Hey, hope everyone enjoys! I found this one kinda hard to write so sorry it took a little longer than the others!

Saturday afternoon found Ava and Gwen in a Starbucks at the mall, both looking dishevelled, though the latter more than the former. They had arranged to go shopping earlier in the week, but neither found the energy after the events of the previous night.

"My head," Gwen groaned for the tenth time, "Remind me never to drink alcohol again."

Ava merely sipped her coffee in response.

"I didn't do anything embarrassing, did I?"

"I can't say for sure... You'd have to ask Harry, since you spent most of the night after you started drinking the second time," Ava shot her a playful glare, "with him."

"I already messaged him and he remembers about as much as me," Gwen frowned.

"Well, maybe-"

"Ava?"

A new voice had interrupted their conversation, and they both turned to see a handsome boy about their age with dark features. He was presently staring at Ava with wide eyes, and after a moment Ava's face broke out into a wide grin.

"Jake!"

She leapt up and threw her arms around him.

"What are you doing in New York?!"

"My family just moved here for my dad's work."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I only found out about it a week ago!"

Ava untangled herself and glared at him, before turning to Gwen.

"Gwen, this is Jake Lopez," she introduced, "Jake, Gwen Stacey. She's a friend from my new school."

Jake shook her hand. He had an easy manner and a confident smile.

"Do you two know each other from DC then?" Gwen asked politely.

"Yeah, we were good friends," Ava replied, although Gwen detected a faint blush on her cheeks, "Are you going to Manhattan Prep then?"

"No, their waiting list is too long, so my dad enrolled me at Midtown High."

"No way!" Ava squealed, "That's our school!"

Jake looked genuinely surprised.

"We can show you around and everything," Ava glanced at Gwen, who nodded. Jake frowned as his phone chirped.

"Sorry Ava, I'd love to catch up, but I'm in a hurry. I'll see you at school on Monday, though, ok? And it was nice meeting you, Gwen!"

And with that, he hurried out of the Starbucks, empty-handed.

On Monday, Ava was almost late for homeroom. She explained the circumstances of Jake's arrival to Peter, before he walked through the door himself. Ava beamed at him as he went to speak to Mr Blackwell, but the only seat available was at the front of the class, several rows away from where Peter and Ava sat.

"So you guys were friends in DC?" Peter asked.

Ava's cheeks turned pink.

"Um, yeah," she replied, "We dated for a bit, but we haven't even seen each other in months..."

"Oh, ok! That's cool. I mean, not that- you know, but-"

"I'm not still - I mean, we broke up before my dad... you know," Ava stammered, suddenly feeling very embarrassed.

"No, I wasn't trying to-"

"Mr Parker, Miss Livingston, have you been listening to a single one of my announcements?" Mr Blackwell barked.

They both looked sheepishly back at him.

Later that day, Peter spoke to Jake for the first time. Between fourth and fifth period, they ran into each other. Peter had had to sneak out at lunch for his extracurricular activities, and upon returning found Jake looking a little lost, although he hid it well. An easy grin never seemed to leave his face. Yet, Peter took an instant dislike to him.

"Hey, Parker, right?"

"Uh, Peter. Parker's my last name," Peter replied.

"Sorry, Peter. I'm a little lost, could you help me out?" Jake grinned, "I'm looking for room 125?"

Peter pointed him in the right direction. His spider-sense was going off like crazy, but he couldn't quite tell why. Perhaps he was just jealous, given what Ava had told him? Or maybe he just hadn't recovered from the villainous events of lunch. Jake thanked him and Peter turned to leave.

"Wait a second," Jake called, "You're friends with Ava, right?"

Peter rubbed his neck.

"Yeah, she told me you guys knew each other before she moved."

"I guess we might be seeing more of each other, then," Jake gave him that liquid grin and held out a hand. Peter shook it, which felt incredibly awkward.

It turned out, however, that they did not see much more of each other. Liz, Flash, and the rest of their friends quickly warmed to Jake's charm and good looks, and Ava, in an effort to reconnect, spent much more time with them than she had done the week before. This included attending football practice, as Jake showed an interest in joining the team.

Friday night was not as eventful as it had been the previous week. Ava had decided to suit up, as she had done a couple times since her first outing. Since she had been unlucky enough to be caught on camera the first time, she felt that no harm could be done in continuing her excursions. She enjoyed helping New Yorkers against petty thugs. That was all. She definitely wasn't hoping to run into a certain red and blue webslinger. That would be ridiculous.

Coincidentally, though, Spiderman was out and about that night. She caught side of him from a distance, but it seemed that he had spotted her first, as he was swinging in her direction. She smiled as he showed off with a flip before landing in front of her.

"We have to stop meeting like this," she said in way of greeting.

"Was Spidey's Signature New York Tour not sufficient for you?" he replied, feigning hurt, "I'm running out of sights to show you at this point - although we can still break into the Met if you want?"

"Wouldn't that go against the whole power-responsibility thing you've got going on?" Ava quirked an eyebrow, though it was not visible behind her mask.

"Ah, details," he waved her off, "Seriously, though, I thought you'd be long gone by now. I assumed you were here for superhero business, but - you haven't actually moved here, have you?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" she grinned smugly.

"There should be permits for this sort of thing. At this rate, New York will have a superhero for every street!"

"Aw, afraid the newbies will outshine you?"

He scoffed.

"Me? Of course not. Why would I be - watch out!"

Spiderman leapt at the Firebird suddenly, and only once they had both hit the floor did Ava realise why. A knife flew by where the Firebird had been standing, and they both turned to see a figure, dressed in black, wearing something resembling a ski mask, standing on the roof across from them. Spiderman rolled over and stood up quickly, his new partner not far behind.

"Hey!" he shouted, "We were having a private conversation!"

The figure retrieved another knife in response.

"Criminals," Spiderman muttered, "No respect."

He shot a web at the knife and tried to rip it from their hand, but their masked opponent was too quick for him, and yanked the web (and the spider attached to it) forward. Spiderman almost went toppling over the edge of the building, but he managed to turn the awkward jerk into a graceful leap, and landed only a few feet away from the figure. The Firebird was not far behind, and raised her hands, now drenched in flames, to fight. Upon closer inspection, the figure looked like a man, with a muscular build and hard, dark eyes. Ava caught her partner's eye and almost as one they moved.

And yet, no matter how synchronised their attacks, the man seemed to hold both heroes off at once. Whenever the Firebird threw a punch, he seemed to block and retaliate before she could gain any sort of upper hand. The fire spawning from her closed palms seemed to have little effect against the strange black armour he wore, and she had never been great at this sort of hand to hand combat, relying mostly on her powers. Even so, Spiderman, who looked to be more skilled in this area, was also having trouble. She tried to search for some sort of weakness, other than his exposed eyes, which he guarded well, but while distracted, dodged too slowly and his punch caught her shoulder. The force of it almost sent her flying, and she stumbled back in shock. From the force of the blow, it was clear that he was superhuman in some respect.

Unfortunately for him, his small victory was overshadowed when Spiderman managed to send a jet of web directly into his eyes. He yelled, and the Firebird's partner grabbed her uninjured arm. He sent another web at one of the nearby buildings, and the two swung off before the man could rip the sticky substance from his eyes. They stopped on an empty, dimly lit street a few blocks away.

"Are you ok?" Spiderman asked.

Ava rotated her shoulder slowly. It was in a lot of pain, but nothing felt broken. She nodded and smiled at him.

"I'll get over it," she said, "It's the defeat that'll take longer to get over."

"Sorry," he rubbed the back of his unexposed neck instinctually, "I saw that you were hurt and thought that it was better to get out of there than keep going."

Ava nodded again, a little embarrassed. Maybe her fighting skills were still a little rusty from her hiatus.

"I wonder what he wanted," she muttered, "Did you recognise his suit at all?"

"I couldn't even recognise the material... Well, I'm sure with our combined super-luck, we'll be seeing him again."

Ava snorted and opened her mouth to say something, before something caught her eye. It was a boy, maybe early teens, half-leaning out of his apartment window with a camera. The Firebird took a step back from Spiderman and crossed her arms.

"You know what I miss about my city?" she asked, turning him around, "A sense of privacy."

"Hey Spiderman!" the kid yelled gleefully, waving.

Spiderman waved back sheepishly. Ava rolled her eyes.

"I'll see you around, Spidey," she scoffed, and disappeared once again into the night.

I'm really looking forward to writing next chapter, but I'm going away for a week so it might be a while til it's out!