A/N: Oh, how I spoil you. Two chapters in one day yet again. But in my defense, this chapter is really just a continuation of the last one. (And I just really enjoy doing this.) Anyway, consider this compensation for me missing last week, and enjoy!
Chapter 10
Gwen POV
On Tuesday night, Gwen arrived on the rooftop across the street from the shop called Abe's Auto Repair five minutes early for her rendezvous with Prowler, the eyes of her mask angled downwards in an imitation of the glare she wore on her face. She wanted to have a little talk with Prowler before they started their mission, and as she'd expected, he'd arrived early to survey the location before they made their move.
As she stopped behind where he was crouched on the edge of the rooftop, he didn't look at her as he said, "Much as I appreciate an effort to impress, punctuality means you get here when I tell you, not sooner or later."
Folding her arms, Gwen told him, "I know. I had a bone to pick with you."
This afternoon, she had taken Miles up on his offer to teach her some Spanish terms that she didn't yet know and asked him to educate her on some slang terms while they competed against each other on several of Miles' video games in his room. They'd only been able to get in an hour-long lesson, but during it, Miles had just happened to mention the word that Prowler had called her last night, and to put it simply, she hadn't been pleased to find out what it meant.
"Last night, you called me 'Bochinche', meaning 'gossip'. Seriously?" she asked with annoyance.
Her anger only got greater when Prowler turned to face her and responded, "Well, in your case it was meant to mean something more like 'chatterbox', and the more I think about it, the more it seems to fit you perfectly. Now, are we going to keep talking about your new nickname or are we going to take down a crime lord?"
Gwen huffed angrily but nevertheless stepped forward and crouched right next to Prowler before saying, "Fine. Crime lord first, but then we need to work out a bad nickname for you, alright?"
"Just find us the best way inside, Bochinche," Prowler told her impatiently, obviously adding the last word just to incense her.
Gwen just shook her head and ignored it before giving the repair shop a quick look-over before her eyes zeroed in on a ventilation cover on one of the walls. Turning to raise an eyebrow at Prowler, she said, "Well, I know an oldie but a goodie."
Scanning the building himself and quickly locating the vent, Prowler sighed and asked, "Couldn't we do something a bit more… original? You know, one of these days, every criminal in the city is going to have more security in their vents than they do on the doors if we keep doing this."
"At which point we'll start just sneaking in the back," Gwen agreed, then added, "Now, suck it up and get going."
Prowler gave one last resigned sigh before he jumped off the building and flew over to the vent before slipping inside, and Gwen swung across the street to join him.
Third Person POV
Alonzo "Lonnie" Lincoln, better known by the street name Tombstone, was one of the most powerful and feared men in the city. A large part of this was simply due to his appearance. He was unnaturally pale and had white hair, making him almost look like a walking decaying corpse, and the tailored gray suit he wore at all times made him look like he could've just climbed out of a coffin. He was over seven feet tall and had fists that looked like they could crush stones.
And to top it all off, he was the city's foremost supplier of criminal vehicles, whether for assaults, kidnappings, getaways, or whatever else was needed, Tombstone was happy to supply it. Hundreds of vehicles went through modification or even full-scale production in his busy auto body shop every day, some from legitimate buyers to keep his business somewhat respectable, but many others being prepared to be sold anonymously to criminals from various professions. This meant that he dealt mostly with low-end criminals, but they served their purpose well as his own veritable army sweeping across the city and bringing him only good business.
As Tombstone saw it, he didn't care who was buying the vehicles or what they were used for as long as he got paid well for it, and he got paid very well for his dealings with people who needed quality vehicles sold to them for less-than-reputable deeds and above all, kept quiet.
And he was paid in more than just money. Those who bought from Tombstone were bound not to tell anyone where they had gotten their assets, though all records of the sales were kept in secret locations anyway so that there was no proof of the deal, and they also had to swear their loyalty to Tombstone for the rest of their criminal career, giving him a percentage of every score they obtained.
There were only two ways out of the deal. First was the more common occurrence, that the criminal in question would be killed for trying to cross Tombstone. The second option was something Lincoln loathed, that some of the people that owed their lives to him would run away and offer their services to his competitors in return for their protection. Due to this fact, Tombstone had long been at war with practically every mob boss in the city, killing some to get back at his traitorous ex-employees, but others continued to manage to evade him. For now.
Speaking of, one of his men walked up to him now with news from a call he'd just received from one of his said competitors. Stopping cautiously just out of reach of his boss's arm reach, as if that would save him if Tombstone decided to attack him, Lincoln's right-hand man told him, "Sir, he said that he's run out of patience. He told us to surrender all of our assets to him, and said that it was our last chance to give up."
"About time he started playing hard," Tombstone said with amusement. "And what'd you tell him?"
"Same thing we always tell him, sir," his lieutenant replied. "That if he wants a fight, he can come get us or wait for us to come get him."
Lincoln let out a laugh and told him, "That's right, my boy! This man thinks he can intimidate us? Order us around? Well, I want him to know that I ain't scared o' him. Even if he found out where we were, it'd be impossible for anyone to get to us in here."
As though they'd been waiting for the cue, no sooner had those words left Tombstone's mouth before the vent cover above them fell to the floor just a few yards away and two figures jumped down from above.
As one didn't gain power in New York City without staying well-informed, Tombstone immediately recognized both of them, though before this moment, he had honestly believed them both to be mere hoaxes. The first one was the Spider-Woman, a vigilante heroine that had supposedly been fighting criminals for over a year now. Any time Tombstone's men had used her name as an excuse for not delivering one of his shipments, he'd immediately killed them in the belief that they were lying and trying to cheat him. Now, he silently gave rare apologies to each of them, though it was rather impersonal as he hadn't bothered to remember any of their names.
The second figure was considerably more surprising to see here, especially standing alongside Spider-Woman when Tombstone was quite certain that both of them were loners. The second figure was the legendary thief known as the Prowler, though it was truthfully only his signature eyes and claws that gave it away as his appearance wasn't widely known.
Yet while their entrance had been plenty dramatic (and annoyingly well-timed), Tombstone had only one thing to say to them as he laid eyes on the two mythical figures for the first time. "You're both a lot shorter than I imagined you'd be," he told them without the slightest trace of fear.
Upon hearing that, Spider-Woman sighed and turned to Prowler to say, "I knew we should've worn stilts."
"Shut up," Prowler responded, keeping his glare directed at Tombstone.
"Just trying to live up to my new nickname," Spider-Woman said as she stood back-to-back with Prowler and faced Lincoln's men throughout the workshop, who were quickly recovering from their shock and getting ready to use their manufacturing tools as weapons, but were waiting for Tombstone's order before they attacked.
Looking up at the open vent above them, from which Spider-Woman and Prowler had just entered, Tombstone asked, "Just out of curiosity, how long exactly were you two waiting in my ventilation shafts?"
Shrugging, Spider-Woman kept her eyes on the workers as she answered, "What can I say? We're teenagers. We like to vent."
"How dare you include me in such a bad pun," Prowler growled back at her.
"You're right, that was terrible," Spider-Woman agreed. "Just trying to keeps things airy."
"I hate you somuch."
Not sure what they were talking about, Tombstone yelled out, "Enough!" He then pointed a finger at Prowler and said, "You, Prowler. I've heard you will work for money. I will pay you $5,000 in cash right now to kill the girl and leave this place. And who knows? Perhaps I will be inclined to employ you again in the future."
Rather than giving him the reaction he'd hoped for, Prowler just stared Tombstone down and said, "Sorry, but my services aren't available right now. I'm already busy with a job, one I really want to do."
"Besides, do you have any idea how hard it is to get bloodstains out of this suit? Worse than getting this off!" Spider-Woman asked, then spun around and fired something from her wrist that splattered all over Tombstone's eyes, blinding him.
Rearing back in pain and rage, Tombstone let out a yell and heard his workers jump into action all throughout the room, though he couldn't see them. He heard the sounds of metal striking concrete surfaces, wood splintering, the hum of energy and the occasional odd thwip sound, all of which were constantly accompanied by the challenging yells and terrified screams of his employees.
Reaching out blindly to his side with one hand while the other hand clawed at whatever sticky substance was blocking out his sight, Tombstone grabbed the arm of his lieutenant and ordered, "Help me out of here. Get me to the train, we must retreat to our safehouse. If half the legends about either of these vigilantes are true, we can't fight one of them, let alone both at once."
Though he couldn't see his lieutenant's nod, he assumed that he must've agreed as he immediately took Tombstone's arm and began to quickly escort him away from the area. As they snuck out the back door in Tombstone's office, Lincoln could still hear the chaos behind them that was the sound of his most loyal men being destroyed in harmony with numerous terrible puns.
Tombstone finally managed to pull the sticky substance off of his eyes after they reached the stairway leading up to the elevated train track near the workshop. Looking down at whatever it was, he saw it to be merely some tightly woven white substance, like hundreds of spiders had created a net of webbing to attach to his face. And it had come… out of Spider-Woman's wrists?
Throwing the webbing to the side in revulsion, Lincoln commented, "Disgusting creatures, these superpowered freaks." Then, looking up and seeing a train arrive just in time, he shook his lieutenant's hand off of himself and said, "Quickly, we must get on the train. Escort me there immediately."
At that moment, a thin white line shot out of the darkness behind them and grabbed onto his lieutenant's leg before yanking it out from under him, causing him to fall onto his front, and then the line pulled once more and dragged him out of sight with a yell of fear, madly grasping towards Lincoln as though looking for help.
However, Tombstone just watched him go for a second before saying, "Fine, I'll escort myself."
He then grabbed onto the stairway railing and began to run upwards as fast as he could. About halfway up, he stopped and ducked down low to reach beneath the stairs and pulled a double-barreled shotgun from beneath the walkway. He checked to make sure that it was loaded, then ran up the remainder of the stairs and ducked into the train as fast as he could, just in time before the doors closed.
There weren't many people on the subways this late at night, but the few people that remained inside the wagon with Tombstone when they saw him come in with a shotgun in hand all let out screams and ran away into the next car. He let them go, too focused on watching out for meddling vigilantes to worry about the insignificant civilians or what they may tell the police.
Suddenly, the back door of the car slid open, though there was nothing visibly in the doorway. Panicking, Tombstone aimed his shotgun and fired out the back of the train, predictably hitting nothing that he could see, but how could he know if one of these freaks couldn't turn invisible or something?
Reloading his gun once again with trembling hands, Tombstone looked all around himself and quietly asked, "What are you?"
Instantly, the window to his side shattered as a pair of legs swung through the pane to allow someone to enter the train car, and despite his great size and strength, Tombstone was knocked onto his back by a far smaller body before he looked up into the eyes of Spider-Woman, crouched on his chest, as she responded to his question in a deep voice.
"I'm Batman."
Realizing that this was all just a game to her, Tombstone became enraged and pushed her off of him with all of his strength before he stood up and raised his shotgun at her. He fired at her once, which she impossibly just dodged with a graceful flip, but he continued to fire again and again, reloading his gun in a matter of seconds each time he ran out of ammo, and yelled, "Oh, yeah?! Is that right, 'Batman'?! Well, if you thought I'd go down easy, you've got another thing-"
However, he broke off as he realized that Spider-Woman wasn't even trying to approach him anymore, and as he stopped shooting for a second, he saw her point upwards in warning. Looking upwards as directed, Tombstone heard metal crumple as a sharp metal point jabbed itself into the ceiling above them, followed by another, then another and another, and so on until ten sharp claws had punctured the roof of the train car. "No…" Tombstone muttered to himself weakly as he realized what was happening.
A moment later, the claws all moved themselves sideways at once, ripping the roof open like the metal was stubborn Christmas gift wrapping to reveal the crouching silhouette of the Prowler, his magenta eye outlines glaring down on Tombstone like a spotlight.
Now feeling terror like he'd never known, Tombstone aimed his shotgun straight upwards at Prowler, but the young man jumped down from the roof too quickly and kicked the gun aside on the way down before landing on his feet right in front of Lincoln. Desperate, Tombstone aimed the gun towards Prowler once again, but in a flash of silver, the entire barrel of the shotgun was cut into six different pieces, leaving Tombstone holding a useless trigger as his bullets fell to the ground.
Now helpless, Tombstone began to back up deeper into the train car, and Prowler told him, "Alonzo Lincoln. It's time for you to pay."
"Yeah, for that new skylight he just installed," Spider-Woman added as she leaned her head over Prowler's shoulder.
Looking down and sighing, Prowler asked, "Why do you have to ruin this moment?"
Putting up her hands in surrender and backing away, Spider-Woman said, "Right, sorry. Do your thing. 'Oh, you're in for it now, Lincoln. I'm the Prowler! Rawr!'"
Prowler looked back at her, then glared at Lincoln one last time before he just turned and began to walk away, saying, "You know what, I don't even care anymore. Just take him."
"Thank you!" Spider-Woman exclaimed before she reared back a fist and thrust it towards Tombstone's face, and then everything went black.
Line Break
Time Skip - Friday Afternoon
Gwen POV
The last few days had been amazing. As Spider-Woman's working relationship with the Prowler had continued to develop, Gwen had grown more and more to anticipate the nights spent hunting down criminals with him, which she now enjoyed almost as much as her days spent with Miles.
After taking down Tombstone, they'd moved on to taking down another mob boss named Hammerhead (whose real name was unknown) on Wednesday. The next night, it had been Leland Owlsley, better known as The Owl, after which they'd celebrated by attacking Martin Li (whose charges had not stuck after the trafficking business) in his home and left him to the police with all the evidence needed to put him away for at least the next two years.
Tonight they were scheduled to take down Silvio Manfredi, otherwise known as Silvermane, and Gwen was enjoying riding high for once. Even Jameson couldn't make her feel any worse as she overheard him ranting about her irresponsible destruction of property from other students' phones. Working with Prowler, Gwen had been able to work faster, stronger, more efficient. They'd become a close team that had yet to fail a mission, all of which so far had included taking down crime bosses rather than just stopping petty criminals.
Of course, Gwen still never missed a chance to stop some thug or mugger if she caught them in the act, and Prowler had been happy to help her on the occasions when he was with her when she noticed such things happening, but she felt like for the first time, she was finally dealing with the root of the criminal element in the city. Operating on Prowler's information and with their increasingly effective teamwork, the two teenage vigilantes had never failed to get their mark, and always staying ahead of the police by throwing the first punch themselves instead of simply reacting to crimes, which gave Gwen an extra thrill to know that she wouldn't have to deal with her dad. However, she couldn't have predicted that for better or worse, her plans for tonight were about to be radically adjusted.
She was still thinking about her plans for tonight in her mind, going over the plan and remembering the layout of Manfredi's home that Prowler had shown her last night, on the way back to her dorm to pack her things for the weekend after school on Friday exactly at noon.
They had been let out of school early today so that students could go home and prepare for the Homecoming dance later tonight, but as Gwen didn't have any plans to participate in the event, she had instead opted to go straight home and try to warm up for hers and Prowler's attack on Silvermane's mansion by getting in some early Spider-ing before her dad got home from work.
Though she'd stayed ready for the possibility all week, Miles had not once asked her to accompany him to the dance tonight, and so she had instead devoted her mental faculties to focusing on the superhero side of her life for the most part of the week, even as the prospect of doing something as normal as a dance became more and more enticing as the week went on with Gwen spending more and more time in her mask. At one point, she'd even considered asking Prowler to the dance, the mildly amusing image of Prowler in his mask and a black and purple suit while she wore her own mask with a matching white dress as the two of them danced on the roof above the gymnasium flashing through her mind for a brief moment, but she knew it was ridiculous.
So instead, she had resolved to just get home and prepare for yet another night of productive superhero work. Unfortunately, she was stopped before she could even leave the building by a large Senior kid she vaguely recognized as one of Ned's friends sticking his arm out in front of her as she walked down a crowded hallway, slamming his hand against the locker right next to her head with a loud clang to get her attention.
"Hey, Stacy," he said with a grin as he leered down at her, "You're looking pretty good these days."
Gwen raised an eyebrow at him in an unimpressed sort of way. If this was his attempt at flirting, it was falling short due to more than simply his rude method of approaching her. Most notably because she was certain that if she was still getting teased by Ned as she had before, this kid wouldn't have been caught dead talking to her, certainly not so politely. Whatever he was trying to show her now was nothing more than an insincere attempt at masking his true behavior, a ruse she could see through easily.
Still, she could hardly just ignore him as she so mightily desired to, so she was forced to simply respond, "Thanks. Now, excuse me, but I actually have to get going, so-"
She tried to slip around the kid's other side, but he thrust out his other hand and grabbed her shoulder before holding her back, saying, "Hey, hold on, Stacy…"
Looking down at the kid's hand on her shoulder, Gwen felt the powerful urge to grab hold of it and break it. It would be so quick, so easy for her to do it, just one simple twist, and no one could possibly stop her. But irksome as this kid's touch was, it was not worth it for her to give away her powers just to get him off of her.
So she just silently bore the mild irritation and allowed the kid to believe that he had some leverage over her as he continued, "Look, Stacy, I know it's short notice, but I was thinking that maybe you'd want to go to Homecoming with me? I guarantee it would elevate your social status quite a bit."
Glaring into the boy's eyes, Gwen said, "You thought wrong, and I don't care about my stupid 'social status'. I'm not going to the dance or anywhere else with you, so get your hand off me."
"Oh, come on," the kid said as his grin widened while he ignored her demands. "Why wouldn't you be my date? You even settled for Parker last year!"
Upon hearing this loathsome child mention Peter with such disrespect, Gwen was about to snap his entire arm with one hand, revealing her powers or not, when suddenly the kid's hand was smacked off of her as Miles stepped in between them out of nowhere and stared the kid down as he said, "Because she already has a date. Now, I believe the lady was pretty clearly telling you to leave her alone."
The kid stared at Miles in shock for a moment, then let out a laugh and asked, "You? Please, Morales, you expect me to believe that Stacy was going to the dance with you?"
"Believe what you want, but touch her or mention Peter Parker again, and I swear you will regret it, Baboso," Miles responded, standing his ground.
The kid continued to look down on Miles for a moment, who admirably didn't even flinch despite the fact that this Senior kid was almost a foot taller than him, before the kid scowled and waved him off as he began to walk away, saying, "Whatever. Enjoy going to the dance with Visions Academy's biggest loser, Morales."
Miles glared at the kid's back the whole time he was walking away to make sure that he actually left, ignoring the strange looks that everyone else in the hallway was giving him, then his expression softened as he turned around to face Gwen and asked, "Did he hurt you?"
"No," Gwen responded immediately.
Even after she'd said it, she saw Miles' eyes look her over once as though he expected her to be lying before he nodded in satisfaction and began to walk away towards the north side of the building, heading back to his own dorm. However, he didn't get far before Gwen called after him, "Miles, wait!"
As her stopping him in the middle of his departure was becoming a regular occurrence by now, Miles managed to refrain from letting out his usual deep sigh and began turning to face her once again as soon as he heard her start to call his name. "What?" he asked with forced patience.
Looking down shyly, Gwen ignored the thought of how she'd promised herself not to interfere in this as she asked, "Did you… actually want to go to the dance with me?"
Miles' eyes widened upon hearing her question and repeated, "What?"
Shrugging and looking up to meet Miles' gaze, Gwen said, "What you told that kid to get him to leave me alone, about how I was already going to the dance with you. Do you actually want to?"
Miles seemed speechless for a moment, but then cleared his throat and said, "Uh, sure. Yeah, why not? Er… Just as friends?"
Smiling, Gwen responded, "Yeah, just friends. I mean, no pressure or anything, just… for fun, you know?"
"But… the notice is kind of late. Will you-" Miles began to ask, but Gwen answered before he'd even finished, "I can throw something together for myself. And you don't need to worry about a corsage or anything, just wear something nice and be there, alright?"
His mind finally seeing to catch up with his words, Miles said, "Yeah, yeah, I'll… Corsage? I mean, uh, yeah, I'll wear something and… get a ride. I'll pick you up at… eight?"
"Sounds good," Gwen said with an honest smile, then waved goodbye to him as she pulled out her phone and began to walk away backwards, saying, "I need to call my dad, but I'll see you then!"
As soon as she was out of sight of Miles, she looked down at her phone, but abruptly remembered that it was the wrong phone to contact who she really wanted to talk to and pocketed her own cell phone again before pulling out the flip phone Prowler had given her and began to text him. However, to her surprise, as soon as she hit the send button, the phone vibrated as it received a message at the same time as it sent one.
S-W: Can't do the mission tonight. Sry! ?
P: We need to delay the mission until tomorrow.
P: What the?
P: How did you send an emoji with a flip phone?
S-W: I made some modifications.
P: Right. Well, I need to double-check the mansion's security before we move. U?
S-W: Headache. Hung upside-down too long.
P: Alright. c u tomorrow.
Once the conversation was concluded, Gwen let out a breath of relief, unable to believe how convenient it was that Prowler wouldn't be ready for the mission tonight of all nights. That left her night completely free so that she could attend the dance. As such, she was able to relax, having nothing more to concern herself with.
Line Break
Miles POV
Miles burst through the doors of the hospital ward where Rio Morales was supposedly working and was immediately grabbed by his mother as she tried to usher him onto a bed.
"I came as soon as I got your message, mijo," Rio said as she fussed over Miles, pressing her stethoscope onto every part of his body that she could reach for no reason that Miles could determine and not giving him any room to speak. "When you said it was an emergency, I got this bed all set up for you. Was it something that happened at work? You still have both your arms? Where does it hurt?"
Pushing away his mother's medical examination tools, Miles stopped her by saying, "Mom! I'm fine. I'm not hurt."
Rio's expression of concern immediately shifting to disapproval as she processed his statement, Miles' mother said, "Wait, what?" She then sighed and put a hand on her head as she chided, "Miles, you can't just demand to come see me at the hospital for an emergencia without actually having a problem for me to fix."
"I do have a problem!" Miles corrected her. "A big one!"
Folding her arms, Rio said, "It had better be a big one, because I just left Mr. Alvarez to adjust his own bed height because you asked for my help, and he never stops playing with the remote."
"You don't get it, Mom," Miles said in a panic, "I'm in big trouble! I just agreed to take Gwen to tonight's Homecoming dance!"
Her eyes widening, Rio said, "Oh, you're right. This is an emergency." Her gaze then set itself with determination and she said, "Alright, Miles, on your feet! We have a lot to do! Call your uncle and ask him for help with the suit and car, and I'll be back in a minute to teach you how to dance!"
Rio began to walk purposefully out of the room as Miles stood up from the bed, and as she passed another nurse in the hallway, Miles heard his mom say, "Not now, Maria, Mr. Alvarez can wait. I have a code red on my hands!"
Pulling out his phone, Miles didn't call his uncle just yet and instead did what he probably should've done before even agreeing to go to the dance, which was to call his boss. He pulled up the contact "Avocado" and called the number, and the phone was picked up on the second ring before Mr. Nelson's voice said, "Did you figure out her real-?"
"Mr. Nelson, listen!" Miles cut him off panickedly. "Look, just tell the boss that I can't do the Manfredi job tonight. I already arranged with our girl to do it tomorrow instead, but I'm gonna be busy tonight working on… something really important to the plan."
"The boss is going to want to hear this himself," Mr. Nelson said in an annoyingly calm voice. "Please hold-"
But Miles had already hung up on him. His time was running short and he still had lots to do. Mr. Nelson would just have to get over it.
Calling his uncle next, Miles tapped his foot impatiently through three rings until Aaron's voice answered and said, "Yo, little man! I was actually gonna hit you later tonight! Look, Miles, you gotta come visit over the weekend, I got something to show you."
"Well, you don't have to wait, you can show me tonight," Miles responded. "I need you you drive me somewhere."
There was a short silence, then Uncle Aaron asked, "Drive you somewhere? Uh, where you going?"
"Alright, don't laugh, but I asked a girl to the Homecoming dance," Miles explained. "Or… maybe she asked me? Or I just assumed… Nevermind! Point is, I need a chauffeur to the dance, and my mom said to ask you."
There was another pause, then Aaron said, "Nice to see you finally got some game, man, but, uh… Now's kind of an awkward time. It's got to do with that good news I wanted to tell you about."
Annoyed, Miles asked, "Can you drive us to the dance or not?"
"Yeah, sure, but it might not be pretty," Aaron said, finally giving him a straight answer.
Breathing out in relief, Miles said, "Okay, great. I'm at my mom's workplace, you can come pick me up here after you figure out a ride, and we need to be at the girl's house by eight. Oh, and I also wanted to ask, do you know any good places to get a nice suit? Like… a normal-person suit?"
"You still got your first bonus money from work?" Uncle Aaron asked.
"Yeah," Miles responded hesitantly.
"Then I know just the spot," his uncle said before he hung up, and it was clear from the tone of his voice that he'd been smiling when he'd said it, which Miles didn't know if it made him feel more or less worried.
A few seconds later, his mom came rushing back into the room with a handheld speaker and set it on the floor before she pulled out her phone and began to connect the two devices wireless as she said, "Alright, so you got ahold of your uncle? Eso esta bueno, but we still need to work out a few more things. Okay, you've got your suit, your car, we're about to figure out the dancing… Do you have a corsage? Most people do a rose, or orchids…"
"Actually, Mom, I have a different idea for the corsage," Miles admitted shyly as one of his favorite songs rose unbidden to the forefront of his mind.
Gwen POV
Looking herself over for the fourth time in the bathroom mirror, Gwen could only wonder to herself what must've possessed her to think that this might be a good idea. One could easily argue that she'd never actually been to a dance, given that she hadn't actually had time to do any dancing at the last event or even get a drink of punch. And if one argued the opposite point, that she had technically been to a dance once before… Well, that wasn't much better considering that her date hadn't exactly been available for comment on how he thought it went.
For tonight, Gwen had worn a pink dress with a black leather jacket and a thick leather belt over the top, the same outfit she'd brought to the last dance, and though she was trying to convince herself that it didn't bring back bad memories, she'd added a small handbag containing her Spider-Woman suit as a new part of her outfit.
Apparently her dad was thinking somewhat along the same lines for his worries for the night as he told her from where he leaned against the doorframe, "I can't believe you're doing this again. If Spider-Woman shows up and ruins two of your dances in a row, I'm putting a security detail on you."
Gwen nodded in response idly, trying to tune out most of what he was saying so she could focus, and grabbed the ends of her hair, where she'd dyed the tips a faint pink for the occasion, before holding them up and nervously asking, "Do you think Miles will like this? Or is it too much?"
Throwing up his hands helplessly before placing them on his hips, George responded, "How should I know? I don't even know who the kid is, which by the way, is really stressing me out! How could you think I'd be okay with this? With Peter, it was fine, but only because we both knew him, and his aunt, and where he lived, and we both knew he wouldn't try anything funny. With this kid-"
"-we know exactly the same thing," Gwen finished for him, somewhat exasperated by her dad's protective behavior. "Look, his name's Miles Morales and he's the nicest guy absolutely anywhere. He lives alone with his mom and already helps to provide for his family with his own job because his dad, who was a police officer who served under you, died in the line of duty. He's been teaching me some extra Spanish, he helped me design… an art project of mine, he sits next to me in Physics-"
Just then, Gwen was cut off by the sound of the doorbell ringing, causing her to jump in fright. She already knew that it must be Miles, mostly due to the fact that her Spider-Sense hadn't tingled in warning, as it never did around Miles, though the fact that the clock had just struck eight o'clock helped as well.
Well, he was certainly punctual, but Gwen couldn't help but wonder to herself about how long he might've stood out there just to make sure he arrived right when he said he would. At the same time, part of her was silently praying that he hadn't accidentally overheard any of what she'd said to chat him up to her dad before he'd arrived.
Turning to raise an eyebrow at Gwen, George told her, "Well, I guess I'll get to find out. But if I have reason to believe he's anything less than the perfect gentleman you've described him as, I'm throwing him out."
Gwen once again nodded her agreement without really listening as she was currently busy furiously brushing down her hair with her hands, pushing it back over her shoulders so that she made a good first impression, though she wasn't really sure why she was so worried about it. She'd carefully emphasized this afternoon that there was 'no pressure' on this little outing of theirs. This didn't exactly feel… no-pressure-y.
She remembered how she'd told Miles not to be too worried with his appearance, just to wear something nice but casual, and she was sure that whatever he wore, she would still find him handsome as ever, but she could only pray that her own appearance would prove satisfactory for his tastes. But then… he'd never seen the "emo" side of her, never seen her wearing leather or dying her hair. What if he didn't like it? Oh, what was she thinking?
Gwen's dad stepped up to the apartment door and paused for a moment to put a forced friendly smile on his face, then reached for the knob and pulled the door open quickly to try to get a "shock and awe" reaction out of the person on the other side.
Gwen couldn't see past her dad as the door opened, but she heard Miles' voice say, "Uh, hi. I'm Miles. Miles Morales. And, uh, I'm here for your daughter, Captain Stacy. I mean, for the Homecoming dance! Which I… hope she told you about."
Given that her dad was usually a very well-spoken man, as he ought to be when he gave orders in pressured situations every day at work, Gwen was surprised when George didn't say anything in response and simply turned to enter the apartment again with a perplexed look on his face, silently gesturing for Miles to follow behind him.
George walked over to Gwen and leaned down slightly to ask, "Uh, Gwen? What did you say he did for work again?"
Confused by this question, Gwen looked around her dad's shoulder to see Miles and upon seeing what had rendered her dad speechless immediately gained a matching look of shock on her own face.
Miles had not only dismissed her advice to wear something simple, but he had gone far overboard in dressing himself for the occasion. He was wearing the cleanest black suit that Gwen had ever seen, a tuxedo that looked like it was made of satin, along with a white silk shirt and yellow silk bow tie. Doubtless, he would be by far the best dressed person at the dance, as she highly doubted anyone else would be able to get close to buying a suit or dress half this nice.
However, upon seeing her, Miles' eyes gleamed before he said, "Oh, wow. Gwen, you look amazing."
Though Gwen blushed at the compliment, Miles' words were just the right thing to finally sober her up enough to speak as she said, "Me? Miles, have you seen yourself? What are you wearing?"
Looking down at himself self-consciously, Miles asked, "What? Is there something wrong with it? My dad's old suit is still too big for me!"
Shaking her head, Gwen responded, "No, there's nothing wrong with it. You look incredible! It's just… where did you get a tux like that?"
Uncomfortably tugging on the hem of his jacket, Miles answered, "Um… Armani, I think. My boss gave me a bonus at work for helping him with something, and I couldn't figure out what to do with the money until my uncle took me shopping for the dance."
"What do you do?" Gwen's dad suddenly interjected, finally getting his own voice back as he placed his hands on Gwen's shoulders. "Deal drugs?"
"Dad!" Gwen called out, massively embarrassed by her dad's outrageous claim.
Miles just held up a hand to calm her however and calmly answered, "Actually, I help my uncle with his old job, doing some advanced engineering for some big companies. He's… not really in a great condition to do it himself anymore, but it pays pretty good."
George looked uncertain for another moment until he looked down at Gwen to see his daughter glaring at him firmly, repeatedly gesturing with her head towards Miles. Finally, the police captain gave in and told Miles, "Alright, I'm sorry, Mr. Morales. That was completely out of line for me. I just… I just wanted to make sure my daughter's going to be alright tonight. Last time she went to a dance was last year's Prom."
Looking confused, Miles asked, "What happened?"
Now confused himself, George looked at Gwen for an explanation, and she informed him, "Miles was out of school for most of last year."
Nodding in understanding, George turned back to Miles and said, "Well, long story short, the place got trashed when the Spider-Woman showed up and killed a kid, someone my daughter knew pretty well. Really traumatic for everyone involved."
Gwen winced at the way her dad explained it, but was surprised when Miles said, "No offense, sir, but I don't think Spider-Woman would do that." He then hastily added, "I mean, on the news it looks like she's trying to be a hero, and if she hasn't killed any criminals I don't see why she would-"
"She hasn't killed anyone else because we haven't given her a chance," George cut him off. "Trust me, if she weren't worried about what new measures the cops would be able to take to stop her if she killed someone else, she'd probably have gone on a killing spree long ago."
"'Difference of opinion leads to enquiry, and enquiry to truth,'" Miles recited.
Frowning, George asked, "What's that? Emerson?"
"Jefferson," Miles corrected respectfully.
Looking impressed, George said, "Well, that's a very… philosophical view to take on the matter. I guess we'll all see the truth eventually, huh? I'm very sorry my daughter hasn't introduced you to me before, Miles."
"Actually, we met once, sir," Miles told him, surprising both Gwen and her dad. "Nothing major, I just, uh… opened a door for you."
George raised an eyebrow at his daughter and smiled at her as he said, "The mark of every true gentleman: the holding-the-door test. Alright, Gwen, I'll give him a chance. You two go have fun."
Smiling widely, Gwen hugged her dad tightly before walking over to Miles, who held out his arm so she could take it. Then, as Miles escorted her out of her apartment and down to the street outside, she didn't think that she'd ever seen him look as pleased as he did now, her presence next to him very nearly causing him to finally show her a real smile, though she hoped to make it real at some point tonight.
Once they were outside, Miles gestured down towards the end of the road and said, "There's our ride. Sorry, they wouldn't let us park for more than a couple minutes."
Looking down towards where Miles pointed, Gwen's eyes widened once again as she instantly took in the sight of a long black limo approaching them. It swerved off the road to slide to a stop right in front of them before the driver's door opened and a tall man with a nicely-trimmed goatee and wearing a full chauffeur uniform including a little front-brimmed hat suddenly burst out to run around the other side of the car and stood on the curb holding a white sign with black writing on it that read "Miles Morales' Girlfriend".
Miles sighed as they approached the man and told him, "Uncle Aaron, what did I say about the sign? We're just going as friends."
Grinning, the man, Aaron, responded, "Oh, come on, man. You gotta let me have my fun. And this must be your lovely lady?" He directed the last part at Gwen and gave her a roguish wink, but Gwen was currently distracted looking at Aaron's physical appearance. When he'd held up his sign, Gwen had noticed that he'd only used his left arm, and now, looking at his limply hanging, empty right sleeve, she determined why. Aaron was missing his right arm.
Noticing her gaze, Aaron chuckled and said, "Yeah, you should see the other guy."
Shocked, Gwen asked, "You lost it in a fight?"
Letting out a laugh, Aaron responded, "No, no. That was just a joke. It was an accident at work. I wore a cast for a while, but then the doctors decided that it wasn't going to heal and I asked them to cut it off. Actually, I got back from the hospital just earlier today. Kind of bad timing for Miles, but I can still drive just fine."
Looking at the car behind Aaron, Gwen asked hesitantly, "And you drive… a limo?"
Looking back himself as though just barely remembering the car, Aaron said, "Nah, this is just a rental. Which, now I think about it, we might want to get back on the road. After all, from what Miles has told me, I gather that there's a cop in the area and we don't want to overextend our parking limit. Everyone in!"
Aaron reached behind himself and held the back door open for them to climb in. Miles stepped forward and offered a hand to Gwen to help her into the vehicle, and she smirked as she accepted the unnecessary but gentlemanly offer before Miles climbed in after her and sat by her side, and Aaron shut the door to rush back around to the driver's seat.
As the car began to move, Miles leaned over to her and quietly said, "I'm sorry about my uncle. He can be a bit… eccentric. He has a flair for dramatics."
Smiling to herself as her thoughts drifted to the message on Aaron's sign, Gwen responded, "Actually, I think it's just the right level of drama. I can't wait to see the look on everyone's faces when the two biggest losers in Visions Academy show up together in a limo. And you in that suit!"
"Trust me, my suit will only get people's attention if they don't see you first," Miles said with a smirk.
Blushing, Gwen shyly looked away to hide her reddening face but nevertheless gave Miles' arm a soft squeeze to let him know that she'd appreciated his comment. After another second, however, her hands fell off his arm as he abruptly leaned forward to pick up a small box from the table in front of them, then said, "Actually, I forgot to bring this in with me, but, uh… I have a corsage for you. If you want it."
Not having worn a corsage at the last dance she attended, Gwen didn't know much about the custom but was still willing to try it for Miles and replied, "Sure, why not?"
Miles opened the box to show what he had for her and Gwen's head tilted in interest at what she saw. As Miles pulled the flower-adorned bracelet out of the box, Gwen commented, "I don't think sunflowers are very common for a corsage."
Holding up the yellow flower somewhat bashfully, Miles said, "Yeah, well, you're not a common girl either. And this flower… let's just say that like you, it has some significance to me."
Though she was curious to know what exactly this significance was, when Gwen looked at Miles' hopeful expression, she decided not to question it and simply nodded enthusiastically as she held out her left hand. Seeming pleased, Miles slipped the bracelet onto her wrist, after which Gwen reached into the box and pulled out a second sunflower, this time with a clip on the back, and pinned it onto Miles shirt just above his jacket's breast pocket, where it matched perfectly with his bow tie.
Once she was finished, he spread his arms and asked, "So? Do I look amazing in yellow, or what?"
Smirking at him, Gwen decided to play his game and answered, "Yes, Miles, you look very nice."
"Only 'nice'?" he questioned.
Rolling her eyes, Gwen amended, "Fine, you look 'amazing'. Happy now?"
"I'm getting there," Miles responded, but he looked like he was enjoying himself, which, tonight, was all Gwen cared about.
Miles POV
Their arrival at the academy was just as Gwen had predicted. Practically every other student arriving at the dance turned to look in surprise at the arrival of the slim, black limo. Then, when Uncle Aaron rushed around the side after parking at the curb to open the door for them, Miles climbed out first and placed one arm behind his back as he held out his other hand to help Gwen exit the vehicle.
The whispering started as soon as Miles came into view and only doubled when Gwen joined him. Both of them continued to ignore it as Gwen took Miles' arm again and allowed him to escort her inside. Everyone around them had looks of evident jealousy on their faces, coming from both male and female students who laid eyes on either him or Gwen, people either wishing that they could've arrived so stylishly or admiring the fantastic appearances of Visions Academy's undisputed two least popular students. For the first time in his life, Miles had dozens of girls looking at him with longing in spite of their own dates, but their dates themselves weren't much better, as they looked at Miles as though they would give anything to be in his place, whether for his expensive, shiny new suit, the limo he'd arrived in, or the beautiful woman on his arm.
It was like something out of a movie, yet as much as Miles enjoyed getting to show off Gwen, who he felt deserved a red carpet just to get into the building and made him feel like he'd been given a great privilege to walk by her side, he was also quickly growing uncomfortable from all the staring they were receiving. Neither he nor Gwen were used to being in the spotlight, and looking at her, he could see that she looked like she felt a little out of place as well. However, when she met his eyes, they both silently let their arms drop down to grasp each other's hands tightly and pressed on into the building.
However, they'd barely made it into the gym when Gwen abruptly stopped in place, pulling Miles to a halt as well. Turning to face her concernedly, Miles asked, "Gwen? What's wrong?"
She didn't answer, but he could see that she was staring wide-eyed at the roof just above the DJ's booth as though it was threatening to collapse inward. Her eyes began to dart around the room worriedly and her breathing began to get faster. Recognizing the symptoms of a panic attack, Miles hurriedly stepped right in front of her and placed his hands on her shoulders as he pulled her in close and quietly said, "Hey, Gwen, stay with me, all right? Just take a deep breath in through your nose, counting to five, then out through your mouth, another five. Here, like this…"
He began to demonstrate the slow, controlled breathing exercise for her, keeping her eyes on him and him alone as he continued to breathe at an even pace. Soon, she began to join in with him, and they took five deep breaths together before Gwen seemed to calm down and looked at the ground embarrassedly.
"Hey, hey, it's okay. There's nothing to be worried about, mi pana," Miles tried to console her, letting her know that whatever had happened, there was nothing for her to be ashamed about.
After a moment of silence, Gwen asked with a shaky voice, "'Pana'? Wouldn't that be… some kind of bread?"
"No," Miles said with an amused smirk, then corrected himself, "Well, actually… it's a word for breadfruit, a fruit popular in Puerto Rico, but that's not what I was saying. It also means 'friend'."
Gwen nodded in understanding and looked around the room with a deep exhale, her eyes still wary. Deciding that it should now be safe to bring up what had happened a few seconds ago, Miles asked, "What had you so scared a minute ago? Was it the last dance?"
Gwen nodded again, this time in agreement, though she still wouldn't meet Miles' eyes. This seemed a bit strange to Miles, that she should react this way to something that had happened so long ago. Surely she didn't expect Spider-Woman to show up here again tonight? That is, if she had even really been here the first time. Miles wouldn't easily be convinced of her involvement in the murder of whoever had died here last year, not after having met her.
Captain Stacy had mentioned that the event had been traumatic, but many other students here tonight must've also been present at last year's Prom, and as none of them were having such frightening memories of that night and Miles would be willing to bet that Gwen was emotionally stronger than anyone else in this room possibly including even himself, he couldn't imagine why Gwen would be falling apart like this. Perhaps her dad had instilled her with an intense, irrational fear of Spider-Woman? Or maybe…
Suddenly getting seized by a terrible thought, Miles looked at Gwen sympathetically and asked, "Peter Parker was the kid who died last year, wasn't he?"
Miles' heart practically broke upon seeing her nod at him a third time, his soul aching at the sight of the suppressed pain on her face. Suddenly, Miles felt guilty for taking her here and dredging up those old memories. Even now, she could be expecting Spider-Woman (or some imposter, at least) to drop into the room and stab someone right in front of her, perhaps Miles himself as he was essentially becoming the new "Peter Parker" in her life. He had to get her out of here, and fast. He couldn't let Gwen continue to mentally suffer like this. But he also couldn't exactly call off the whole night at this point. Suddenly, he thought he'd had the perfect idea.
Line Break
With the simple flick of a switch, hundreds of lightbulbs hanging along long lines crossing back and forth a few feet above Miles and Gwen's heads burst to life, casting a dim orange glow across the empty rooftop. Gwen slowly rotated in place as she looked in awe at all the lights around them, and Miles smirked as he approached her with his hands in his pockets.
"So, what do you think?" he asked, though he thought that her wonderstruck expression said it all.
"It's beautiful," Gwen answered with a wide smile.
It's not the only thing, Miles thought to himself as he watched Gwen admire the sights. Deciding against calling Uncle Aaron back, he and Gwen had hailed a taxi back to Miles' apartment building, but instead of trying to go inside, he had brought her, pulling her excitedly by the hand, up to the rooftop.
Noticing numerous chairs set up around the edges of the building, Gwen asked, "What is this place?"
"My dad and some of our neighbors set it up," Miles responded. "It took them a while to secure enough public approval to permanently decorate the area, and longer to hang up all the lights and stuff, but now we use it every now and then for a community celebration, barbecues and parties and stuff. Actually one of the last things my dad and my uncle worked on together."
Gwen cast a sad look at the wall across the street, where there was an enormous graffiti art piece that Miles had worked on for several weeks after his dad's death as a lasting tribute. She then commented, "It seems like you really miss him. Your dad, I mean."
Sighing, Miles shrugged and said, "When you lose someone like that, you don't forget it." He then met her eyes and added regretfully, "Like Peter Parker. Gwen, I'm so sorry about what happened tonight. I had no idea what happened last year. I even assumed that Peter was still alive, just… gone somewhere, and I'm sorry, that was stupid-"
Suddenly, Gwen cut him off as she swiftly approached him and grabbed one of his hands to tell him, "Miles. It's alright. To be honest, I didn't think it would still affect me so bad after all this time, so it's kind of my fault-"
It was now Miles' turn to cut her off, arguing, "No, you're not to blame for what happened tonight, you couldn't have-" This time, Miles broke off by himself before he looked around and said, "You know what, nevermind. We shouldn't be acting like us leaving the Homecoming dance is the end of the world. I just wanted to make tonight memorable for you, it doesn't matter where I do that."
Smiling, Gwen told him, "Oh, you've already made tonight very memorable, Morales."
Releasing her hand and backing into the center of the rooftop with his usual smirk on his face, Miles held out a hand towards her as an offering and said, "Maybe, but I believe I still owe you a dance. If you'll grant me the honor."
Chuckling at his attempts at being charming, Gwen stepped forward to happily take his hand and played along with the formality as she said, "Why, of course, my good sir. But we don't have any music."
"That's fine, I failed my dancing class earlier today anyway," Miles said with a grin. "Maybe… let's just sway for now?"
Nodding, Gwen let Miles guide her hands behind his neck before he placed his own hands on her hips. Then, holding each other close, they began to sway slowly back and forth on the rooftop, dancing without music as they looked into each other's eyes, gleaming in the orange glow and both of them feeling a mutual sense of contentment.
In this moment, Miles could hardly believe that only this morning, he'd had no intentions of asking Gwen to the dance tonight, and had instead intended to waste his time fighting some crime boss. Maybe even monsters deserved a little peace and quiet every now and then.
After a short time, Gwen ended up relaxing her head against Miles' chest, seeming comfortable as she closed her eyes like she could be sleeping, but the small smile on her face remained the whole time. Hermosa, Miles thought to himself as he examined her face and cherished the fact that he had been the one to put that smile there. With that knowledge, Miles closed his own eyes as he rested his head over her own and allowed himself to give a real smile of his own, the first true smile he could remember having since his dad had died.
Both Miles and Gwen were so lost in their rare moment of peace that neither of them noticed a slim figure in a skintight dark red suit standing in the shadows on a rooftop a few buildings away, staring directly at them intently from across the large divide.
A/N: I don't own Batman. Surprising, I know. But Batman is owned by DC, so there you are. Anyway, please leave a comment if you enjoyed and thanks for reading!