Dante and Gwen were training together that Sunday, not a week after she came back to the team. Dante was struggling. After she had been made whole again earlier that week Gwen had become better at handling his fire, but better didn't mean much considering how bad it had gotten when they had sparred.

Apparently sound and fire didn't 'tear her mind apart' like it used to but other than that nothing had changed. That meant that he could still hurt her a lot with a stray fire blast and that she couldn't be too close to him when they were fighting.

They had to change some of their team formations to accommodate her but Dante wasn't as adaptable as the rest of them were, which wasn't a surprise considering he'd only really gotten serious about fighting after he joined the Secret Warriors.

He and Gwen were on opposite sides of the fight, the team having surrounded the training dummies, but that only meant that if he fired a blast straight ahead Gwen could get hurt, making it a lot more difficult to actually attack the robots.

He was tag-teaming with America as part of the sky-unit, mostly fighting the flying robots and drones. America flew up close and personal, targeting the stronger looking ones while he blasted any smaller enemies that got in her way.

Anything that blocked, or might block, her line of sight and drones that were pestering her were his prime targets, but he also attacked the bigger ones to annoy and pester them , if not to deal outright damage.

He missed.

He missed and saw the blast move across the, at this point fairly small, battlefield towards Gwen.

"Watch out!"

Gwen, who had been swinging from the roof of the training room, dropped down, narrowly avoiding a direct hit, but it looked like he still hurt her.

He was about to fly over to her before he stopped himself and landed instead, he wouldn't want to burn her more. Daisy was already running over to her, to check if everything was fine when Gwen suddenly took off again.

"I'm fine," she said. "Training's not over yet."

A.M.I. had stopped the training dummies, so they weren't moving, but Gwen still punched one. Soon after she landed the hit, taking off its head, they started back up again.

It was Sunday, the day after their second date, and Gwen was feeling pretty good about her relationship with Daisy. Officially they weren't a couple yet, but Daisy sure seemed to enjoy their dates so it could only be a matter of time.

They were in the middle of a 'training' exercise, one that doubled as a test for both their abilities and a way to gather 'battle data' for Riri's newest science experiment, her. Trying to figure out what changed after she became Gwen again.

Daisy, a few meters away, broke the floor, turning it to quicksand, and a wave of pain, like a million needles, washed over her. But as quickly as it came, it left, and despite still feeling uncomfortable Gwen could keep fighting.

She punched and webbed any robots and drones she saw that weren't already targeted by her team and before long they were done.

Patriot went to check something on a tablet.

"That's still not good enough." He paged through the battle data and statistics the tablet offered. "Individually we're about the same but our teamwork isn't good enough with this new formation."

"I think it went well this time," Ms. Marvel said.

"We're still not as good as we were last month."

Even if Patriot didn't say it, Gwen knew she was to blame. Everything was fine until Gwendolyn became her, until Ghost-Spider suddenly couldn't be close to two of her teammates.

"These things take time, Ray," Squirrel girl said.

"No, he's right." She really needed to get her shit together. "I'm still holding us back."

"You aren't 'holding us back'. You're struggling a bit more than you used to, but it's still better than when you weren't here at all, right?" Inferno looked to Patriot, who nodded.

"Yeah. You shouldn't be too hard on yourself Gwen"

"I'm not; I'm being just hard enough on myself." The way things were going they might even loose to Exile's gang.

"Gwen..." Daisy looked at her with sympathetic eyes, "I know we'll figure something out eventually, and when we do you'll be better than ever."

Or maybe it's time to give up and find a replacement for me.

She didn't want to leave, but sometimes what you want and what's necessary aren't the same thing. On the other hand Daisy and the rest of their team were there, trying to help her figure it out so she'd give it a few more days.

"...Alright."

"Well regardless of if we did well enough or not, A.M.I. says we've gathered enough battle data for now but there are still other tests I want to take before you run of to band practice," Iron Heart said.

Riri might be rushing her a bit too much, but she was thankful that it allowed her to end that conversation there, and she did want to get to practice on time so she hurried after the younger girl.

While Riri and Gwen went to take some tests, Daisy and Rayshaun sat down on the couch for a short break.

"I really hoped that since she was suddenly fine with sound that she'd also be fine with fire."

"Guess we're just not lucky enough to catch such a big break," Rayshaun said as he turned on the TV.

"Yeah."

"So, are we making any headway on Exile yet?" Rayshaun asked without looking away from the TV. He was changing the subject, not even subtly considering he knew about as much about it as she did, even if he'd been more focused on finding a way for Gwen and Dante to work together the last few days.

It was on a local news channel showing footage from a theft from a genetic engineering lab. The footage didn't have great quality but it was good enough to see that the criminal was either wearing something green and furry or they were green and furry.

"Well, we know what was in the servers Hollow looked through: files on low security super villains, the ones who have powers but don't seem likely to actually commit more crimes."

"Why would he be after them? They aren't going to join him."

"Who knows," she said with a shrug. "Maybe he was looking for someone specific, or maybe Hollow just ran away when we busted in and didn't get what they were really after. Whatever the reason is it's our best lead."

"It's in times like this that I miss having S.H.I.E.L.D. analysts the most."

She chuckled. "To do all the work for us?"

"To help us when we're stuck. A different set of eyes, dozens of different sets."

She got a notification on her phone. "Or we could just get a lucky break."

It was from a S.H.I.E.L.D. report tagged with Exile's group.

Witnesses say a group of powered individuals confronted 'armed thugs' last night at 22:00 in south-eastern Chinatown. Powers include super strength, teleportation, and "a weird chain thing".

That's where we arrested Mr. Negative's Inner Demons last week.

Nothing conclusive has been determined yet but the NYPD suspect the 'armed thugs' were the Kingpin's men. Based on Agent Johnson's and Agent Lucas' reports it seems likely (though not conclusive) that the powered individuals were Exile's gang.

"What's it say?" Rayshaun asked when she put away her phone.

"Exile might be claiming a part of the city, so I guess we know what he planned on doing with all the Inhumans he was recruiting."

Rayshaun stiffened. "So there's a gang war going on?"

"Yeah it doesn't look too good right now but considering he's up against the Kingpin it's likely to get a lot worse."

"Ouch."

Daisy wasn't aware of any specific incident in her former partners life that made gang wars a sensitive issue, no deaths related to it, no family members arrested for participating in one, but she did know where he grew up and, based on that alone, he'd have to understand more than most how devastating one of those could be for a community.

"On a more positive note, I think me and Gwen might become girlfriends."

"Oh?" Ray quickly relaxed, and she suddenly felt a bit embarrassed about what she was telling him.

"We've been on two dates so far and I think I might really like her."

Gwen hugged her dad when she came home from band practice.

"Love you dad."

He hugged her back, unused to her happy mood.

The fact that he was helping her study for S.H.I.E.L.D. training, having already prepared his old police academy books and notes, as well as some books on international law and a UN soldier handbook, was nice but had nothing to do with her mood.

The reason actually had nothing to do with him either, and was all about the Mary Janes. See, whatever had let her work in close proximity to Daisy, and to a lesser extent Inferno, also let her play the drums without feeling the same pain she had felt just a week earlier.
In fact, when they tried with the speakers, she was fine so long as they weren't pointed at her.

She let go of her dad, quickly sitting down in front of the books he had prepared for her.

Ever since she'd told him about her powers he'd become even more serious about teaching her the proper conduct because, as he put it, "even if you decide to become a drummer instead you'll need to know these things".

Of course he wasn't wrong ; she'd definitely use it as Ghost-Spider.

"Does that mean you'd approve of me becoming a superhero?" She didn't want to give anything away, but she couldn't pass up the opportunity to ask.

"Does what mean that?" At some point, while Gwen was reading through the books, he'd gone to the kitchen to start preparing dinner.

"You said I'd need to know this even if I didn't join S.H.I.E.L.D. or the police, so doesn't that mean you'd want me to be a superhero if I become a rock star?"

"Gwen..." He sat down next to her at the dining table. "I don't think a rock star should battle super villains, or go out of their way to mess with crime scenes, but I can't possibly expect you to ignore ongoing crime when it happens right in front of you, not when you could easily stop it. So instead I'm making sure you know the right way to stop it, that's all."

"So would you be disappointed if I became a superhero?"

"Of course not, sweetie, not if all you're doing is try to help, but there's a reason we don't want civilians getting involved.

"Superheroes in particular can't testify, but we also don't want unqualified people going around thinking they're stopping crime when all they're doing is harassing people, messing with crime scenes, and getting in the way of the proper authorities."

The way he said that felt like he really didn't approve of superheroes, that he disliked them more than she ever expected.

"Then there's also the issue that if an officer misbehaves they are, or should be, fired but when a caped civilian misbehaves they'll just keep 'fighting crime'."

Like the Punisher.

"When you arrest people it's important that you have enough evidence to get them convicted," Her dad said.

Gwen didn't want to think about him, S.H.I.E.L.D. was supposed to handle it, but her mind still went to Murderdock. He'd left after their last talk, just like he said he would, but something about it didn't sit right with her.

He had taunted her, had had his fun, but was that really enough for him? The games he liked to play were usually higher stakes than that.

"It's not enough to just beat them up like most superheroes do, that'd just end with you getting charged with assault.

"If you're dealing with a super villain, even an unknown one, the best piece of evidence you can get is their costume. Not only because most of them like to be very open about the crimes they're committing, but because juries nowadays are predisposed to see anybody in a costume in terms of black and white: Either they're a hero or a super villain. All you have to do to get the conviction after that is to prove that they aren't the former."

"What if they don't wear a costume?"

"What makes them super villains is usually their ego as much as it is the powers, and half of them don't even have powers, they can't help but make a show of their crimes and end up wearing something recognizable so that they can take the credit without having cops arrive at their doorstep within the hour.

"But you're right. Some of the smarter ones, like the Trapper, have started to go without a proper costume just to seem more normal to the jury after the fact. For them you'll need more traditional evidence: video footage, a paper trail, marked bills, DNA, and fingerprints are all useful and I've seen many cases closed on those alone. A cop's word is also good; if they say they saw someone committing a crime most of the time the jury will believe them, almost to a fault. "

"That's not always enough though." It wouldn't get a lawyer like Murderdock behind bars; he was too charismatic when he wanted to be.

"Yeah. Sometimes we have all the evidence we should need but the jury is sympathetic to the suspect and let them off, it's an unfortunate reality of the job. That's why we need our people to do the job the proper way, gather all the evidence, tape interrogations, and use every trick in the book to make the suspect slip up and confess."

There was no way Murderdock would ever confess or give himself away, she'd already tried it but even the people he hadn't worked with for a year had a habit of phrasing things with deniability in mind.

"Confessions have the highest chance of getting them convicted, regardless of how you got it. That doesn't mean you should force it out of them like TV cops do, just try tripping them up alright?"

"I doubt I'll have many interrogations in S.H.I.E.L.D. dad; I'm probably going to specialize in villain takedown or spying, not detective work."

"Alright, alright. Just… try not to think about law enforcement in terms of what you see on TV."

"Dad, I spent half my childhood in the precinct, I think I know how cops actually operate."