Gwen was not happy when she got home. She threw her clutch on her bed. Then wasted no time pulling the earrings out and removing the necklace Obadiah had given her. She spread her fingers out on her vanity and looked at her reflection. She shook her head. That voice in the back of her mind was right. Obadiah knew exactly where the weapons were coming from. He was the source. She should have listened to her spider sense. It tried to warn her. Now he knew all of her secrets.

"Fuck."

Gwen wasn't much for swearing, but it came out sometimes. She pulled off her heels and tossed them onto her floor. She started scrubbing off the makeup. She desperately wanted to hit something tonight. Obadiah's face came to mind. He had used her just like he used Tony. Now that Tony had become problematic, he was tossed away. Just like she would be one day. The look on Tony's face. She imagined that look on her face one day and the edges of her oak vanity's tabletop cracked and splintered as she crushed it in her anger.

She pulled her costume on and then jeans and a T-shirt over top. Then a hoodie. She wasn't going to be Tony. She'd bury Obadiah first. She closed her bedroom door and locked it. She crawled out of her window and made her way to her lair and unlocked the door. She shook her head. Her lair wasn't secure anymore. She'd need to search for the information to bury him, but she would have to make sure to hide it somewhere he would never find it.

Gwen sat down at her desk and started pulling apart the backups and data she'd ripped from the Cartel's servers. She started a few searches. She'd need to parse the grep output further. She tapped her phone found the spider bot she'd planted on Obadiah and swept it to her large television screen. She glanced at it as she continued to work on the small AI program, she wanted to call her Data Spider, mostly because it seemed theme appropriate. By the time she was done modifying the open-source AI she'd acquired to search through the terabytes of data she'd stolen from the cartel, Obadiah was at his Penthouse, or at least the spider bot she'd planted on him was.

She ran the command to start the Data Spider AI's crawl into the seedy underbelly of drug cartel data. She glanced around and tapped her chin. In her boredom she playfully considered labeling everything like that campy sixties tv show her mom loved. She could put a label on the computer and call it the Spider Computer… She shook her head and smiled.

Gwen moved Obadiah's tracking information to a secondary screen and shifted the Data Spider's output to the sixty-inch flat screen. It was starting to build up a web of interconnected lines linking different members of the cartel and their associates together. It attempted to geotag their locations as close to their physical location as possible. At first it was just a map of New York City slowly other lines began to appear extending outside of the city and spreading across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Then it extended to Afghanistan, Russia, Columbia, Cuba… each link it added a picture if one was available on the internet, or from video surveillance. Each one would be a node that could be clicked on for more detailed information as it identified individuals and scraped social media. It was linking emails, any audio or video recordings. She realized law enforcement would love this AI. Her dad would drool over it. She would make sure they never got their hands on it.

Gwen knew it would take forever to process all the data it was churning through. Her computer was no supercomputer. It could be days. She set an alarm and crawled onto the futon she'd smuggled down here and assembled. She turned on her smaller TV and started streaming a documentary on birds.

Her smartwatch woke her up when it vibrated. She rubbed her face and checked the time. She sighed and rolled off the futon. She glanced at the progress her Data Spider was making. It wasn't even halfway through the data. She leaned down and looked at Obadiah's location. He was still at his apartment. She pushed herself up. She glanced around her lair and wished she had a shower here. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case, so she'd need to go home. She climbed up the fire escape so it wouldn't look too odd her sneaking in her window as the sun shone on her. She stowed her costume which went unused the night before and went about her morning routine.

Her daily visit to Aunt May's house went as usual. Aunt May made sure she had a good breakfast and a good lunch. Peter complained about the state of the world. Which basically consisted of quoting The Daily Bugle website. Gwen definitely didn't like the conservative world he was falling into. Considering the fact he was a confirmed homosexual, she was afraid of how that might cause some sort of internalized self-loathing with the prevalent conservative outlook on LBGTQ+ folks. Aunt May seemed to be tolerant of his recent shift in outlook. Gwen kept quiet on most of the subjects he brought up because otherwise he'd argue the point and she honestly did not have the energy for that shit. Or at least that's how she thought about it. Peter had gone off to get his bag and Gwen approached her Aunt May with an envelope full of money. Twenty thousand dollars to be precise. Her aunt saw her approaching with the money. She started shaking her head.

"Oh no, Gwen I cannot accept any more, this is your money you should be saving for college, a car or something. Not worrying about me."

Gwen took her Aunt May's hands and put the thick envelope in them.

"Auntie May, my college is already taken care of, I'm just paying you for all the food I eat."

Her aunt continued to shake her head as she saw how much Gwen gave her. She tried to give the envelope back.

"No, no, this is too much Gwen. You need to save."

Gwen wrapped her aunt's fingers around the envelope gently. Aunt May started to tear up. Gwen gave her aunt a hug and kissed her on the cheek.

"Shh. I love you Auntie May."

May held the envelope to her chest as she watched Gwen get her runners on for school. Gwen smiled at her. She knew money had been extremely tight for her aunt and uncle. More so now that he was gone and was no longer bringing in extra money with the odd jobs he did. In fact, she knew that the bank had just told her aunt to pay ten thousand dollars, or they would foreclose. Their taxes were in the same state. As far as she was concerned, her aunt and best friend not being homeless for a few guided bullets was a good trade. No matter what Tony said.

Peter seemed to be in a pretty good mood as they walked towards the school. He had no idea how dire their aunt's finances had been. Gwen was only privy to the details because she overheard her father trying to figure out how to help her with Erica. Gwen just let Peter live on in his innocence. She didn't want him to have to worry about it. He was almost bouncing. It cheered her up.

"What's got you in such a good mood?"

"Miles told me he would be getting out soon."

Gwen smiled.

"That's good, did he tell you why?"

Peter shook his head.

"No, apparently its some hush hush thing."

Gwen slid her hands into her hoodie pockets.

"I'm glad."

Peter looked at Gwen.

"Why didn't we do your birthday supper yesterday? Aunt May was worried."

Gwen shrugged.

"Nothing to worry about. Work stuff."

"How did your birthday date with Flash go?"

Gwen looked at the sidewalk.

"Fine."

Peter shrugged.

"I guess it's like that when you've been together forever."

"Yea, I guess."

Gwen nudged Peter gently.

"So, is that all you're happy about? Or are you not telling me that letter for Oscorp was them telling you got into their summer internship program on purpose."

"They were just telling me I was on the short list and that I needed to go to another interview."

Gwen smiled.

"That's great. You're Harry's best friend, of course his dad is going to get you in. They just have to pretend everyone gets a fair chance."

Peter nodded.

"Yea. I can't even believe they approached me to apply, I'm only fifteen. Still, I'd rather be at Stark Industries with you."

Gwen shrugged slightly.

"It's my fault."

Peter touched her arm.

"Oh Gwen, that's over with. Water under the bridge, or over the damn like Aunt May would say. You forgave me, I forgave you."

Gwen smiled and shook her head.

"No, the Oscorp thing."

"What did you do?"

Gwen moved her head side to side slowly as they walked.

"Norman Osborn was at a demonstration we used his drones for. He approached me after Obadiah made me do the demonstration. He was impressed and asked me what it would take for me to consider leaving Stark Industries for an internship with Oscorp. I told him you and I were already into the Stark Industries internship for the summer, that I'd already signed. I mentioned you hadn't signed yet. That's why I know you're going to get the internship there. Based on rumors, Harry's dad likes nothing more than getting one over on Stark Industries."

Peter smiled at Gwen.

"Thanks."

Gwen shrugged.

"You don't want to be at Stark Industries anyway. It's not what it used to be with Tony running it."

Peter glanced at her. They were approaching school.

"Is everything alright, Gwen?"

Gwen forced a smile on her face.

"Everything is fine Peter; I just had a long weekend. I didn't get much sleep. See you after school?"

Peter waved. Gwen made her way to her locker. Flash and Liz were being all lovey dovey while Liz leaned on Gwen's locker. Gwen had this impulse to stuff them both in lockers. Literally it had been less than forty-eight hours and he was already dating someone else. After a year? She was starting to wonder if something had been going on behind her back. Gwen had no patience for her locker being blocked so she walked up the pair.

"Move."

Liz looked Gwen up and down with that superior look she'd get on her face when she considered others beneath her. She moved out from in front of Gwen's locker slowly. She tugged Flash's arm. Flash gave Gwen an apologetic look. She just narrowed her eyes at him and gave him the death glare. Liz had this lilt to her voice when she spoke that had always slightly annoyed Gwen. This morning it had Gwen contemplating homicide.

"Come on, Flash. Let me show you what real girlfriend material is. Unlike some girls, I know how to treat you right."

Gwen could feel the edges of her eyes twitching. She reached into her hoodie pocket and flicked a spider bot at Liz. She pulled out her phone and targeted Liz via the spider bot app. The bot would now unleash her rather vicious crypto virus onto anything Liz touched after sending the contents to her lair's computer system. She put her phone away and gathered her books for first period. She'd probably regret it later but in the heat of the moment it was a moral imperative. An act of solidarity with every girl who'd been bullied. Every woman who had ever been dumped. Gwen was a teenager, not a saint.

After first period the first signs of Gwen's attack started to come to fruition. Liz was by her locker when karma in the form of a computer virus struck. She started out sounding frustrated, then she turned to pleading. There were tears in the end.

"No, no… stop. No! Not… no! What are you doing? What?!"

Gwen knew what the screen was saying now. Your photos have been uploaded to our servers and will be released on the internet. By the look in Liz's face, she'd been taking some photos she probably didn't want released. She was panicking, trying to turn the phone off. But alas part of Gwen's virus would prevent the phone from shutting down until the battery was removed or it ran out of charge. Right now, it was starting to infect the erasable programmable read only memory. From that point on even if the phone was reset to factory settings the virus would come back. Gwen was still fuming so her conscience didn't hit it yet. The look on Liz's face was priceless. Earlier in the year if this had happened, Liz would have come to Gwen. Gwen smiled sweetly at her.

"Problems?"

Liz glared at Gwen. She shook her phone at Gwen screen first.

"Did you do this?"

Gwen shook her head.

"No, but I can't say I'm upset over it happening to you. Karma's a bitch hmm? Hope you didn't sext anyone from that phone…"

Liz's ears went red, and she started to chew her thumb nail. Gwen laughed softly as she walked away. She sat in her chair in coding class. Liz sat down. They were working on their midterm projects. They were all given a set of requirements for a program. The language and the way they did it was up to them. They'd been working on it for two weeks and it was due on the Wednesday of this week. Liz cried out.

"No! No!"

Their teacher, who was a former IT professional, rushed over. Seeing what was going on he pulled the network cable and tried to reboot the computer. It wouldn't let him. Eventually he yanked the power cable out of the back.

"Liz, what did you plug into the computer?"

She shook her head.

"I didn't. I swear Mr. Sweeny. My phone did the same thing. Someone must be doing it to me. Gwen Stacy! It has to be her."

Mr. Sweeny looked at Gwen. He walked over to her computer and looked at the screen. Gwen rolled her eyes and stood up. He sat down and started clicking around. He checked logs. He stood up.

"Where is your phone, Gwen?"

Gwen gave him a what the fuck look.

"In my locker like it is for every class because phones aren't allowed."

He nodded but held out his hand.

"Tablet?"

Gwen crossed her arms.

"You can't believe her! She's nuts at the best of times. She's downright hysterical now that someone threatened to leak her nudes all over the internet."

Liz stood up and shouted.

"See! See! She knows what it said on the screen."

Gwen's head shifted to the side so she could look around Mr. Sweeny.

"I saw the message on your phone screen when you waved it in front of me accusing me the first time, idiot."

Mr. Sweeny held up his hand.

"You two better get yourselves under control or you will be speaking to the principle."

He looked down at Gwen.

"Your tablet please."

Gwen kept her arms crossed and shook her head defiantly.

"No, it's my personal tablet and has information on it from my job, my NDA says you can't look at it. National security."

"Gwen don't be ridiculous. Just let me verify it wasn't the source so we can all get back to our days."

"No. Feel free to send me to the office. I'm sure one of the major doners to the school would love to hear how you persecuted me for not breaking my NDA with them."

Mr. Sweeny was done with her apparently; He pointed to the door.

"Office now."

Gwen gathered up her things. Liz was looking proud of herself. All hope of Gwen relenting and calling off the nightmare she'd unleashed on Liz's technological life evaporated. Gwen glared at her.

"What my sloppy seconds aren't enough for you Liz? You need to ruin my day too?"

More than a few students laughed. Mr. Sweeny pointed towards the door.

"That is more than enough from you Gwen Stacy, out!"

Gwen left the classroom and slammed the door. Probably a bit too hard, it overwhelmed the slow piston that usually prevented such things and blew out the end. She growl-screamed and walked to the office. She realized that Mr. Sweeny would probably just change Liz to a different computer. The same scene would repeat itself and would prove her innocence without a doubt. Gwen sat down in one of the chairs. She put her backpack on her lap and hugged it. In the end she had done this to herself, but that fact didn't make her any less pissed off.

She sat in the office for fifteen minutes before Mr. Davis came out and waved her in. She went into his office and sat down. She leaned her bag against the desk. He looked at his computer screen.

"Gwen Stacy. We haven't met until now. I hope that means this incident was just you having a bad day."

Gwen shrugged.

"I'm sorry. I get mad when people accuse me of committing federal crimes. Call it a trigger."

Mr. Davis nodded.

"Well, you're here because you refused to follow instructions from Mr. Sweeny, you were disrespectful to him and your fellow students. His email says that you refused to let him see your tablet. That seems like a small request Ms. Stacy."

"Sir, my tablet has access to Stark Industries data. That makes any access to it a violation of national security because we are the largest defense contractor for the US military. That is why it is encrypted and requires me to enter a sixteen-digit passcode to get in. If you want to verify that, you can call my supervisor. I have his card right here."

Gwen pulled Obadiah's business card out of her bag and slid it across the desk.

"You might recognize his name, it's on the plaque by our robotics lab."

The color drained from Mr. Davis's face, and he imagined the conversation he'd have to have with the school's trustees, the fundraising board.

"No, that will not be necessary. We won't need to disturb Mr. Stane. I can see here he is signing off on monthly progress reports for you. All exemplary. You will definitely earn that extra credit. How about we just forget this happened? Things got heated, now that cooler heads are prevailing, I see no reason to keep you here. Just in the future please try to be more respectful to everyone around you."

Gwen smiled and nodded.

"I am so sorry for my behavior today, sir. I will try to make sure it never happens again. I was just so upset when I tried to get in my locker this morning and Flash and Liz were French kissing while leaning on it. It's like they have no respect for your policies, or my beliefs as a catholic. It offended me so deeply I acted out when she accused me of somehow installing a virus on her phone and then a computer in the computer lab. That is all on me. I need to keep better control of my emotions."

Mr. Davis nodded to her. He stood up and offered his hand which she shook.

"Now, this can stay between us, there is no need to even mention to anyone, especially Mr. Stane the school will absolutely respect the national security implications of accessing the data on your tablet."

Gwen smiled innocently.

"Mentioning what sir?"

"Well, I believe it is time for your lunch. I'll see to it that Mr. Sweeny provides you with an extra day on your assignment. We can't have you being given less time than your classmates."

"Thank you so much, but it's not necessary, sir. Thank you so much for all you do for us students."

Gwen picked up her bag and left his office with a small wave. She made her way to the cafeteria. She grabbed a tray full of food and started towards Jessica's table. The senior girls welcomed her warmly. Jessica had this devilish smile. Gwen knew it meant trouble for someone. She put her tray down.

"Hi everyone."

Jessica looked at Gwen expectantly. Gwen got slightly nervous.

"What's up Jessica? You have that look…"

Jessica held up her phone and it had a picture of Gwen on the red carpet from the previous evening.

"Where did you get that dress? I can't believe you went shopping wherever it was without us."

Gwen shook her head.

"I made it. It's not that great."

Jessica flashed a picture someone had snapped of Gwen and Adam at the bar. There were several pictures of her on the blog style news story about the future of Stark Industries.

"Who is this? I can totally see why you dumped Flash for him."

Gwen looked over the pictures. All of them were very good pictures of her.

"Adam."

Jessica motioned with her hand.

"That's all you got for me. Your girl-bff?"

Gwen blushed slightly. She really wished she hadn't stormed off. Adam was cute and hadn't done anything wrong. She'd been rude to him for no good reason. She should have gone back in.

"That is all there is. We talked, that's it. He's out of my league. He has rich girls falling all over him. I'm just a kid from Queens."

Jessica tapped the picture and zoomed in.

"Yea, the way he's looking at you says different."

Gwen stuffed some fries in her mouth and munched on them hoping Jessica would find something else to gossip about.

"So, who is he?"

"He's a senator's son. Some big shot in Washington. Like I said not my world."

Jessica laughed.

"Sounds like someone's in denial. You belong there Gwen. Even this story says it. So did you set up a date?"

Gwen shook her head.

"No, I blew him off. Told him to go back to his debutants."

Jessica blinked in disbelief.

"I mean no offense with this question, but are you like, gay? Because that guy was totally crushing on you."

"No, I got distracted. And besides the only reason I would have gone out with him was a work thing. Seems lame and stupid."

Jessica shrugged.

"Well, if you don't want him, if you run into him again, tell him I'm available."

"Sure thing. Jess."

Jessica put her phone away.

"I knew you were going to be an amazing friend. So, I hear you and Liz got into it again? So bad you got sent to see the principle?"

Gwen shrugged.

"What can I say? She has a punchable face."

Jessica laughed. Their lunch descended into other gossip. The group was laughing about something that happened in their gym class in the morning when Gwen felt someone grab her upper arm. She looked up it was Flash he was trying to pull her up.

"Gwen, whatever you did to Liz, you need to stop it, enough is enough."

Gwen knew she'd be bruised if she weren't well, her. She was about to unleash the whole weekend of anger on him. Jessica beat her to it. She grabbed Flash by the wrist that was holding Gwen's arm. Flash winced then, gasped in pain. He released Gwen. Jessica shoved him with one hand. Flash went sprawling.

"You don't get to touch her anymore. You get me?"

Flash nursed his wrist as he sat there on his behind in front of the whole cafeteria. He'd just been schooled by a slip of a girl.

"Touch her again and you'll wish her father had arrested you for assault. You abusive ass."

Jessica sat back down and smiled at the table.

"Where was I?"

Gwen didn't even look at Flash. She just looked back at the table and got involved with the conversation again. She wasn't done torturing Liz by a longshot. If they had ever been real friends Liz would have steered clear of Flash.