but once we fixed the flexibility in this one, it's way more convenient."

Johnny crossed his arms and looked at Peter. "So are all of the abilities from technology?"

Peter sighed again, hoping the line of questioning wasn't headed back to asking if he laid eggs. He flipped, landed on the wall, crawled up to the ceiling and walked across it. "No." Tucking he flipped back to the ground and landed in front of Johnny. "I'm sorry I thought you were the arsonist."

"Apology accepted." Johnny smiled. "And, that's pretty cool."

The four spent the next several hours discussing their abilities as well as their theories on the arsonist. It was almost 3am before they were attempting to get Johnny and Wyatt settled in the extra bedrooms. Everyone but Peter was resigned to the idea of sleeping most of the next day. Peter was up and on the phone with Tony by 8am.

"Did you get the data I sent last night?" Peter was standing downstairs in the kitchen pouring a bowl of cereal.

"Yeah, Charles gave me access to his information so I had FRIDAY do a little more digging. Firebrand is a female. No name that we've found so far. I'm sending some pictures your way. In addition to what Charles had, FRIDAY pulled traffic and security camera. She's in Boston." Tony hadn't gone to bed yet. He had been up since he had talked to Peter last night. It had been a while since he had pulled an all nighter. He now felt every year of his age.

Peter swallowed his cereal. "Any idea why she's doing it?"

"None." Tony took a sip of his coffee. "I'm also sending you everything Charles has on how to potentially fight an elemental which is what he thinks this is." Tony paused, "You know, I could come down there for a couple days..."

"Dad, it's under control. I will call for help if I need it. I don't think I do though." As much as Peter missed seeing his dad every day, he knew the offer wasn't from Tony...it was from Iron Man. Neither Iron Man nor Tony knew how operate under the radar and Iron Man tended to be a little loud...and destructive. Neither would contribute to keeping Spider-Man out of the news. "If you come across anything else let me know."

Tony sighed. He knew that was going to be Peter's answer when he offered. And, he knew Pete could probably handle it by himself. And, somewhere deep down Tony knew he had to let Pete handle it by himself. He just didn't like it. "Ok. I want updates though."

"Ok. Give Morgan a hug for me. Love you dad." Peter hung up and reviewed the information his dad had sent. He could talk to Johnny about ideas to combat a fire mutant. An elemental was what Professor Xavier was calling it. Either way, fire burned through his current webbing so he started working through formula ideas to make the webbing fire resistant. Which is what the three other boys found him doing five hours later.

"How long have you been up?" Wyatt asked incredulously, looking at the scraps of paper scattered on the table.

Peter didn't look up from his notebook. He thought he was maybe 75% there on a formula. He just needed to start testing it. "A little before 8am." He glanced up and shrugged, "Spiders don't need as much sleep."

Johnny just shook his head. "So what does a Spider accomplish in five hours."

Peter flipped the hologram up on his tablet. "Here's our arsonist. Professor X is calling her an elemental." He looked over at Johnny, "You're going to need to make some educated guesses on ability as well as how to stop her."

Johnny sat down next to Peter and started reading through the information. Once finished he shrugged, "A lot of it is correct. Some isn't." He glanced around at the group around him. To tell them how to defeat her he'd essentially have to tell them how to defeat him. He looked down at Peter's papers and recognized enough of it to realize Peter was working on fire resistant webbing. He gestured to the papers. "That's a start. Containment is going to be hard."

Peter studied Johnny. He was guessing that his hesitance was due to trust which he understood. "Ok, we can keep working on it. Meanwhile, we can order food and Bobby and I can show you the rest of the house."

Orders placed, they walked them down the gym which really was the back section of the house. The house itself was three stories and originally contained a couple rooms on all three floors that were no longer there. Instead, Tony had created a gym area tall enough that Peter could swing at least a little. It was also full of equipment that was Peter-proof...meaning the equipment could withstand Peter at full strength and speed. Johnny's and Wyatt's jaws dropped when Peter pushed open the doors. Peter just shrugged. "I'm used to swinging every day. I had to have a way to burn off some energy if I can't go out as Spider-Man."

Bobby smiled at the two the were still gaping at the room. "And I get the benefit of the fact that he's trained with Black Widow and Captain America."

xxxxxxxxxx

Instead of Sunday dinner at Wyatt's and Johnny's, it was now Sunday dinner at the house. The week started without incident and FRIDAY and Karen had continued to feed them information on when and where their target was spotted via surveillance cameras. The nice thing about being so close to campus was that there were cameras everywhere.

Wyatt had plotted all of the fires on a map. They were in all contained within eight square blocks. There wasn't really a pattern other than the cluster. Peter had alerts set up to go to his watch in the event that a surveillance camera picked up their target or a fire broke out. So far they had always been too far away when she had been spotted.

Wednesday, they made it into the Odyssey joined by Gwen, Davis, and a couple others from school. Peter had been able to test his web fluid in Chem lab and while he didn't think it was 100%, he thought it would work. They were a couple hours into the night when Peter's watch buzzed. They had all been with him when it had gone off previously so they all knew what it meant. He glanced down at it, hoping not to draw attention to it and saw the map pinpoint an area less than a block away. He glanced up at Bobby, Johnny, and Wyatt before standing up. Making his way towards the back he hoped that DavIs and Gwen assumed he was just going to the restroom. Ducking through the back door he triggered the Iron Spider suit and scampered up the wall. Landing on the roof he didn't overlook the fact that Johnny landed next to him, glowing a subdued fiery orange.

"It's as covert as I can get."

Peter shook his head. "Gwen and Davis are going to be suspicious."

Johnny shook his head. "Wyatt challenged Gwen to a game. Have Karen text him if we need him. Bobby is going to meet us once we figure out where we're going."

Peter rolled his eyes and was glad he was covered by the Iron Spider. Having team mates now was a little different than having Avengers as your team. He hadn't really thought that through until now. Shoving it into another part of his brain, he started scanning for a heat signature. "Flame off for a minute. You're messing with the sensors." Shove that one into the fix it later box. The fiery glow diminished next to him. A few moments later he saw a heat signature. "Got her." At least he hoped it was her and not a third fire mutant. At this point nothing would surprise him. Maybe Davis or Gwen had powers.

Karen plotted an intercept path for himself and Johnny, minimizing the chance that a casual bystander might accidentally see them. He had Karen text Bobby the location knowing he could meet them on the ground. He could form ice waves and travel faster but it was hardly covert.

A few minutes later they were standing in an alley. Peter quietly pulled open the door and entered, flanked by the Human Torch and Iceman. "Karen, scan building."

This building only had two floors so it was easy to pinpoint their target. She had started lighting up boxes in the storage room in the back. Fire was licking off her fingers onto the cardboard, instantly lighting them on fire. They hadn't entirely known what to expect so they had multiple options for plans. Peter fires taser webs hoping they would shut her down quickly. They didn't. The energy was absorbed by her skin and in turn increased the flame coming off her fingers. "Ok, so no tasers."

Firebrand turned to face the trio. Her eyes glowed a soft reddish orange, black hair whipping away from her face. She let lose a blast a fire toward the group which Johnny effortlessly absorbed and allowed Bobby to douse her with a barrage of ice that doused the fire briefly but then turned to steam as she lit her arms back up. It was enough of a distraction for Peter to fire off a round of fire resistant webs. They impeded her but not enough. Instead of continuing the fight she pushed through the boxes and ran through the front of the building, crashing through the glass and onto the street. She had lit enough on fire that Bobby stayed to douse the flames while Peter and Johnny followed. When they made it to the front of the building Peter could see her heat signature fading as she ran, blending in with the innocent bystanders. He put a hand out to stop Johnny from following.

"We lost her and there too many people out there. Out the back." The two retreated and met up with Bobby who was putting out the last of the flames. "Karen, verify there aren't any recording devices." They could evaluate the op and analyze what they could do differently back at the house.

"You're clear Peter."

xxxxxxxxxx

Firebrand made her way into the abandoned warehouse she had called home the last couple weeks. She hadn't expected three of them. Their combined power could have taken her down. Running had been her only option. She slid off her jacket and threw it over the back of a chair. She wasn't surprised to see him sitting on the makeshift sofa...waiting for her. "You didn't tell me there were three of them."

"The Spider has friends. Your failure earned us a valuable piece of information."

She watched him stand up. He never stayed long. Just long enough to provide targets or information.

"You need to stand down." He issued the order in a tone that he knew she could not mistake.

"No!" She protested. She could do this. She was worthy. She had to be.

"Stand down until you hear from me. You'll have your chance. I promise."