What were you thinking?!" Amanda's father yelled as he paced.

She wanted to tell him she was thinking of her mom, of a way to get the family back together. But she knew that would only make his anger worse. So she stayed quiet.

"You just snuck out to team up?! With The Avian? You ready to strike out on your own? You're sixteen Amanda, you're not gonna make it out there alone."

She sighed, and looked around the cramped motel she and her dad had been staying at. After they were recruited by their Benefactor, they gave up their apartment they had been renting and instead lived in luxury. Since getting kicked out, they had to find new living arrangements and quickly.

"It sucks here," she said.

His shoulders sagged and he nodded. "You know what would suck more? You getting arrested, hurt, or killed." He grabbed her damaged helmet and sat on the bed next to her, his fingers tracing the cracks in the visor. "You could've been killed."

"But I wasn't."

"Your 'partner' was incarcerated."

Amanda shrugged. "I was just trying to get us back to mom. I thought I'd impress him."

"You know our Benefactor hand picked us, right? He was testing people. Your mom told me he had his people set up bombs in Time Square while Spider-Man and his family fought the Avian. She said when the bombs went off the Avian fled. She failed that test. And then he did the same thing when your mom and I fought Spider-Man and Spinneret at the East River Promenade. Bombs were set during our fight. But when they went off, your mother and I didn't run, we used it to our advantage and almost killed them."

He seemed to have forgotten that he had also been almost killed. Amanda looked at the damaged helmet in her father's hands, and tried to imagine the strength needed to crack that material. Spider-Man had almost killed her father on that day by the river, all those months ago. And she knew Spider-Man had a reputation of pulling his punches, at least until his loved ones were involved…

Maybe Spiderling was the same way? She had also found it strange how Spiderling had arrived almost immediately after they did, as if she had been at the school all along. The battle had been so quick that Spider-Man and Spinneret didn't even have time to make an entrance.

Amanda smiled. "Dad, I think Spiderling's a student of Midtown High."

"What?"

"Do you have Mr. White's number? We can exchange that information to get back to mom. And we can use that to trap Spider-Man for our Benefactor."

"Amanda, how do you know that?"

She explained her logic.

"It's possible," her dad said, and Amanda felt her heart swell with pride. "But what if you're wrong?"

"It sounds like our Benefactor is looking for strength, brutality, and grit. If we're wrong, we're still making a statement. Come on dad, what do we have to lose at this point? Paul is gone, and now mom is to, in a way." She had never spoken so bluntly about her brother before.

"But if I'm right, and we are able to get back with our Benefactor, get him Spider-Man, he'll have to hold up his end of his deal. We'd be a family again. I'd risk anything for that."

Her dad stared into the damaged helmet.

"I'd risk anything for mom, for Paul. I'm either doing this with you, or I'm doing it alone."

Her dad tore his gaze from the helmet and turned his magenta eyes to her. They held a tense silence.

"Okay," her father finally said. "Let me call White."

Annie sat at the kitchen table, eating a bowl of cereal. Her bedraggled hair was thrown up in a messy ponytail and she rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"Hey you," MJ said, coming into the kitchen.

"Morning," Annie yawned.

Her mom looked dressed and ready to go. She checked the time. It was almost 9:30 AM. She usually left around 9:00 for her acting class. She liked to get there an hour early to prep the space and her materials.

"You running late?" Annie asked.

"No, I canceled class today."

"Really, why?"

"Well, Randy texted me last night. Imani isn't coming, she's still really shaken up from the attack yesterday. Silas is on set for a student film, and Normie texted me saying he wasn't going to show up. So I let Jessica know class was canceled due to low enrollment."

"Normie canceled? Did he say why?"

"No, he didn't. I asked him if everything was okay, but I haven't gotten a response. Have you heard from him?"

"No, I haven't. Maybe I'll drop by today, just to check on him."

Her mom nodded. "Just make sure you are home by dinner, Gayle's got something planned. Do you want to talk about yesterday?"

"About the attack?" Her mom nodded. "There really wasn't time to call you guys, and everything got handle."

"Glass got away. I don't mean that critically," her mom said, sensing Annie's mood. "I just wanted to make sure you're alright. That happens, you don't always catch the bad guy. I just don't want you to beat yourself up over it."

"I'm okay mom. Are you guys mad at me?"

"No, just worried. It was a lot to get a phone call like that. And it was, really scary waiting in the school parking lot, seeing all the police cars and ambulances, not being able to see you. Normally we're on the scene with you." Her mom took a breath, allowing Annie, for just a second, to see how scared she had been.

"I din't mean to worry you guys," Annie said. Maybe her parents insisting they stay together wasn't about them thinking she couldn't handle her self on her own. Maybe it was more for them than it was for her.

"I'm just glad you're okay," her mom said. She squeezed her hand.

"Well, I guess now's the time to tell you I failed my physics exam."

"Oh I doubt you failed, Annie."

"That just makes it worse, you know?" She said, her eyes starting to sting with tears. Why the hell was she getting emotional over a test? Sure it was the midterm, but in the grand scheme of things? With people like Glass running around?

"Hey, Annie, I'm sorry," her mom said. "Look, let's worry about that later, okay?"

"Dad's gonna kill me."

"Your dad, as smart as he is, has failed many a test, and he turned out okay. And he is so busy with his dissertation, let's not add any more to his plate."

"Thanks mom. Where's dad now?"

"In the room on his computer of course. He's been at it all morning, doubt he slept."

Annie shook her head. Seeing her father anguish and obsess over his dissertation was very much a doctoral deterrent for her. But she knew she should at least finish high school before writing off grad school all together.

Gayle rushed into the kitchen.

"Hey, MJ, Annie, come on out here. There's a press conference going on, their about to reveal the identity of that bird lady."

"The Avian? This should be good," her mom said with a rye smile.

Annie nodded. "I think I'm gonna swing by Normie's" She brought her bowl to the sink.

"You want to wait till after the press conference?"

"No, I'll catch up later."

"Alright, be careful okay?"

"I will!"

Normie arranged his father's journals neatly on his table. His mother was doing better and insisted he could go back home. She also let him take the journals.

He rested his hand on the books, wondering where to keep them. Normie didn't want them hidden away, but the secrets they held… he couldn't leave them just laying around.

He was startled by a knocking on the balcony doors. He turned around, and saw Spiderling waving. His heart sank. He wasn't sure what to do now that he knew who her parents were. Would she be upset? Scared? Betrayed? She must of seen his reaction because her posture changed. She looked hurt. Part of him hoped she would leave, but instead, she squared her shoulders, and continued to knock.

"I can do this all day Normie!" she said. Her voice was muffled, but her message was clear. She was going to talk to him today.

Sighing, he let her in.

"What is going on with you?" She said, before he could even close the door. "I haven't heard anything from you since Hobgoblin! You don't answer my calls, I'm lucky if I get some cryptic text from you, saying you 'need space' but that's it! I've been worried sick about you!"

Her masked eyes caught the journals meticulously arranged on the table.

"What's all that?" She asked, walking past him to the table. "Normie? What's going on? Come on, talk to me!"

"Those are my dad's journals."

"Oh, wow." She studied them for a moment. "There's a lot of them."

"Yeah. He journaled off and on throughout high school and college, but then he was religious about it after I was born."

Spiderling nodded. "This is why you needed space," she said, understanding.

Normie nodded.

"I didn't know, I'm sorry. If you want to talk, you know I'm here."

"I know." He felt horrible holding her parents' identities.

"What was he like?"

Normie smiled. "Surprisingly normal for most of it. After I was born, he wrote down everything I did, turning the most mundane thing into poetry."

"That's really nice," she said.

"Yeah. I wish I could remember those times."

"I'm so sorry Normie."

He carefully picked up the last three volumes. "These. They span only months. The final ones of his life."

"My god, how much did he write?"

"A lot." These were the hardest to read. "He started seeing his father's ghost, and, well. We stopped being a happy family."

She reached out to him and placed her hand on his shoulder. He leaned into her touch, and she took the cue, and embraced him in her strong arms. It felt so good to be with her again. He was scared their relationship would soon change. So he took the moment, urging time to slow down as much as possible. She squeezed him tighter, and he did the same to her.

She pulled away. "It's okay," she said. He saw himself reflected in her mask. He could see himself struggling to hold back his tears.

"Let's sit down," she said, pulling him to the couch.

"He was awful," Normie said, recalling his father's paranoia, his jealously, his rage. The passages he wrote about stalking Peter Parker in broad daylight, delighting in the power and privilege that he could so with little consequence. The anger towards his mother, and how possessive his dad became over him.

Then there was the Osborn Foundation. A hateful scheme that used charity as a stage for slaughter. Thank god that plan didn't succeed.

Normie took a deep breath. He couldn't bear his father's crimes, and instead focused on Spiderling. "Our fathers knew each other outside of the costumes. Did you know that?"

Spiderling was quiet. Then nodded solemnly.

Of course she knew. She always knew more than he did. She got to know who his father was in and out of the mask, while he only knew her costumed persona. He used to resent that, but now he knew how his father and grandfather had used Peter Parker's secret identity to hurt him and his loved ones. His father and grandfather committed horrible crimes with that knowledge; always managing to do the wrong thing.

But he wasn't like them.

"I know your dad is Peter Parker. And your mom is Mary Jane. My acting teacher, of all people. I don't know who you are. It'd be easy for me to find out, but I won't. I know that's important to you. And Spiderling, I am so sorry, I just, I had to read them. He's my dad."

Spiderling nodded. He wondered what she was thinking, now that he knew who her parents were.

"Normie, it's okay." She then reached up to her face, and grabbed her mask.

"Wait," he said.

But she didn't listen, and a second later, she looked up at him with her emerald green eyes.

"My name is Annie."

"Annie," he said, letting go of the journals.

He gently touched her face, taking in the details that were once hidden by her mask. "Annie," he said again. "You're beautiful."

She smiled before leaning in for a kiss.