"I should've bought a shirt, or something." Katya joked as they walked down the hall, over the droll of the morning announcements.

"How can YOU show your Spider Spirit?!"

Peter's ears had been hot all morning, watching everyone run around in Spiderman paraphernalia he didn't even know existed- since when did someone want to plaster his face on a shirt,much less wear it around anywhere? But he couldn't stifle the swell of pride in his chest everytime he spotted a student decked out in red and blue garb, or pretending to shoot webs at their friends. Although, hearing the word Spiderman so many times was still a bit unnerving. He squeezed the strap of his backpack a bit tighter as he overheard the name once more in a conversation they were passing.

Ned came trotting up to them. "Dude dude dude- what's it like being famous when nobody knows it's you?" His voice was hushed, but just barely.

"Crazy, dude, it's crazy." Peter could almost feel his ego inflate.

"Should we tell everyone?"

Peter gave him A Look. "No." None of this changed anything.

"Should I tell everyone?" Ned stressed.

"No, Ned, that's not a good idea."

Ned sighed heavily in defeat, and made to turn around, tapping Peter on the arm as a gesture to follow him. "Come on, man, we're going to be late to class."

"Oh, I'm not going to class." Peter informed him with a dismissive wave of his hand. Katya watched the exchange like a tennis match.

"Dude,you're already in so much trouble for ditching decathlon-"

Glancing to either side to make sure the hallways were clearing as they should be- and thankfully they were- Peter closed the small amount of distance between the three of them and lowered his voice. " Ned, we figured it out, all right? The winged dude is stealing from Damage Control- that's how he builds the I've got to do is catch him!"

. "And you have a plan how to do that?" Katya asked skeptically.

Peter hesitated."Not exactly, no- but I've got some ideas-"

"Dude, we have a Spanish quiz." Ned groaned.

"Ned, I"m probably never going to come back here-" he saw Katya balk slightly in the corner of his eye, before shrugging to herself, as he continued, "Mr. Stark is moving the Avengers upstate and, who knows…once I bring this guy in, maybe…"

"You're going to be a highschool drop out?" Ned asked flatly.

Peter should his head, and began to head towards the doors on the other side of the hallway,"Dude, I'm so far beyond highschool right now-"

"Okay," Katya shrugged, beginning to follow him,"Let's go."

"Guys, you can't just leave-"

Katya turned mid-stride to shrug at Ned. "The doors are right there."

Peter shot an apologetic smile over to Ned, who stood hapless in the hallway. "We'll see you later, dude."

— —-

Once they reached Peter's apartment- empty, as Aunt May was at work, thankfully- he made a beeline to his room and tugged on his suit's hood to connect with Karen. Katya dumped her schoolbag on the floor beside his and perched at the edge of his computer desk, eyes watching her dangling feet as she kicked them back and forth.

"Hey, Karen." Peter began.

"Hey,Peter. How was your Spanish Quiz?"

"Look, I was wondering if you could help me identify the guys that were under the bridge that night, but I can only remember like part of a license plate- "

"Would you like me to run facial recognition on the footage from that encounter?"

Huh? "Footage?" At this, Peter could practically see Katya's interest piqued,but she continued to watch her shoes.

"Yes, Peter. I record everything you 's called the Baby Monitor Protocol." Peter's vision was soon flooded with thumbnails of dated video files.

Peter scoffed, flinging a pen to the ground in irritation. "Of course it is"

He glanced over at Katya, whose eyes were still on her shoes but he could tell she was itching to join the conversation. To her, Peter may as well have been talking to himself; without the earpieces in, she couldn't hear anything Karen said.

Something Peter quickly grew thankful for as, at his request for Karen to pull up footage of the previous Friday, he was forced to wade through an unnecessary amount of video of him practicing in front of the mirror for the party that night in his spiderman suit, before moving on to impressions of the other Avengers, cringing the entire time. Finally,he came to the actually useful video file.

—- – –

"Just let me do the talking," Peter told Katya as they carefully approached the empty carpark. "Karen just asked me if I wanted to use Advanced Interrogation Mode, so I'll be fine."

Katya openly laughed. "Okay, and I stay far away and hidden until he kicks your ass- should I let him?"

Peter's scowl was hidden behind his mask, thankfully. "He's not gonna kick my ass."

Katya held her hands up as if in surrender. "Then I"ll stay out of sight. You just say the word, Spiderman." Something about the way she said it sounded like she was teasing him, but for some reason Peter wasn't mad.

Soon they'd approached Aaron Davis's car closely enough that they could see the top of his head over the hoods of nearby both dropped down instinctively behind the nearest one and glanced at each other. With a nod, Katya slipped away into the labyrinth of cars behind them, disappearing silently. Peter steeled himself. "Okay, Karen, activate Advanced Interrogation Mode."

The moment Davis opened his trunk Peter webbed his hand to the lid, visibly startling the man. "Remember me?!" he growled as best he could, storming towards the man. His voice was coming out robotic and pixelated, almost garbled, but lower pitched than anything he could achieve on his own. "I need information and you're gonna give it to me, now!"

Davis seemed to have recovered pretty quickly, holding his freehand out. "Whoa, chill."

"C'mon!"

Davis raised an eyebrow, seemingly unfazed. "What happened to your voice?"

Peter scowled behind the mask."What do you mean, 'what happened to my voice'?"

"I heard you out by the bridge, I know a girl's voice when I hear one." Davis had visibly relaxed.

Over his shoulder, Peter could just see the edge of Katya's form,as she was peeking out from her spot behind the trunk of a car parked behind the scene. She was clearly stifling laughter. Fire sparked through Peter's chest. "I"m not a girl, I"m a boy- I mean, a man! I'm a man!"

"I don't care what you are, dude, boy, girl-"

"I'm a man!" Peter shoved the discouragement that was threatening to take over deep into his abdomen. "C'mon, man, who is selling these weapons? I need to know, give me names- or else!" he added, trying to mend the wound in his pride.

Davis slammed the trunk closed suddenly, causing Peter to jump slightly. Somehow, behind him,Katya had scrambled from her spot behind the parked car and was now directly behind the support pillar closest to them, mere feet from where Davis was standing.

"You ain't never done this before, huh?"

Then, before Peter could blink, Katya was behind Davis, twisting his arm behind him and slamming his torso down on top of his trunk, before pulling a knife out of her boot and slipping it behind his earlobe."No, but I have."

"What the fuck-" Davis growled, but stayed in place.

Peter wasn't sure if he was impressed or slightly terrified. "Deactivate Interrogation Protocol" Peter told Karen, both somewhat in defeat but also relief. His mask's eyes flashed back to white and the voice went back to normal. "Look, man, these guys are selling weapons that are crazy just one of them could cut Delmar's bodega in half-"

"You know Delmar's?" Davis's voice was casual, as if he wasn't a wrong word away from losing an ear.

"Yeah, best sandwiches in Queens." Peter stated the obvious.

"Sub Haven's pretty good."

"Ah, there's too much bread."

"I like bread."

Katya looked up at Peter incredulously. Is this really what they were talking about right now?

"Stupid interrogation mode." Peter grumbled to himself, "Karen, don't ever let me do that again." He turned to walk away, before remembering Katya still had the guy pinned- she'd changed her positioning a bit so her elbow was just behind the back of his neck, ready to crack it if need be. Peter wondered if he should tell her to lighten up.

Davis squirmed a bit under her grasp but couldn't move much. "Yo, would you cool it?" Katya's eyes scanned him once before readjusting her elbow into a less immediately lethal position before, as if on second thought, releasing him all together. Davis straightened up, glancing down at her. "What are you, like, twelve? Fuck." Davis shook his head but continued, this time to Peter."The other night, you said, 'if you're going to shoot anybody, shoot me." That's pretty ballsy."

Peter, who'd walked a bit away in frustration, reclosed the distance as Davis kept speaking to him."I don't want those weapons sold here, they're too dangerous. I got a nephew who live here."

"What do you know about the guy who's selling them?"

"Other than he's a psychopath with wings? Nothing." Behind him, Katya was playing with the butterfly knife idly, as if it were a cat toy."But I do know where he's gonna be. This crazy dude I used to work with, he's doing a deal with him."

Finally, information they could use!

Peter began to jump between the balls of his feet excitedly."Yes! Thanks, man, I-"

"Hey, wait!" Katya called, causing Peter to stop and turn around. She was holding steady eye contact with Davis, knife still fluttering between her fingertips. "We don't know where yet."

Shit, right. Peter couldn't believe he'd almost just let that pass.

"Yeah, right, where?" Peter came up to lean against the car.

Davis looked between the two of them. Katya flipped her knife closed.

"Can I give y'all some advice? You gotta get better at this part of the job. Not you-" He told Katya, who'd stuck the knife back in her boot, crossing her arms almost bemusedly. "You're scary as hell."

"But what about me?" Peter asked, pulling himself up to his full height. "I'm intimidating."

It looked like it was taking all of Davis's energy not to roll his eyes. "Staten Island Ferry, 11:00"

"Oh, that's soon." Perfect! As Peter turned to leave- Katya scampered to catch up with him - he called back to Davis "That'll dissolve in like two hours." He motioned to the webbing, which was still attaching Davis's hand to his trunk.

"Nah, you come back here and fix this."

"But you're still a criminal!"

"I got ice cream in here, dude-"

"Bye, Mr. Criminal!" Katya added, before they both jogged out of the car park, en route to the docks.