Lena finished her math test early, turning it in before anyone else. She had checked and double-checked all of her calculations, and knew for certain she had gotten every answer correct. Math had become her favorite subject. It was simple problem solving, no complex thinking, everything had a perfectly laid out step that she had to memorize to get the correct answer. She had bonded with Tony over the liking they both took to it. He checked her homework every night, rarely finding a mistake.

It had meant that she started out in the Freshman math level, and worked her way up the Junior level. She was a year ahead of most of the kids in her grade. She had felt Peter's surprise when she had walked into the Pre-Calculus class on the third week of school, and he felt his surprise again as she turned in her exam.

When she sat back down, she opened her laptop to find something to do with the remaining time she had. Opening a browser, the first image that flashed in front of her face was an image of her, standing firmly on the top of the building, Spider-Man at her side. She clicked on the article, curious as to what they could have written about her.

Below the image of her looking powerful was one of a completely opposite nature. Looking curiously at the picture, she was finally able to piece together what had happened in her final, conscious moments. The enemy had grabbed her by the neck until she passed out, Peter had tried to hold his own, but Tony had eventually swooped in and saved the day.

A strange arsonist attacked a building in Midtown early last evening. The fiend could be heard for hours, begging for the set of vigilantes, Spider-Man and The Siren, to come and oppose him. Hardly two minutes after arriving, the Siren was rendered unconscious. This is the first account of The Siren being practically defeated, simply by a matter of the noise around her masking her mysterious, luring voice.

Both heroes made it out of the situation alive, but without the arsonist or his accomplice in captivity. NYPD is in the process of developing theories and are on the hunt for leads.

Lena had a small feeling that the arsonist was not the leader of the duo they had encountered.

The strangulation had caused her to completely black out, detaching her mind completely. The period of complete silence, the loss of any comprehension, it had caused her to wake in almost panic. She was completely disoriented. Even in her sleep, she had grown used to Peter's constant, calming presence in her head, and the lengthy period of time where he had been missing was startling.

Lena, exit out of that page before someone notices what you're reading.

She looked to her left to find Peter still taking his test, but his eyes were angled upward at her. Rolling her own, she hit the red 'x' and shut her laptop, laying her head in her arms until the class period was over.

Hey, what did you get for number 23?

Peter, we cannot use this for-

I'm joking, I'm joking.

She sent him a mental image of her flicking him in the ear, which he responded with an image of him kissing her neck. She blushed and let her face fall further into the crook of her elbows.

At lunch, she could feel the vibrating excitement of the students around her. Some of the guys were making fun of Eugene Thompson for Peter being chosen over him (which she would never understand, Peter was much more of a catch than Eugene. He was gentle and kind, while Eugene was hard, insecure, and mean). The others were whispering about the recent hero fight that had happened only a few blocks away from their school. It was interesting to be spoken about when the people who were doing the speaking had no clue that their subject was in their midst.

She sat down at the table that they usually occupied, one on the outskirts of the lunch room, and took out the food that Tony conveniently placed in her bag every morning without fail. It was a kind gesture that he easily could have had someone else do, he was an extremely busy man, but he did it still, leaving a kind note of encouragement.

MJ fell into the seat next to her, plopping a sketchbook and a salad on the table. They always ate in silence while the boys got their school lunches. It was not an apathetic or cold silence, it was just a lack of knowing what to say to each other. MJ had been the last friend that Peter had introduced her to, and they did not spend much time together outside of school. Going to the cafe yesterday had been one of the few times. Lena had a secret desire to get to know the girl better; she had spent most of her life on earth surrounded by adults, and male adults at that. When opportunities, like the this one, arose, the anxiety of sole human exchanges was too thick to allow her to carry it out.

She would have loved to know if MJ felt the same way towards her, but MJ's thoughts were blocked off heavier than any teenager she had ever come across. It was stronger than Ned's, Peter's, even some of the teachers at the school. Her mental stamina was comparable to Tony's.

"Did you guys see the arsonist last night?" Ned was enthusiastic as he sat down, looking at the girls and Peter ecstatically. Ned knew that two of them had been directly involved in the action, but that was a part of the game he played. The kid liked to see Peter dance around a cover-up story. Lena had to admit, it was almost funny seeing Peter lie through his teeth.

"Yeah. Yeah, I saw. I- uh huh," Peter was still distracted by something. Lena's eyes scaled his bare forearm and quickly noted that his hair was standing on edge. It felt odd to her, because his heightened senses usually only detected immediate danger, yet they were perfectly safe sitting down at the table, as they usually did every day. She pushed her eyebrows together and placed her hand on his.

Are you okay?

He looked up at her, panicked and uncomfortable. Something was definitely wrong, but neither of them could pinpoint where it was coming from. Peter sat, frazzled, and ran his hands through his hair.

Jesus, when are they going to tell us that they're Spider-Man and The Siren.

The sound of MJ's voice ricocheted across her ears. Lena's head popped up, unsure if what she heard was in her head or out loud. They caught eyes, MJ looking as unconcerned as usual. If the thought had been unintentional, Lena was almost proud of herself for minutely breaking through the barrier. If MJ had done this on purpose… then she had been hiding this secret for a long time.

A crash made every soul in the cafeteria jump. It had come from the North hallway, and immediately they both knew that this was the root of Peter's senses going off. The brief silence that overcame the large, packed room was thin and crisp, the wind outside was audible through the cracked windows.

BOOM

This time, the entire building shook, and a couple tables moved a few inches. A few murmurs fell across a few students, wide-eyed looks of partial fear bouncing off their faces. Lena could feel the thick aura of terror rise up, snaking its way into each individual she was surrounded by. It was the most suffocated she had ever felt amongst the humans.

BOOM

As Peter stood, so did Lena. The students had started to shield their heads, not knowing where or what they should be running from. She could feel every single fight or flight response flare up one by one as some stood and others crumpled into themselves.

We have to do something. She shot the words at him urgently, emphasizing the direness of the situation.

L, we have no idea what we're up against. Wait just a moment and-

BOOM

A silhouette formed in the hallway leading out of the lunchroom, a figure emerging from the dust he had created himself. She recognized the shape, the gait, and even the voice as the dust cleared, and the arsonist from the previous night revealed himself. It had not even been a day and he was already back for more.

REMEMBER THE PROMISE YOU MADE MR. STARK pulsated frantically across Peter's thoughts, sending Lena a raging headache that almost made her black out, but she pushed through it and regained her composure, screaming at Peter.

SHUT UP.

It stopped, and the look on his face was enough of an explanation. He had no idea what had happened.

The Arsonist was yelling incoherently, thrashing and creating as much noise as he could. It was a tactic to keep her out of his head, but unfortunately, he did not have the roar of a raging fire to back him up.

Or did he?

Tony had told her, "Try and always stay one step ahead of anyone you were up against. It's a skill that is learned and earned, not a talent one can possess."

If she was right, she needed to stay one step ahead of him. Peter was not of any use at the moment, she could tell he was still attempting to develop a plan on his own. By now, the students had either remained glued to their chairs or were hurriedly grabbing their things and evacuating. Clenching her teeth, she opened her mouth, singing as loudly as she possibly could while still keeping the trance heavily placed on the note. Through the complete chaos, she was able to reach every single ear, including the Arsonist's, and all was silent except for the sugary sweet sound of her voice singing through the atmosphere.

Walking felt slow like she was wading through a river. She could feel the braids in her hair fly over her shoulders, her eyes focusing on the meaty man whose eyes were frozen on her. She crept to his face, studying every scar, every burn mark, a cut going through his left eye, the way his face looked like a large machine had stomped on it, and the skin damage that flowered throughout the back of his neck and bald head. It looked as if he had suffered some life-threatening burns that were never treated properly.

Maintaining the note she was singing, she pulled her bag off of her right shoulder and reached in, taking her time pulling on the tech that Tony had so carefully crafted to fit her body. Once her goggles were on, PET activated, she released Peter from the spell, looking at him as he fell over, dazed.

"Whatthehell."

You did not have a plan, so I stayed one step ahead of the Arsonist. Despite her voice being occupied, she could still send him communication through his head.

He pulled his eyes open, "What? That did not make any sense," he looked over at who she was standing next to, and it sunk in. "Oh. I get it now."

The dizziness from her spell wore off, and he threw his suit on over his clothes, yawning as he spoke a few commands to his AI, Karen. One of them involved Tony, but she ignored it and realigned her attention to the problem at hand. She was growing tired from holding over 70 people in a seirenic trance all at once and felt like she could fall at any given moment. Peter needed to move the fight elsewhere before it was too late.

She directed the large man towards the door, planting the convincing image into the high schoolers that there had been an intruder, but Spider-Man and the Siren had shown up to save the day. She specifically made sure they did not make the connection between that and Peter Parker and Lena Potts's sudden vanishing. She would create that cover story when she had a free moment.

She kept a careful eye out for the Arsonists's companion, the slithery man with the tacky-looking mask (That was the adjective she had overheard Tony using in passing the night before. She had no clue what it actually meant, but trusted his judgment). She feared him and his cunning tricks more than the large animalistic brute. He was the one that had snuck up on her and rendered her useless, forcing her into a darkness that she never wanted to return to. She had not realized until she had the time to think about it that he had violated her in a disturbing way. She shivered, her stomach doing a somersault.

"You okay?" Peter must have felt her guts lurch.

I will be okay. I will tell you later.

Would she? Or would she thrash in pain until it ate her alive? Some time in the end, he would figure it out. They were connected by the soul now, and there was nothing for her to hide any longer.

She worried that would be their greatest downfall.

Sorry that these uploads have not been nearly as consistent as they used to be. I'm not on Christmas break, and school gets priority! I promise I will never stop uploading this story, so have faith in me! You will definitely get an ending. Love you, hope you enjoy this!

Allie