Gwen and Flash were sitting on her couch. Between the pair they had destroyed a large pizza. Flash was getting near the end of the assignment he'd ask Gwen to help him with. He was reading over the last question. Gwen had her hands on the hem of her plain pink T-shirt.

"Last question. If you can do this one without me helping, I'll take my T-shirt off."

Flash pouted.

"No fair, that's a lot of pressure. I've been trying to see those for a year."

He rubbed his face and went back to the question. He tried to solve the problem himself. He swore under his breath about why it mattered how much Ted was going to be late getting to Stark Tower if his subway train was traveling at an average speed of thirty miles an hour. Gwen looked over the answer and frowned. She took her hands off the hem of her T-shirt.

"Sorry handsome. The girls only like math winners, and you're a math loser."

Flash nearly broke his pencil in frustration.

"Come on Gwen, you know I'm shit at this stuff."

"You do it all the time in science class, why is this different?"

Flash slapped the question with his hand.

"The words are in the way."

"Just make the variables. Speed is A, Time is B, Distance is C. Easy. Bonus round, if you get this one right, you can see the girls but no touching the girls."

Gwen kissed Flash on the lips, and he pulled her in close.

"Give me the question."

Gwen picked a random word problem in their text and slid the book towards him.

"Number six. Go you have five minutes."

Flash finished with ten seconds left. She lifted up the paper and looked it over. She frowned.

"Flash, Flash, Flash. Looks like you get to see me with my top off. But I get you with your top off too."

Flash didn't waste any time pulling his own top off. Gwen was still in her bra. Flash's eyes lit up.

"You need to wear bikinis more often. Holy, you're ripped. I didn't know you worked out."

Gwen ran her hands along Flash's chest and abs too. She pulled his hands up to her chest. Flash made a move to disagree but she put her finger on his lips.

"Shh. Just go with it silly boy."

She pressed him into the couch and the pair got into a lot of groping while they kissed passionately. Things started to progress past where Gwen had decided she was comfortable previously but at the moment she found she didn't want to stop. His hand was up her skirt when she felt that tingling in the back of her head. Like danger was approaching. She pushed Flash off of her and he fell on the floor. He looked incredibly confused for a few seconds but then the key went into the lock and it opened. Gwen was searching frantically for her top. Her dad walked in and saw them both topless, lucky for Gwen she still had her bra on. She finally found her shirt and held it over her chest.

"Dad! What are you doing here?"

Her father barely acknowledged her. His eyes were focused on Flash, who while big for a fifteen-year-old was nothing compared to Gwen's bulky father. He had Flash by the back of the neck and without a word tossed him out their apartment door followed shortly by Flash's shirt, shoes, school bag and books. Her father was shaking with rage.

"If I see you near my daughter again, I'll arrest you for… something."

Flash bolted. Gwen hurriedly pulled her top on. She glared at her father. The confrontational streak that had infected her was still ready to go.

"Why are you home?"

"Why were you half naked with a boy on our couch?"

"Bit late for you to care what I'm doing while you're at work, isn't it?"

Her father clenched his fists.

"I expected you to be mature enough to handle being home alone!"

Gwen shouted at him.

"I am! That's why I was making out with my boyfriend! Fuck off and go back to work! It's where you always want to be anyway! If you're not going to be here for me at least let me, find someone who cares if I'm alive!

Gwen stuck her middle finger up at him. She wasn't sure why that had just come out of her mouth. It started to dawn on her she had been angry for months. Angry about her mother. Angry about the distance that had grown between her and her father. The problem seemed that today whatever resistance she had to showing how she was really feeling had evaporated. He raised his hand it was shaking. He lowered it. He pointed to her room.

"Go to your room. You're grounded."

Gwen gathered up her things.

"Until you're too busy at work to notice!"

Gwen stormed into her room and slammed her door hard enough that everything in the apartment rattled. She threw her things on her bed and screamed. She opened her door.

"Someone told you didn't they? Who was it?"

Her dad stood up and walked to her door. He didn't say anything, he just looked down at her and appeared to be deeply disappointed. He closed the door without slamming it. Gwen kicked the door. Not hard enough to damage it but he definitely would have heard it. Gwen was still furious. She had been so close. Flash and she had been dancing around going all the way for months. When she finally got over herself enough to just go for it her dad interrupted. The sexual frustration just added to her already boiling temper.

Gwen started picking up her discarded clothes. Since she was going to be stuck at her Aunt May and Uncle Bens she may as well do laundry for free. She was throwing each piece of clothing violently into a basket. She picked up a T-shirt and tried to throw it into the basket. It wouldn't go. She pulled and tugged but it seemed stuck fast to her fingers. Finally, she pulled it off each of her fingers one by one. She looked at her hand and rubbed her fingers together. They weren't sticky. She looked over the T-shirt. Nothing that should have stopped her from throwing it. She scratched the back of her head and glanced down her low cut top and saw the shadow of the spider.

"I'm crazy for trying this but… oh well."

Gwen stuck her hand on the wall and tried to pull it off. It wouldn't come off. She focused and finally it popped off. She blinked a few times. She put both hands on the wall, one higher then the other. She pulled herself up. With some effort she managed to pull one hand off of the wall and reach higher. Eventually she was hanging from her hands and feet from the ceiling looking at the floor. She blinked a few times.

"That is odd."

She focused on releasing. She fell towards the floor but she managed to land on her feet without making much of a sound. Gwen looked at her hands and feet again. When she really focused she could see tiny hooks appear.

"No way."

Gwen rushed to her floor length mirror that made up her closet door. She looked herself over for any signs of chitin, growth of extra eyes, spinner, mandibles, or anything else spider like. Besides her ridiculously toned and defined muscles, nothing really seemed amiss. She bit her lower lip and realized maybe going all the way with Flash might not have been a good thing. Some spiders ate their partners. Also she realized she didn't know her own strength now. She could hurt him. She closed her eyes and listened when she heard her father start to talk. He was obviously on a call with someone.

"Hey, sorry, had to leave shift early. Something came up with Gwen."

She heard Erica's voice on the other side of the line.

"You said we'd meet after work yesterday."

Her father answered.

"You know I got knocked into that sea food restaurant's garbage. I smelled like rotten fish."

Erica answered.

"Well, I'm off tonight. Why don't you come over?"

Her father paused briefly.

"I really can't Erica. All this sneaking around. It is hurting my relationship with Gwen. I think she just needs me right now."

Erica sighed into her phone.

"I get it. Just make sure we see each other after shift tomorrow. You're taking so many doubles we never get together."

The pair said their I love you's and hung up. Gwen had calmed down, but the revelation that part of the reason her father was so distant was because he was doing his partner, it brought the rage back to the surface. She was done being the good girl. She gathered up a pair of her leggings and her hoodie. And pulled them on. She searched around for something for her feet. All she had was an old pair of her mother's ballet slippers. They were from the early nineties and were the brightest turquoise one could imagine but they would do. She laced them around her ankles.

Gwen pushed her window open. She looked down at the six stories below and took a deep breath. If she used the fire escape her father would see, but apparently, she didn't need a fire escape anymore. She climbed up and out of her window. She was shaking but she realized she was in no danger of falling at all. She turned herself upside down and pushed her window closed then climbed down the wall. She hopped to the ground when she reached the bottom. She wasn't sure where she was going, or why she was even doing this, but she knew if she stayed at home with her father, she would definitely say something she'd regret for the rest of her life.

She shoved her hands into her hoodie's pockets and walked down the sidewalk. It was said that New York was the city that never slept. It sure did get quiet at night in some places. She looked up at the half-completed Skyline towers. It was surrounded by a fence but that didn't slow her down. She jumped over the fence and landed on her feet easily. She grinned. She decided to see how high she could go before she chickened out. She started climbing up the completed part of the building. It was made up of shining silver glass that shone brightly during the day. Tonight, there was only the moon which was full. She found she had no fear of heights now. Not that they overly bothered her before but now, there was nothing. She got to the top part of the building which was still bare steel girders. She had no trouble balancing along one of them. She laughed as she did a pirouette.

Gwen mused how impressed her mother would be. Her mother, before she'd married, was a dancer for the New York City ballet. After years of dance classes where Gwen felt like an absolute failure it became clear she did not inherit her mother's talent or build. Her mother might have been disappointed, but she never showed it. She just helped Gwen find something she was good at, which was math and science. She slid down and sat on one of the girders that overlooked Manhattan. She marveled at how small everything looked from her vantage point.

She was enjoying the skyline when she heard a strangled cry for help. Her keen hearing pinpointed the source easily. Without really thinking about it she jumped off the girder and then skipped down the building finding at about fifty feet from the ground she could easily jump off. She landed in the alleyway the cry came from. She found two men had another cornered. One had a knife. Gwen pulled her hood up and approached them. She called out.

"Shouldn't play with knives, someone could get hurt boys."

The two men who appeared to be mugging the other spun towards her. The man who had called for help tripped as he tried to flee. The two muggers looked at each other. All things considered Gwen looked pretty slight inside her baggy hoodie.

"Are you fucking serious bitch?"

Gwen grinned under her hood. This was exactly what she needed tonight. Someone she could take her anger out on.

"Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?"

He growled and lunged at her. Gwen side-stepped his clumsy stab easily. She clenched her fist and let all her anger out into the punch she unleashed. He went flying five feet and hit a brick wall. He slid down it, groaning. His partner paused. Gwen extended her hand and made a come get me motion with two fingers.

"Don't chicken out on me now, little boy. I still need to hit something."

He bolted. Gwen looked around and found a trashcan. She picked it up and threw it at him. It hit him in the legs and he went down and skidded along the pavement. She stalked up to him and he pulled a knife out. She stomped on his arm slamming it into the ground. The knife clattered as it fell out of his hand. Gwen grabbed the knife and slammed it into the pavement beside his head. She used all her strength. It shattered. He tried to get up and she punched him in the side of the face. He collapsed. She tossed the knife handle on the ground beside him.

"Told you idiots so."

The man who they were trying to rob just stared at her. He still looked frightened. She shook her head and walked out of the alley without another word. She was starting home when she heard sirens. Normally she'd ignore them. It was New York City after all, something was always happening. This time though she let them lead her to a building fire at an old walk up. She saw a woman talking to a fireman.

"My son and daughter are still in there!"

"Why did you leave them in there?"

The lady looked panicked.

"I was doing laundry. I couldn't get through the fire. It was in the hall. My neighbors dragged me out. They're on the third floor."

"We'll try and find them. Right now, it's too dangerous to enter."

Gwen took that as a challenge. So far, she'd been pretty durable. She slipped around the boundary the police were setting up. She found herself behind the building. She started climbing the wall. She closed her eyes and focused. She was trying to hear any cries for help. She heard two distinct voices. She climbed around to the window and saw a teenage girl she recognized from school. She was holding a baby. The girl's name was Chrissy Chen. Gwen cleared her throat and tried to deepen her voice.

"Hey there, uh, ma'am, do you need some help?"

Chrissy jumped.

"Who are you?"

Gwen continued trying to sound different.

"Um… um. Nobody. I'll get the baby down safe then I'll come back for you."

Chrissy looked a bit panicked. She offered the baby to Gwen who took the baby and climbed down the wall. She came around the side of the building and ran into a firefighter and without a word she handed the baby boy to him. He started to ask her a question, but she slipped back into the alleyway. He followed her along with two police officers who stared as she climbed up the wall. Gwen reached Chrissy. Gwen held out her hand.

"Take my hand."

Chrissy was coughing by this point. She was hesitant. The building shook as a nearby ceiling collapsed. Gwen was starting to get worried. The brick wall she was clinging too was getting really hot.

"Come on Chrissy, you need to get out. The floors are collapsing."

Hearing her name seemed to snap Chrissy out of her panic. She took Gwen's hand and Gwen pulled her over her shoulders. Chrissy wrapped her arms around Gwen's chest. Gwen climbed back down and helped Chrissy onto the ground. One of the police officers moved to help Chrissy out of the alleyway. Chrissy looked back at Gwen.

"How did you know my name?"

Gwen paused.

"Umm. Your mother told me."

Gwen looked at the fireman who was staring at her.

"So… uh the fourth floor is collapsing."

She started backing away from the gathered emergency personnel. She pointed back down the alley.

"I'll just be going now."

Chrissy's mother appeared behind the police and pointed at her.

"That's her. She's a hero. She saved my babies!"

Gwen decided now was a good time to bolt. This was a little more public than she wanted it to be. The only description witnesses would be able to provide were that she was a woman who had blonde hair. She climbed into her room a short time later. She pulled off her clothes and all she could smell was the smoke from the fire. She found she was quite exhausted at this point. She collapsed into her bed in her underwear.