Things had been surprisingly quiet since the vampire debacle. New professors had been called from around the country to fill in the vacancies the old professors had left behind and classes resumed as usual, sans the murderous consequences for failure of course.

"I don't know, aren't you supposed to be the one in the hero business? What do you think we should be doing?" Her stereo was blasting her favorite heavy metal band as she checked over her answers for her homework assignment. She'd never seen Gwen do a single piece of schoolwork but somehow she was averaging a B+ in all her classes. Andi was about to comment on that when their door slammed open, Himawari grinning a wide, mischievous smile as she walked in.

"You're up to something," Andi arched an eyebrow at her friend. Himawari was usually pretty quiet and reserved when she wasn't in the gym- Andi had even noticed her quietly whispering to herself at times. Gwen was normally the one slamming doors. Their roommate tossed a few snacks at them all, still grinning from ear to ear.

"We're going shopping. My treat." Himawari slammed the door shut behind her and ripped off her clothes before turning to her closet to change.

"Your treat? What are you, Tony Stark," Andi asked sarcastically, still somewhat considering the offer.

"I just, uh… cashed my paycheck? And I've got a lot of money to blow. Plus we hardly ever get to hang out." She stumbled over her explanation for a moment before recovering. Andi was immediately suspicious, but Himawari wasn't someone that usually got up to trouble. However her roommate had come into the money, she doubted it was illegally.

"Uh, sure. We could definitely hang out, but-"

"Hey, Andrea. I've been trying to send you a meme for like, ten minutes now. Can you please respond?" Andi cocked an eyebrow at Gwen. She hated being called 'Andrea.' She checked her phone and sure enough, three texts from 🔫Gwen ️ were in her messages.

🔫Gwen ️: I don't trust her

Andi: You always say that. What's your problem with her?

Andi responded confusedly. Gwen had been subtly avoiding their roommate for a couple of weeks- refusing to study or eat dinner together- and it was starting to become pretty apparent. Andi had tried to make excuses, but Gwen was such a friendly person it was impossible to come up with any that explained why she avoided Himawari so much.

"Let me just tell my partner I'll be out tonight," Andi explained, doing her best to try to cover their underhanded conversation.

🔫Gwen ️: There's two heroes in this dorm. That didn't happen by coincidence. There's no way Himawari is a coincidence either.

🔫Gwen ️: She could be a villain!

🔫Gwen ️: Or a new hero constructed just for this crossover that we end up getting into a huge fight with after she finds out our secret identities!

🔫Gwen ️: Or she'll end up being our helpful friend with no powers that keeps us together but ends up getting hurt to get back at us!

🔫Gwen ️Either way, I don't trust her😤

Andi reread the texts about a half dozen times, thinking up a new question each pass. Gwen spoke as if everything in life was just some cliche trope to be exploited, and it was becoming more and more unsettling the closer she got to the girl.

"Look, if you two aren't comfortable with me buying stuff for you, you can at least help me pick out some clothes. I dunno if you've noticed but most- okay, all of my closet is sportswear. I'd love some tips from two of the most stylish women on campus." She looked from one woman to the other, hoping that at least one of her roommates didn't totally hate her.

"Get up, Gwen. We're going." Andi wasn't normally one to jump at the thought of shopping, but her heart wasn't made of stone. Himawari was really trying here and she couldn't just allow their roommate to think they didn't like her. Gwen's conspiracy theories be damned.

"Yeah, yeah. You're not the only one with a soft spot," Gwen sighed, slipping out of her bunk and grabbing the first articles of clothing from her closet. Andi watched for a moment, arching an eyebrow at how well the outfit came together despite how lazily it was selected.

"She must have some kind of system."

"Thanks, guys. It'll be fun! Who doesn't like shopping?" Himawari quickly pieced together her own outfit, and Andi realized that she hadn't been kidding about the surplus of sportswear. As nice as track-pants looked on her friend, they weren't the most flattering pieces of clothing.

Andi dressed herself quickly, putting her favorite outfit together for a fun day out with her friends. Black, knee-high boots over fishnet stockings. A blue and purple plaid skirt held in place with a spiked leather belt. Long sleeved sweater under a purple crop top. Blue, fingerless gloves and a few choice accessories sealed the look. Following Gwen out the door, she almost wanted to tell her to leave the shark backpack behind.

"We aren't going to need costumes. We're just going to the mall," she thought to herself, but Gwen's text burned at the back of her mind.

"…end up getting hurt to get back at us."

She remembered her father's face as he bled out in her arms. Remembered how shocked and scared he looked expecting her to be next. "Whatever."

"But the aesthetics are so similar! I don't see why we can't just check Hot Topic out," Himawari whined, playfully tugging at Andi's wrists as she tried to drag her friend into the store. They'd been standing outside the place for about ten minutes, Andi absolutely refusing to step foot inside.

"If you wanna go in there, you can go in with Gwen. I'll be out here." Andi had never been more serious in her life, digging her heels in and refusing to even look in the same direction as the store. Gwen thought the entire conversation had been hilarious and was currently clutching at her sides, doubled over in laughter.

"Oh man, I love youth subculture stereotypes," she laughed, wiping tears from her eyes.

"Gwen, where do you shop," Andi asked pointedly. They'd been at the mall for a couple of hours now and although Gwen had been surprisingly helpful at providing tips, she also hadn't shown either of them where she gets some of the pieces she owns.

"Uh, probably places I can't name without costing Marvel a lot of money." Gwen looked around at all the stores in the mall, noticing that a lot of the names of stores she used to frequent were either renamed or didn't have names at all. Andi made a mental note to not ask Gwen anymore questions.

"Well, can we take a break and grab something to eat? I'm starving and this mall has a teriyaki place that doesn't taste like it was made just for gaijin… No offense."

"I've eaten what passes as a Philly Cheesesteak in Manhattan. I know the feeling," Andi patted Himawari on the shoulder and followed her friend to the food court. Gwen kept pace a few steps behind, whistling whatever tune that'd been stuck in her head recently. They spent most of the day enjoying their time at the mall, and Gwen seemed surprisingly… normal. No weird commentary that sounded like a TVTropes page, no worry that Himawari was going to learn their secret. And more importantly no random attacks from villains. Andi was happy to be last for their food, having been holding the table until her roommates' return.

"I'm just saying, they pretty much turned the whole country into a warzone wherever they went. All because they didn't wanna follow the law. I get that the law was bad, but that's why you protest! To stop bad laws. It just seems so silly," Himawari shoved another piece of chicken into her mouth, grateful for the food and the half price discount she'd managed to get after hitting it off with the servers.

"Come on, you even admit it's a bad law! The government sucks when it comes to handling superheroes. If you got superpowers and you could save someone who was about to be hurt right now would you really wait for someone to tell you it's okay?" The conversation was so common, people around the country had been involved in it. The superhero 'civil war' had people of all walks of life taking sides.

"These people can fly, teleport, run at superspeed… I don't think getting there is that big of a problem," Himawari replied nonchalantly. She seemed to have her own personal reasons for siding with the SHRA, and Andi didn't want to push it. Almost everyone the world over has been affected by super-crime in some way, and the worst thing you could do to someone is push. Andi knew that all too well.

"What about you, Gwen? Any wisdom you have for us," Himawari asked curiously before taking a sip of her soda.

"Hahaha! No way. Nuh-uh. Nope." Gwen shook her head, tickled by the thought of even being asked this question.

"Oh, come on. You've gotta have some opinion about this." Andi knew Gwen didn't mind having her identity out there, but she needed to know that her new partner wouldn't just give her up if something like the Registration Act ever happened again. She didn't want superheroing to become her career, and she doubted the government would be too fond of having a potential queen of hell among their ranks.

"Oh, I do. I'm just not gonna pick a side in canon," she explained while finishing her apple. That was very much unlike Gwen. Her new roommate didn't know how not to stay out of a conversation.
"Why not?" Andi pushed, wanting to find some reason to trust her new teammate.

"Doctor Strange, Black Bolt and Sentry didn't get involved because they're too powerful. Hulk and Thor weren't even on the planet. Some people just can't be part of the fun." Andi and Himawari looked at each other confusedly for a moment, not entirely sure what their friend was implying.

"Do you ever understand her or-"

"No, usually not at all. Right now even less so," Andi promised. Himawari chuckled before eating her last piece of chicken. She got up from her seat and dusted herself off.

"I'm gonna run to the bathroom real quick. Don't bond too much without me." She smiled and made her way to the restroom.

"See, Gwen. She's pretty fun," Andi pointed out, hoping that her friend would drop her distrust in their roommate. It'd only been a couple of weeks but she was beginning to like Himawari and the last thing she wanted was for her roommates to butt heads over dumb theories.

"Mhmm. Yeah, real fun," Gwen mumbled, slipping her pistols and katanas out of her bag.

"What are you doing," Andi hissed, grabbing Gwen's wrist and trying to get her to put her weapons away. "We're in the middle of the damn food court-"

"We're about to be attacked. We've got like two panels left before someone comes shooting the place up or something," Gwen explained, unbuttoning her shirt with unwavering confidence and revealing her costume. She tossed her backpack into Andi's lap, expecting her teammate to grab her own costume before the fireworks started.

"What the hell are you talking about, there's no-"

A yellow and black blur sped through the food court, taking every tray of free samples being offered. The flash was a woman, clad in a yellow and black armored costume with heavy yellow gauntlets that covered her forearms and a black mask that hid her face. She scarfed down the samples in a couple of seconds, just in time for a crowd of mall security guards to reach the food court.

"Surround her! She can't run away if you surround her you idiots," one of the guards shouted, nightstick in hand.

"Ain't that a bright idea," the woman laughed, running into the group of guards and bowling them over with a tornado of kicks and punches that knocked them on their asses. Bright blue energy batons fizzled away as she finished her flashy power display. A large portion of the food court crowd had already started running away when she'd first appeared, but the fight was the straw that broke the peace. People ran and screamed as they searched for the exits, trying to put distance between themselves and the supervillain.

"Relax, relax! I ain't here for any of y'all. Unless you've got some big bucks in your wallets," she laughed, dashing out of the food court and back into the heart of the mall. Gwenpool looked at Andi smugly, and the woman really started to hate just how expressive her friend's mask was.

"Just go catch her. I'll be right behind you," Andi growled, ducking under the table as the crowd rushed past in every direction.

"Thought up a name yet," Gwenpool asked curiously, laying on the table and peeking her head over the side to catch Andi's eye.

"Can we please do this later," the taller woman hissed, struggling to get into her bodysuit in the limited space under the table.

"Okay, Hellbreath."

"No," Andi shouted before shooing the other hero away. Gwenpool laughed and chased after the villain, trying to cut her off by slipping into a panel ahead of where she'd stopped.

"Hey, Joystick! You've been out of print for a while." Gwenpool waved excitedly, blocking the exit of the Apple Republic the villain had run into.

"Who the hell are you," the woman asked, stuffing wads of cash from the register into a shopping bag.

"I'm someone just trying to figure out how fast you really are. You know, the power grid on your Wikia article puts you at a 3 for speed, but Speed Demon is a 5 and we all know you're faster than him." Gwen had committed every character's power grids to memory, and there were some discrepancies that confused her. Might as well set the record straight while she was here in the Marvel universe.

"Find out for yourself," Joystick replied, an energy baton sliding from her gauntlet and into her hand. She crouched, ready to run and slam into the hero hard enough to break her spine. Gwenpool smirked, taking a dramatic fighting stance reserved for old karate b movies.

Joystick was a blur as she sped towards her opponent, but Gwenpool knew movement was practically impossible to capture in static comic panels. The only options were to track a long path that the speedster would make through a scene or…

"Quick-" Gwenpool dropped down and spun, trying to sweep Joystick's legs out from under her. "Succession-" the villain responded with a knee to the face that Gwenpool shrugged off with a smile. "Panels." The hero held a taser in her hand and pressed it against her opponent's ankle, dropping the villain to writhe in pain on the ground.

"Gwenpool!" Andi had finally caught up, costumed and ready for anything but the scene before her.

"About time, Hotbreath," Gwenpool sighed, handcuffing Joystick's ankles to keep her from running away.

"You… you did this by yourself," Andi asked confusedly.

"Yeah. She's not Quicksilver. She can only move as fast as the panels change," she explained, taking a seat on Joystick's back as the villain began to shake off the shock.

"I really, really don't understand you. At all." Andi sighed, getting her phone out of her pocket to call the police

"You'll get used to it… or not. Whichever is funnier to the audience I think."

"Where were you guys! I was so worried, I thought something had happened," Himawari threw her arms around Gwen and Andi, tightly clinging to her roommates.

"We couldn't make it to the bathroom to come get you. There was so much chaos," Andi explained, softly patting her friend's back and doing her best to try to comfort her.

"Don't worry about me, I can handle myself! Mitame yori mo tafu." Himawari laughed, playfully flexing her muscles for emphasis. The woman was definitely confident about her own abilities, but at 5'2" in her sneakers, Andi just couldn't help but worry about her.

"Right," Andi smirked, ruffling Himawari's hair. She figured by the end of the semester she might be able to keep up with the Japanese 101 kids if she kept talking to her roommate.

"Anyway, did you hear about those two new heroes? Some weird girl with a pentagram on her chest and another with great legs," Himawari explained. Andi raised an eyebrow at her, positive she hadn't seen her roommate in the crowd at all.

"What do you think of them," Andi asked hesitantly. Despite the girls' reserved stance on superheroes, she wanted to at least have made a good first impression, in case any of Gwen's earlier predictions came true.

"Pentagram Girl is trying too hard to look edgy. She looks like she shops at Hot Topic. The ghost girl though… I can appreciate a nice pair of toned legs," Himawari giggled, cheeks flushed slightly as she spoke. Gwen traded looks with Andi, shock and mischief in her wide blue eyes.

"Himawari, you're my new best friend," Gwen laughed, throwing her arms tightly around her roommate.

Andi sighed loudly. Being a superhero was exhausting.