She lied to her father,

She hated doing that.

Here he was, getting out of his shell, smiling again with other people, and Cindy was lurking around in hers. It was a necessity. She didn't want to let him or anyone know about this side of her. A side that had always been there, but ever since they had moved back to New York there were times she couldn't hold it back anymore.

She had lied that she was going to a friend's house,

She had even name dropped Rafferty when put on the spot.

Once again, her father had smiled, and had even hugged and kissed her forehead.

He got teary-eyed,

Saying that his girl was finally becoming normal.

She couldn't tell him, not after everything.

It had hurt to put on that smile and say that she might stay the night over at Rafferty's place if she ended up staying for too long. He offered to drive her over there, but she insisted on going there by herself, saying that she couldn't depend on him for everything, that she wanted to change.

Then he put on that worried face again, the one she always remembered, "Are you sure, sweetie?"

She had let her mouth run, "I, uh... Want to try being normal, Dad."

He had hugged her again, and she fought gravely to not cry.

"You have your phone, right?"

"Yeah."

"You know where to go?"

"Mmhm."

"Call me if you need anything, okay?"

"I will."

Cindy wasn't sure if she had put up a good front, but seeing his reaction she had likely fooled him. Making him happy like this no doubt put his guard down. After she had left the house, she slipped into a nearby alley and thrust her arm up at a nearby rooftop where a rope of silky thread shot from her wrist, clinging to the ledge. With a simple mental command so easy as breathing, Cindy was flung up when it retracted the back into her wrist, landing on top of the building safely.

She took a moment to run a thumb on the inside of her forearm,

With how seamless it was to do that, she preferred if there was a tingling or that it had tickled when she did that.

But, no, there was nothing.

Nearby was an abandoned decommissioned water tower,

Likely something that was meant to get torn down, but, like a lot of things in New York, was forgotten and abandoned. It caused no harm, no trouble, people noticed it now and then - she did - but that's all it was. Standing there, watching the world go by and being left alone, forgotten. Not even a shadow in the corner of one's eye.

Cindy leapt up high, grabbing hold of the high supports, just below the container itself, and crawled up, her movements no different from that of the Spidermen. She found the loose panel she used to enter into it and slipped in. There was nothing inside other than a few wrappers that needed to be thrown away.

And the webs she used to insulate the place, there being a few notable patches with a yellower color.

She went to the opposite side, sat down against the metallic wall, drew her knees up, and nestled her forehead between her knees. The cylindrical structure of the water tower made the sounds of New York sound distant and hollow, as though the sounds themselves were an illusion, sound effects put through a speaker.

She was home.

She was where she needed to be.

It was odd, at least, that was what she kept telling herself -

She felt more at peace here in this cramped place than her own room,

A place where she could just, be.

The only place that fit her.

She stayed there for a long while, taking deep breaths, feeling the tension in her mind finally relax.

Now, she can finally breathe.

She can finally breathe,

And she can now finally let loose and appease its calling.

Taking a deep breath to compose herself, she stood up and began to strip off her clothes. Not her underwear though, anything but that. The idea of going around the city essentially streaking - no one else would know, but she would - really didn't sit well with her. It was too embarrassing to think about.

She folded her clothes, put them to the side and set her shoes on top and her bag beside it.

She then frowned, looked at her hands, and sighed.

A moment later, her hands became swathed in webs, the sensation of them emerging like an encroaching warmth like swelling. When this first happened, it was like a painful breaking of sweat. She wiped her hands down her arms, legs, up and down her body, the webs sticking to it with no problem.

A moment later, her body was in a suit made of webs, having done this enough times to know what to do and what not to do for free movement. Yet still, Cindy wiggled her fingers, turned her body and arms, swung her legs, hopped up. Even leapt up and crawled around the interior of the water tower. Then, after being sure her movements weren't hindered, she went to work on the mask. At first, she tried a mask that covered her whole head but her hair kept rubbing against the webs and made it feel very uncomfortable. It even made her senses off key.

The compromise was one that covered her face, but kept her eyes visible like a ski mask.

She looked at her hands, perfectly covered, not wanting to risk having her finger prints found - it took a while to make it work, and slowly clenched them into tight fists that shook,

Her eyes suggesting a wince,

She even grunted.

Then let go.

Another deep breath -

It was time to get this over with.

A couple was running away from a rowdy gang of thugs, hollering and cheering after them. It had to due with the fact that the lady was trying to keep her man upright, who was holding his bleeding stomach and limping. Even though the lady was gritting her teeth, her muscles on fire and her instincts screaming at her to run, she pushed on.

"...Robin," The man said, "...Just... go...!"

"Ray!" The young woman called Robin yelled at her man, "Shut, up, and move your legs! Work with me!"

Ray winced, "Trying! Body's... locking up..."

The laughing was was getting louder, the clapping of footsteps approaching like encroaching gunfire.

Robin and Ray glanced around frantically for any place to hide, any place to get away. But both of them knew that with Ray's injury, they wouldn't be getting anywhere. They spotted a dark alley. In the heat of the moment, the shadows sounded ideal. Anything to get away or lose them did.

They staggered into the alley, the whooping of the thugs not far behind.

"...What the hell is wrong with them?" Ray hissed.

The darkness of the alley took them in its dark wing, and they hoped that hiding behind a dumpster they would wander off past the alley.

A moment later, Their prayers were ignored.

Both Robin and Ray heard clapping as the thugs approached the alley, as though in mockery for what it was they had done to themselves. Robin fished around in her bag, pulling out things left and right - the irony of this whole situation was that they were both coming home after a date and were just a street crossing away from Robin's apartment - it was the closest compared to Ray's place - when these thugs came out of nowhere.

That there was something wrong with them was obvious right from the start. It was their eyes - they way they looked at not just Robin, but Ray as well with this predatory, unblinking look. Making this more concerning was the fact that half of them looked to be disheveled everyday people - office worker, freeloader, student, etc. But something about them smelled... wrong...

A strong, pungent smell.

The initial idea was that all of them were druggies, having escaped from their secret meeting spot,

Until one of them suddenly lunged at Ray.

He had managed to throw the thug aside, grab her, and run through the opening the lunging thug had made. But not without another thug cutting Ray's stomach with some kind of red blade.

Finally finding her phone - Robin opened the Friendly Neighborhood app, requesting immediate help from either of the Spidermen, adding that the thugs were almost upon them.

That was when Robin and Ray heard one of the thugs yelp,

And the sounds of fighting soon followed.

Ray managed to turn his himself just enough to peek out from behind the dumpster, "...What the hell?"

Robin dared and looked out as well,

Her eyes widened -

A young woman dressed in white with black hair darted swiftly as she punched and kicked the thugs -

One lunged at her after she had done a leaping round-housed kick to the one before them,

The young woman landed, stepped forward with her left and right leg swung up to kick with her right foot. Once her kick followed through after hitting the thug's head, the same leg snapped to kick again, striking the thug's knee, stumbling them, then a third time in the face. A hard straight with her left leg sent the thug flying into a stack of miscellaneous boxes as a finale.

From the young woman's left another thug came at her as another rushed at her from her right,

A white thread spewed out of the young woman's wrist and latched on the left thug's ankle; with the tout tug of her arm, the thug fell to the ground.

"Aint that like..." Ray said, trailing off.

The second rushing thug met the young woman's palm that hit at the sternum, knocking the wind out of them. Then seemingly in a jab, the young woman webbed the thug's face, and with a tug that snapped his head down, kneed his face. The thug's head flew back and he crumpled to the ground.

Webbing a nearby box, she threw that at the thug on the ground to be sure.

Two left -

One rushing at her from the front,

The other from the back.

The first thug's leg was webbed, tripping him,

The young woman leapt high and the second thug sped through under her, too fast to stop his momentum. She webbed the ground with both of her arms and catapult herself into a kick that threw the second thug to the ground. With her still atop him, she axed kicked down to knock him unconscious before leaping up, wheeling in the air, and using her webs to snap herself forwards delivered another axe kick to knock out the remaining thug.

In the end, all that was heard was the young woman's panting.

Before either Ray or Robin could say anything, the young woman's head darted to the right, alarmed. She sprinted down the alley at an alarming speed, passed them, leapt up high, kicked off the wall, and disappeared from view over the rooftops.

"...A Spiderwoman?" Robin thought aloud.

A moment later, they heard someone land from above on the wall.

"Woah! What happened here?"

Ray and Robin looked up and saw the Spiderman in black.
"Spiderman." Robin said, pointing in the direction the young woman went, "The Imposter went that way!"

Spiderman glanced towards the direction and nodded, "Okay, I alerted the authorities already. Sit tight!"

He zipped away.

"First we got this Black Widow, and now we got this girl that's playing as a Spiderperson." Miles said as he swung through the air, threading needles through New York architecture, and launching himself off platforms, "What's next? An army of elves? A war between dimensions? Two Earths colliding?"

He was only given a general direction, but soon he caught sight of a young woman in white running and hopping over roofs at high speeds. It took a moment for him to realize that her entire outfit was made of webbing. The same webbing that he saw in the photo Peter took.

Just as he was about to speak up and call the young woman's attention, she looked over her shoulder, saw Miles, and sped up, moving faster like a rock skipping over water on the roofs of New York.

"Holy..." Miles called Peter, "Hey, Pete! Patrolling today?"

"Just reviewed my laso work, yeah. What's up?"

"Either I found Black Widow or the Imposter. She's moving too fast, might need help with this one!"

There was a pause.

"Okay, got your location. Stay on her."

"If I can! She's a cheetah!"

Miles had to resort using a combination of fast web zipping techniques, his bio-electricity, and the spider wings just to keep up with the Imposter. Yet, even with all three, he could only keep up to keep her within his sight, never really getting close. When the buildings became taller when they got closer to the heart of New York, when the rooftops began to touch the clouds, she had to resort running along their sides, impeding her speed just enough for him to get closer.

Taking a chance to so much as touch her, Miles used his bio-electricity to propel him forward in a burst of speed.

Although he was getting closer by the second, before he could touch her, she leapt up, making him miss her completely, and he glanced back just to see her zip downward and plummet down, arms at her sides and her legs together, like bullet from a gun at a speed that he could only roughly estimate to be near terminal velocity before she zipped to the side, with no indication of trouble, into the trees of the nearby park.

"Oh my god! How is she able to do this?!" Miles let himself fall before zipping himself to a tree to catch his breath, lifting his mask up to breathe fresh air, "I don't even think Pete... can hold that speed consistently."

Incoming call, Miles answered -

"Miles! Near your location - she's in a park?"

"Yeah... Lost sight of her..."

"You out of breath?"

"Had to use everything just to keep up. She's too fast, and she's not even swinging!"

"A spiderperson not swinging? Are you sure - wait, I think I - I see her! Oh my god! You weren't kidding! Take a breather, catch up with me later."

"No problem..."

Although in this line of work, breather usually meant two minutes. Even one. Miles took deep gulps of air, getting his muscles to relax as much as possible, at least, before pulling his mask down and zipping away.

Moments later, Miles found Peter kneeling down, panting a storm.

"You weren't... kidding..." Peter managed to say between breaths.

"Catch your breath, man." Miles said.

A moment passed and Peter stood.

"What do you think her limit is? She's gotta have one."

Miles checked the time, "Hard to say. Its nearly two hours since I found her."

"Two hours?! Crap, I got work that needs doing. MJ needs some tech work with her podcast. Then some stuff with
the Emily-May Foundation."

"Same. Although its just some minor groceries for my mom. How's that going by the way?"

"Great, actually! Results are promising and, uh, finally got a sponsor interested. And we now have a proper facility, even if its a little small."

"That's great man!"

"You and Hailey?"

"Nothing big so far, but its nice having someone who knows."

"Isn't it? Don't know what I'd be without MJ..."

Miles went silent.

"What's up?"

"Oh, uh... When I was helping you move things around in the house. I found an old picture of you with a another girl. A blonde one."

Peter's eyes widened, "...Gwen. Huh. I'd... huh." He paused, "Wow..."

"Who was she?"

"My first girlfriend. Before MJ." Peter took a deep breath, "She was there for me when Ben died. She was there when I started doing Spiderman stuff." He chuckled, thinking about Gwen, "I completely forgot. Funny, cuz, looking back, we were close, very close."

"What happened to her?" Miles remembered seeing some warped spots on the photo.

Peter went silent.

"...I couldn't save her. God... Its funny how when we move on from things its like we're forgetting about them. And when we do remember, its like those feelings never left." Peter stared off into the distance, towards the Brooklyn Bridge, the growing silence like a silent scream.

"...Sorry I brought it up."

"No - no. You're fine. It was, uh... During my early days... I guess I... never took the time to fully process these feelings. Then, everything with Harry..." He took a deep breath, "I think... I think I needed that. You've got nothing to apologize for Miles."

Peter checked the time, "Don't keep your Mom waiting, stores're gonna close in an hour."

"Shoot! Really?! Thanks, Pete. Sorry, again!" Miles zipped away.

Peter called Mary-Jane.

"MJ. Hope things aren't too bad."

"Not really, only if aliens show up. 'Bout to head home?"

"Yeah. Miles found our Imposter, but she's too fast. She really left us in the dust. Think I'm getting out of shape, perhaps?"

Mary-Jane chuckled, "With what you do? But that's surprising though, someone that's faster than you or Miles? Actually, recently, I've gotten a few people messaging me about her."

"Yeah?"

"She always comes in, saves them, then goes off without saying anything. And from what I can tell from the dates they say, its roughly within a three day period. But these people seem scared for some reason, its always brief."

"Huh. Has anyone said anything about hair length, by chance? Black Widow has longer hair."

"No, its always a white suit of some kind, black shoulder length hair, and a few managed to see that she had big eyes that were completely black."

"So Black Widow and our Imposter are two different people? Yuri said that Oscorp's thinking that they're the same person."

"With everything that's happened within the last year, kinda hard to be surprised by anything at this point."

"But MJ, its weird. Miles managed to get her into a park and lost her, but I was somehow able to find her right away. That was the first time my spider sense helped me find someone."
"Huh. That is weird."

"Oh! I'm close to a grocery, need anything?"

"Yeah, we running low on..."

Cindy stumbled and collapsed into an empty alley, her eyes were narrowed as she winced and it felt as if her heart was threatening to tear itself free from her chest. She managed to roll onto her back, her hands hovered around her chest, clawed - before clutching it by the webs of her outfit, her hitched panting teetered on sobbing, trying not to breathe for it hurt to. For every breath, there was a sharp pain in the chest.

She had pushed herself too far.

She banged the ground with a fist and rolled onto her side, kicking her legs. She found her hand digging into the concrete, she didn't care, she clutched it to keep her grounded to reality, helping her cope with the storm within her.

It was going on forever,

Cindy whimpered, wanting the pain stop,

Tears fell from her eyes,

She grit her teeth hard, She squeeze her eyes shut, She prayed to god.

It felt like her heart was about to explode when she found herself able to breathe again. Her body released from its tension, she went limp, gratefully taking in heavenly gulps of air. She tore away her mask. She stayed that way for a long moment, catching her breath.

Finally, she raised her other hand and saw that it was shaped into a claw with her webs. She glanced at the rubble where she had gripped the concrete before waving her hand as a way to help her shed the webs off in a mess of white confetti.

She felt a buzzing on her side,

She made a sharp finger from her webs to cut the side of her outfit open to pull out her phone.

It was a text from her father -

Cindy are you doing okay? Are you staying the night over there?

Cindy stared long into the screen, the glow cast by the light of the screen seemingly cold on her face.

She typed a response.

Yeah.
I'll probably be back at noon?
We'll see what happens.

:)
Have fun!

It hurt to type out her thanks.

She hated lying to her father,

But he's been hurt enough.

Still recovering, she at least made herself move to crawl up high on the walls of the alley to prevent unwanted people from approaching her. She could go home to that abandoned water tower, right now. After all, she had basically appeased the Call enough to keep herself sane for the next few days.

That was when she heard metal being grounded together in the distance, latches being broken and wood popping open. It took her a moment to realize she could hear the lapping of water - she was nearby the docks, a shipyard.

She paused,

She could go for another round.

If she did, it could give her the opportunity to get it out of her system for a maybe a week or so before needing to do this again.

Thinking about that, however, made her look at her hand, look at her phone.

She brought her hand to her face and touched it.

She paused, thinking.

She closed her eyes, and sighed.