-Peter cringed as he slid into the chair at their table at the Odyssey. He could hear Gwen from across the room.

"It's finally happened!" Gwen had abandoned the group of people she had been talking to and headed over to the boys table. Standing in front of Peter she grinned. "I finally got a higher test grade than you."

Peter sighed. "Off day." He knew it was really more like off week but so far that test was the only evidence of it.

Gwen laughed. "I'll say. I'm not sure I ever expected you to get that bad of a grade on a test."

"Gwen, leave it alone. Everyone has off days." Bobby leaned back in his chair. The stress of waiting for the next thing to happen was wearing on them all but it was definitely affecting Peter the worst. Of course Johnny was giving him a run for his money and was still on campus working through lab work as a result of it. "It barely made a dent in his class average."

"I know, it's just that it wears on you after a while when you're always beaten on tests by just a couple points. It feels good to finally come out on top." Gwen leaned on their table and looked at the four boys. "You know, all of you all have been off since spring break. What gives."

Wyatt looked over at her. "Just the realization that finals are on the horizon."

Gwen playfully leaned over and grabbed one of their nachos. "You know, if you're wound too tight, you're bound to break eventually. You all are all too brilliant to let that happen, right?"

"Gwen!"

They all turned to look the direction the voice came from. Gwen sighed, "Speaking of wound too tightly...". She pushed away from the table and walked over to Harry.

Peter watched her, there was just enough noise from different conversations that he had trouble hearing their conversation but, he didn't need super anything to see that Harry was more than a little agitated. Peter watched him grab Gwen by the arm and pull her over to the other side of the Odyssey.

Seeing where Peter's eyes were tracking, Davis nudged him. "I'm pretty sure Gwen isn't the type to put up with crap like that very long."

Peter didn't look away until he was sure Gwen had a handle on Harry. "I know. I just don't like it when guys act like that."

Davis nodded, "Everyone has their own stress and everyone deals with it differently. I think Gwen knows to come to us for help if she needs it."

Peter sighed and looked down at his drink. "I know." He glanced over at Wyatt, "Any idea what time Johnny is done?"

Wyatt shrugged, "Last text I got was that he had about twenty more minutes and then he was headed this way." Looking down at his watch he added, "Which means any time now."

xxxxxxxxxx

Johnny parked and slid out from behind the wheel. All he wanted to do was mindlessly waste a couple hours at the Odyssey. Having to spend extra time in the lab had not been fun. He had taken a couple short cuts on heating materials that hopefully no one had picked up on. Dropping his keys in his pocket he headed down the block. He was so late all of his normal parking spaces were taken. He glanced at the traffic and darted across the street making a beeline for the front door until something caught his eye on the roof of the building across from the Odyssey. Deciding to check it out he changed direction and headed to the back of the building.

Keeping his flames as light as possible he landed on the roof to see a familiar individual on the other end watching the building. Black hair draped across her face, flames were flickering off her finger tips as she stared intently through the windows of the Odyssey. Sensing Johnny she whipped around to face him. Flames increased over his body and Johnny tensed for a battle that never came.

"I'm not going to hurt anyone." Firebrand took a step towards Johnny but hesitated, unsure of what to do.

"You hurt a lot of people before so I'm having a hard time believing you now."

Firebrand looked down, refusing to make eye contact with Johnny. "I didn't want to hurt anybody."

Johnny reduced his flames but didn't extinguish them entirely. He was hoping it was slightly less intimidating. "Then why set all those fires?"

Firebrand looked back down at the Odyssey, panicking slightly until her eyes landed on her quarry again. "It's what I was told to do."

"You're a big girl. You can make your own decisions." Johnny took a step towards her and immediately regretted it when she slid further away. He put his hands in front of him in an attempt to show her he wasn't going to hurt her. "What's your name?"

She glanced back at him and frowned. "Firebrand."

"No, what's your real name?" Johnny tilted his head and looked at her. It was if he had just asked her an impossible question.

"Amanda". She replied, quiet enough that she wasn't sure if he heard her. She hadn't heard her own name spoken aloud in so long.

"Amanda." Johnny smiled at the shock on her face. "What are you doing here Amanda?"

She shook her head and glanced back down at the front of the Odyssey. "I'm just supposed to watch...to make sure...". She stopped and looked back at Johnny. "I can't...". She glanced back down at the front of the building seeing movement out of the corner of her room eye as a group of people walked out. "I'm sorry...". She whispered before leaping off the roof.

Johnny ran to the edge just in time to see her disappear into the shadows.

xxxxxxxxx

The boys sat around the dining room table at home after Johnny had told them about his encounter with Firebrand. Peter pulled up the files they had gotten before and started reading through them again. "You think she's about our age?"

Johnny nodded, "And more skittish than a wounded animal."

Peter opened a folder containing all of the information they had ruled out before because of various reasons. "Ok...there have been multiple people who have gone by the name Firebrand. Most of them used some kind of exoskeleton which is why we didn't pay much attention to them before." He started rereading though everything. "Huh...ok...so there was this guy Gary Gilbert who was a mob enforcer maybe 10-15 years ago who went by the name Firebrand. Sounds like a pretty horrible guy..."

Davis leaned back in his chair, "For the record I'm going to go ahead and confirm that all mob enforcers are pretty horrible guys..."

Peter gave Davis a sympathetic look, "Sorry...I forgot..."

Davis shrugged, "My dad was actually worse than most of the enforcers. But they're bad enough. What happened to this Gilbert guy?"

"He and his wife were killed during some gang war in Detroit. Their daughter went missing. The age fits." Peter skimmed the rest of the information.

"But she doesn't use an exoskeleton. She's a full elemental." Johnny frowned. He wasn't sure this was getting them anywhere. He looked over at Wyatt who had grabbed a tablet and was looking at files. "What are you looking for?"

"I had Karen search for any teenage arrests matching Amanda's description in Detroit over the last five years."

"Have her add hospital files on overdoses." Johnny leaned over at looked at Wyatt's tablet. "I have a hunch."

The boys split up Karen's results and started flipping through pictures. Within two hours Bobby looked up from his tablet. "I think I found her."

Peter flipped off the ceiling where he had been crouched and looked over Bobby's shoulder. "Maybe. Johnny...what do you think?"

"That's her." Johnny grabbed the tablet from Bobby and started reading. "Drug overdose 4 years ago. No name but her information lists her as a chronic drug user. They estimated her age at 15 which puts her the same age as us, give or take."

Wyatt leaned back against the sofa from where he was sitting on the floor. "What kind of life have you had if you're classified as a chronic drug user at the age of 15."

Davis shook his head. "Chances are she either ran or was taken by the people who killed her parents. She would have grown up on he streets or worse." He looked over at Johnny, "What made you think to check overdose records?"

Bobby stood up, "You think she got a hit of Terrigen which triggered her powers."

Johnny nodded, "She had what looked like old track marks on her arms. The Terrigen fits with that scenario. Who ever is using her now I think they're probably keeping her clean. She's not stable but I didn't get the impression she was high."

Peter flipped back up to the ceiling and started pacing. "Ok, so Amanda is working for mystery person X and was supposed to be watching someone at the Odyssey?" He looked back down at Johnny for confirmation.

"I'm just supposed to watch...to make sure...". Those were her exact words. Johnny crossed his arms and looked up at Peter. "Think she's watching you?"

Peter shrugged, "Maybe. But why? To make sure of what?"