Andrea Benton was just starting to enjoy laying low and staying out of trouble. It'd been months since she and a few friends had fought Lee Price and subdued the Maniac. Coach Thompson had gone off to do whatever Agent Anti-Venom does, taking all the crazy superhero stuff with him back to Manhattan where it belonged and leaving Philadelphia to return to its usual mostly peaceful self. She'd promised that she'd keep the use of her Hell-Mark to a minimum until he found a cure for the side-effects that came along with it, but there was hardly any need for her to use it in the first place. Philadelphia was quiet, and there wasn't a huge market for a Hellmarked superhero to round up the petty criminals of the city. Instead she'd re-enrolled in high school- just barely managing to graduate on time, hitting the books harder than she'd ever thought possible after missing months of classes. She'd even been attending anger management classes once a week, which helped take the edge off her Hell-Mark's burn. With Lord Ogre dead and Jack O'Lantern secure on the Raft, she could finally relax. The thought had occurred to her before, but she'd never voiced it aloud, wary of some cosmic karma coming along and ruining it for her.

"Man… it feels really good catching some fresh air." She took a long swig of her cherry soda, casually strolling towards the small apartment Coach Thompson had rented for her. Her first college classes were right around the corner and she spent her free time enjoying the last few days of zero responsibilities she had left. Turning her face towards the sun she breathed a sigh of relief, smelling the sweet air and… the faint smell of smoke. A barbecue maybe? Narrowing her eyes, she could see something pink and white hurtling towards her. "What the hell-"

"Look out!"

Andi hopped out of the way as the person landed in a large pile of garbage bags a few feet in front of her. The fall should've killed any normal human, but the girl cartwheeled out without so much as a scratch. Her somehow entirely unblemished costume was white and pink and didn't have much in the way of leg protection. She was a couple inches shorter than Andi, but probably around the same age? A white, ghostlike mask covered most of her face, with pink lenses that changed shape like Spider-Man's covering her eyes. Andi had never seen this person before and the katanas and guns she carried made her suspect that she didn't have any powers at all besides extraordinary luck.

"Alright, round two match-stick!" The hero reloaded her guns and kept her eyes trained on the rooftops, searching for whatever had thrown her. Andi took a step towards her, finally getting the hero to tear her attention away from the search for her attacker. "Oh, you're still here? You should, uh, probably run away, you know? There's about to be a firefight. Heavy on the fire." She laughed at her own joke for a second before her attention went back to the rooftops.

"Oi, ya drongo! Ya still want some of this?" An incredibly Australian, blond guy in a yellow and red costume had appeared on the rooftop across the street, clearly ready to continue their fight. Tubes extended from gauntlets down his arms to a backpack- the tube on his right arm had been cut and was leaking fluid, damaged earlier in the fight.

"That's the grossest thing you've said all issue, Pyro." The girl kept her gun trained on him, finger on the trigger.

"Well'en let's make this quick- I got shit to do." The man aimed his left hand at her, flame pouring out of his gauntlet towards the woman. She ran, firing her gun at him but the flames burned hot and melted the bullets before they got near him. "Hold still, ya cunt," he shouted, chasing her down as he lit the street aflame behind her.

"Get out of here," the hero screamed at Andi, pushing on her as she tried to lead her away from the wall of fire. It raced towards them faster than any natural fire could hope to over concrete and asphalt, a pack of dogs slobbering excitedly as they chased down their prey visible in the flames.

Andi had seen enough.

She closed her eyes and dug in her heels, slipping out of the other woman's grasp. The hero's momentum carried her a safe distance away even as she dug her heels into the ground, skidding to a stop.

"NO!" The woman reached out to her, white gloves getting singed from the heat as the flames engulfed Andi.

"What kind'a hero can't save one civilian? Haha, ya stupid galah, you should see the look on ya mask right now!" Pyro laughed harshly, jumping down off the roof and leveling his hand towards the hero.

The fire dissipated as Andi opened her eyes, her Hell-Mark burning on her chest and eyes glowing a burning orange. Not even her clothes had reacted to the heat, a side effect of the Hell-Mark she often took for granted but was eternally grateful for. "Hey, asshole. Were you trying to kill me? Because I didn't even break a sweat." Andi took a deep breath and exhaled, Hellfire pouring from her lips towards the villain.

"Fire?! Haha, Sheila, fire ain't no mate of yours!" Pyro concentrated for a moment before jumping out of the way. Confusion written across his face that even his mask couldn't hide.
"Not just any old fire. Hellfire!" Andi took another deep breath and exhaled again, her fire racing towards him. This time he answered with his own inferno. It pushed back against hers, completely at his will, unlike her own that burned as free as it was intense. Andi was running out of breath, and Pyro's torrent of flames quickly began to overwhelm her own. She was out of practice, with a power that had never truly been her own to begin with.

"Ya sweating yet!" Pyro laughed, his flames taking the shape of a large shark, pushing through her Hellfire as easily as if it were swimming against a current.

"Gotcha." The hero fired three shots. The first missed by an inch, but the second buried itself into Pyro's gauntlet. The third severed the tube leading from his backpack, cutting off his fuel supply.

"You cunt," he hissed. With no fuel to sustain it, the giant shark was quickly overcome by Andi's Hellfire and fizzled out. She couldn't help but smile.

"Can't keep it up? Out of stamina already? Pathetic." Her words were cruel, the Hell-Mark on her chest influencing her just as much as she influenced it.

"Fancy yaself a comedian? Wait till I get out of lockup, you two broads are first on my-" With a quick tap with the grip of her sword, the hero hit Pyro in the temple and knocked him unconscious, his body slumped onto the ground.

"That was awesome! I didn't think I'd see any superheroes here in Philadelphia. I would've called ahead for help if I knew." The girl was excited- way more excited than someone who'd almost been burned alive ought to be. Andi took a deep, calming breath. No Hellfire this time, just peace. Her Hell-Mark faded away, her eyes changing back to her favorite shade of purple she'd selected for her contact lenses.

"You're a superhero?" She instantly regretted the question as soon as she'd asked it, the harshness in her tone not entirely her fault. "Probably should've waited until the Hell-Mark had completely faded," she thought to herself.

"Yeah! I was even an Avenger for a little bit! West Coast Avenger, but still! I'm Gwenpool by the way," she replied, not at all put off by Andi's tone. She extended her hand, smiling wide as she waited for Andi to take it.

"I'm… Andi. No hero name." She tentatively took Gwenpool's gloved hand, letting the shorter woman pump it with all the energy and excitement she seemed to do everything else with.

"Oh! I knew I recognized you! You're Mania!" Gwen went from excited to feverish, shaking Andi's hand as if it were the only thing in the world to do.

"Not… not anymore. I'm just Andi now. And… how did you-"

"Oh, I know everything. That's kinda my thing. Spider-Man does whatever a spider can, Captain America's fists are Nazi magnets… I know about everything and everyone." That was the cover story Gwen had made for herself. Time and again she'd come to learn that most people didn't take her true origin story too well. This was a good compromise between the truth and enough omission to not upset anyone.

"Uh… sure. Sure, why not." Andi didn't believe that for a second, but she really didn't want to push this any further.

"Well, thanks for the help! Catching Pyro actually ended my story arc. I hope that doesn't mean I'm getting canceled again," she groaned in exasperation as she tended to the villain. Rolling him onto his side, she pulled off his gauntlets and removed the backpack, emptying its contents into the sewer drain to make sure he wouldn't be able to light any more fires. She opened up a pouch in her belt, taking out her phone to make a call. "Hey, Hawkeye! Can you send someone to come pick this guy up for me? Yeah, I caught Pyro! Get this, he was in Philadelphia the whole time. Oh, you're with America? Perfect, I'll send you the address and- wait, where are you going!" Gwenpool quickly hung up her phone and jogged to catch up with Andi, who'd already made it halfway down the block.

"Um, home?" She'd be lying if she said she wasn't the slightest bit interested in helping to round up more bad guys, but this hero was weird and she'd been enjoying her regular, normal life. As good as it felt using the Hell-Mark, she knew she shouldn't.

"Oh! Well, it was fun working with you. You're a pretty cool hero, you know. If you're not Mania anymore, you should probably think about a new name? Hellfire's already trademarked but I'm sure you'll think of something. Thanks again." She waved and jogged back towards Pyro.

"... some of these heroes are getting weirder and weirder."