When Heroes Meet
That felt too easy.
Addie forgot how much easier it can be to deal with non-magical people sometimes. Granted, she has magic meant for fighting and people don't know how to deal with that, but the statement stood regardless.
The dilapidated warehouse was now quiet, its broken windows and musty air a reminder of days long gone. After taking out the large number of armed men the art poachers left behind, she found that the rest of the crew was easy. The art poachers were too cocky. They assumed that because they had a larger number of men armed than unarmed, they wouldn't have any problems in guarding the warehouse. Addie wasn't even sure what this warehouse used to store back in the day. There was no indication of New York city's industrial age work despite the warehouse's state and the space was now filled with crates of guns and various antiquities that were stolen from different countries. A few of them she even recognized from her old Art History classes.
As much as Addie wanted to check the condition of the items, she knew she needed to hurry and get the data before the cops came. There were more locations on the computer and proper inventory of the items. It would be great evidence for them, but Addie needed to copy the information first. She was looking for something specific and with how dangerous it was, she couldn't risk a curious civilian or nosy cop to get their hands on it first.
She made her way up to the second floor, the metal steps echoing slightly. The main office rested on this floor. The locked door was no problem for her as she used the key she picked up off of one of the thugs. A squeak escaped from the door as she closed it behind her.
The room was devoid of people with an older style of computer monitors and filing cabinets spaced around the room haphazardly. She doubted the art poachers actually cared about organization and really only needed the room for its computers. A computer in the right corner was already on, the chair next to it knocked over. Addie figured the occupant left to deal with her. She closed all of the websites left open and implanted her flash drive.
Now all Addie had to do was wait.
She used that time to physically search the office, rummaging through any papers and drawers left out. There wasn't anything Addie found interesting or unique so she didn't care enough to keep all of the papers in the office. Some of the other files were of past antiques this group has poached before and others were of older, failed retrieval missions. Those she did grab, folding them neatly together and placing them into her stitched-up Bag of Space, the small bag on the side of her belt that magically had more room inside than its size could actually hold.
As the flash drive was almost done downloading the data, that's when she heard the noise. It was barely above a whisper, but the thud of a window being shut rang loud in her slightly enhanced ears.
Someone else had entered the warehouse.
The sound prompted her to drop the extra papers she was holding, her white, gloved hands closing the drawer as quietly as possible. She reached the keyboard and ejected the flash drive just as it had finished its download. Addie tucked the drive away into her Bag of Space and slowly approached the door.
What made that noise? Could it be more art poachers coming in as reinforcements? She wasn't sure, but knew it was better to confront them before they got the jump on her.
Addie got ready to sneak a look out when she heard the noise again. A shuffling noise that sounded closer than it was before. Addie summoned Brunhilde, her needle-like long sword, and opened the wooden door was no sign of life from where she could see glancing through the crack, which made her even more nervous. Any inexperienced individual would've shrugged off the previous noises as a stray animal or falling debris, but the feeling in her gut wouldn't leave her.
So, against her better judgement, she exited the main office. There was nothing on the floor with her. None of the thugs she previously encountered were up and walking either. Keeping her eyes open, she gave off a false sense of relaxed strolling and slowly patrolled the area. It was beginning to frustrate her.
"Sooo~ come here often?"
Although the voice was light in tone and teasing by nature, it still caught Addie off guard. She pivoted around to face the voice, her long sword swinging up to hold them at bay.
An upside down, bright red, masked face with white lenses for eyes was on level with her face, the lenses widening as her long sword stopped right next to his head.
"Whoa! Hold it- I'm friendly!"
Addie took a quick moment to examine the figure at her sword. Upside down, must be hanging off of something. Red spandex suit that had black lines criss crossing all over the suit. Blue accents on the side of his chest, and the inside of both his arms and legs. Mask on his face with wide, bug-like lenses for eyes and finally, a black spider on his chest.
Addie knew who this was.
It was Spider-Man. The Spider-Man of New York City.
'Holy shit!' she thought. She dropped her sword to her side, knowing he wasn't a threat. Addie had a feeling she was going to run into Spider-Man eventually, but this is not how she had imagined it at all. She had always imagined it during a fight or even as they rescued citizens from a burning building. Something far more heroic by nature and not… in a dilapidated warehouse. A snapping sound went off as Spider-Man broke his rope- no wait, webbing, like a spider- and he landed on his feet in a crouch. As he straightened, Addie found herself looking up into his face.
Apparently, he was a whole head taller than her. Wasn't that just peachy? Nope. Addie wasn't bitter about her height at all.
"Sorry for the sword, force of habit to bring it out when someone sneaks up on me," she explained. "I know who you are and I wouldn't have done it otherwise."
"I getcha. Probably shouldn't have snuck up on you."
It was quiet for a moment as he observed her, his bug-like lenses making it a little unnerving. Spider-Man cocked his head in thought and the action struck her as odd. It just seemed too… normal, something a civilian would do. Suddenly, his head straightened back as he seemingly remembered something.
"Wait... You're the one who's been recently stopping a lot of those pick pockets and purse snatchers, aren't you? Some cops were telling me that they've spotted a young girl in a quilted dress leaving those crime scenes."
Even if Spider-Man couldn't see it behind her patchworked colombina style mask, Addie rolled her eyes at the comment "young girl." While the dress may be deemed unorthodox for fighting crime by others, it was perfectly acceptable for a Valkyrie to wear a dress. At least she stopped wearing pigtails.
"Most of that was correct. I'm not a young girl, but I figured I would start helping out after moving here. Birds of a feather and all that."
"Uh-huh. You got a name?"
"Seamstress," she started, giving Spider-Man a friendly smile and an outreached hand, "I deal with problems of the magical kind."
Addie couldn't tell what he was thinking as his mask covered his face, but she could imagine by his silence that he was either confused, dumb-founded, or really skeptical. He probably had a raised eyebrow behind his narrowed lenses. Spider-Man ignored her raised hand and crossed his arms instead, giving the impression of a disappointed parent or teacher.
Addie didn't like where this was going.
"So you're telling me that you just decided to help out one day even though you typically deal with... magical problems? And is the dress based off of the name or is it vice-versa?"
Addie felt a frown replacing her smile as suspicion and indignation flared in her chest. She quelled it though as she put her hand down, not quite understanding where Spider-Man was coming from.
"I mean, yeah. I don't like sitting on the sidelines when I know I can help. And the dress has always been a part of my costume... Is something wrong?"
Addie found herself tensing as Spider-Man sighed and placed his hands on his hips.
"Look, there's nothing wrong with helping people around New York, but you shouldn't be raiding warehouses when you're so inexperienced and young," he started. "I don't know what you think being a hero is like, but you should just stick to small fry for now. You've only just shown up recently and you're poking your nose into stuff you shouldn't. You don't know the New York crime scene like I do. You're going to unknowingly throw a stone into a hornet's nest of gang wars, organized crimes, and drug runs at some point so it's too dangerous for you to do anything other than pickpockets and purse snatchers and there's nothing wrong with that. You'll just get yourself killed otherwise."
Her heart dropped to her stomach as he kept going, a vibrant mix of indignation and disappointment welling up in its place.
Addie should've known.
Valkyries in general were supposed to be discreet and remain hidden. Addie herself used to limit how often she appeared as Seamstress outside of Erlidos, the world of magic. She figured it was only time before someone brought attention to the validity of her goals and actions, like that irate podcaster, J. Jonah Javison- that wasn't his name, but she couldn't think of it at the moment- had already commented and theorized that she was some sort of government experiment created to fight Spider-Man. In some ways, she expected others to doubt her. She counted on it in battle because her smaller stature and gender typically caused enemies to underestimate her.
But while she wasn't surprised she had to introduce herself to Spider-Man, she was shocked to hear him dismiss her so quickly after meeting her.
It simultaneously hurt and pissed her off.
'Fine,' Addie thought angrily. 'He wants to assume I'm a defenseless little girl, who am I to say otherwise?'
"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry," Addie started, overacting purposefully. "I didn't mean to cause so much trouble, I just wanted to help people and really wanted to show how I could be a good hero for New York City." It sickened her to play such a character, but the show must go on.
"But gee Spider-Man," Addie really liked that part. "-if you say I am in danger, then maybe I should just leave it to the Amazing, Spectacular, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man?"
Spider-Man's lenses narrowed as he took in her response, finally commenting "I feel like you're mocking me."
"What? What would give you that idea? I'm just reiterating what you told me. Besides, it's not like I've done years of hero work myself and am actually a grown woman, not a child. Or like I was actually looking forward to meeting you and getting the chance to talk about what it's like to live a double-life. Maybe it has nothing to do with the fact that I've already staked these guys out for a couple of weeks now in hopes that it would not only help me identify the buyers and sellers involved, but would help me locate a particularly dangerous magical artifact that could blow up a good chunk of the city if left in the wrong hands!"
Addie gradually let the condescending tone go as her anger leaked out, the need to let Spider-Man know just how wrong he was overriding her more passive nature. During her tirade, his bug-like eyes widened and he took a small step back, perhaps realizing his mistake in assuming her inexperience.
Part of her relished in it.
Another part of her realized she was taking this too far.
"Ok, ok. Maybe we should talk about this-" He started before he was interrupted by flashing red and blue lights leaking into the warehouse. He continued.
"Or we can take this elsewhere. Cops can be pretty polarizing when it comes to me, so I have no idea how they'll react to you."
Spider-Man seemed to be waving a white flag for a proper conversation. Addie didn't care for it.
"Look. I don't really care what you think of me," Addie lied to better distance herself from the situation. "But these thieves and poachers are my case and I'm dealing with it my way. I don't want you thinking you can just waltz in and screw things up. Just… leave me to my work and leave me alone."
And with that, Addie turned away from Spider-Man to grapple up to the skylight with her large needle and rope thread.
"Hey! Wait-"
She was already zipping up out of Spider-Man's reach when he tried to grab her. She made her way through the open skylight to the night sky when she heard him one last time.
"Ah, damnit."
"Heya Kid! How did it go? Did you get the buyer and seller list?"
The question greeted her as she exited the Door Between Worlds, or DBW, and entered the Sanctuary. The clean air and peaceful atmosphere of the room was a welcome change from the populated streets and polluted air of New York City. The room she entered had vaulted ceilings with murals of different magical creatures and girls in dresses decorating its surface. Towards the back of the room, bookshelves filled to the brim with texts, scrolls, and books scaled all the way up to reach the ceiling. The more open part of the room was in front of Addie and was currently occupied by a large, wooden desk that had small-scale platforms and stairs surrounding it. Books and papers were scattered all over its surface and circled around a small figure in the middle.
The teddy bear-sized figure was the one who had asked the question. Most people would mistake her for some type of rabbit with her light brown fur, long ears, large brown eyes, and button nose. But the similarities cut short once you notice the stubby, goat-like horns that rested between her ears, her long tail, and the fact that she did not have a definable mouth. She stood on two legs with large paws better suited for walking and smaller, more dexterous paws at the end of her little arms. Addie couldn't see them at the moment because she wore a type of cloak that every member of her species wore, but she knew they rested under the simple, but elegant cream colored cloak.
The creature was named Riona and she was a Muse, a magically talented creature of inspiration and service. Riona specialized in history and was assigned to assist Adelaide in her duties as a Valkyrie, a Magical Girl-esque Warrior offered magic powers by Erlidos itself. In exchange, Addie, as Seamstress, acted as defender of both Earth and Erlidos.
Riona was also Addie's closest friend and confidant.
"Yup. Got the list and was even able to kick some art poacher ass," Addie started. "I did, uh, run into a problem though. I had it mostly handled."
Addie could see Riona's ear twitch at that and began to dread the upcoming conversation. She loved Riona to death but when it came to human men, she could be overprotective at the best of times and overbearing at the worst of times. Then again, Addie couldn't blame her. Not only has Riona spent years studying human history and witnessing all of the horrors and tragedies that resulted from wars because of the flaws of men, but how she lost the Valkyrie before Addie still haunted Riona. A young girl walking home alone, pulled into an alleyway…
"Problem? What problem? 'Mostly handled' doesn't sound like it was handled at all." Her voice was not what you would expect from a creature her size. Not squeaky or quiet, but more like a young adult.
"It's nothing… I just ran into Spider-Man is all..." Addie tried to minimize the impact of the interaction, but it didn't work out like she wanted.
"That's nothing?!" Riona shouted. "You told me, and I quote, 'I will be fine Riona. I won't run into Spider-Man at all! New York City is way too big for me to do so. Besides, he'll be too busy to talk to me and I'll be too busy with work. It'll never happen!' Never happen, huh?"
Riona shook her head before continuing. "What made it a problem? Did he attack you? Because if he did, I swear I will find him and chomp his little-"
"No! No, nothing like that! He didn't attack me." Addie clarified. "But, he may have assumed that I was… a little kid trying to play hero. And, may have told me to stop trying to stop the poachers… for my own good, of course."
Addie could see the anger spread throughout Riona's little body and over her face. She began to pace the surface of the desk, unable to contain her emotions.
"What! Spider-Man said that! He has no right! Who does he think he is telling you, the Valkyrie of Thread and Fabric who slayed the god of Chaos Morsileo himself, to stop being a hero? Ugh! Human men! Why do they think they can just order others around as if it's any of their business? Insufferable! If I was there, I would've showed him a thing or two about respect, and how to not be an outright asshole, and -"
"Riona!" Addie interrupted. "I appreciate you looking out for me, really I do, but we've got bigger things to worry about. Like, this dangerous amulet you are having me look for?"
Riona paused and Addie thought she was going to continue her rant before she just shook her head and turned around to an open book on her desk.
"Right. You're right. Let me debrief you on the Amulet of Ultima Volta before you head home for the night. You've got work in the morning and I've got plans for a certain Spider-themed asshole…"
Addie rolled her eyes good-naturedly but came up to Riona's desk to get a better look at the book. Riona gestured to the page before starting.
"First identified and located in the 16th Century, the Amulet of Ultima Volta was nowhere near as dangerous as it is today…"