1965-05-10 - Two Spiders Meet in the Night
Summary: Anya and Peter reconnect
Related: None
Theme Song: None
anya peter-parker 


Spider-Man swings along a building, then flicks a wrist and another web shoots out; he grabs it with both hands and runs along the side of a building to *throw* himself up into the air having gained much speed, where he flips head over heels before shooting another web out to swing that way. This takes him, in time, to Hell's Kitchen. He's sure there's going to be a criminal here to catch out doing something. This ends up with him perched on the edge of one building, balanced perfectly but with barely more then the tip of a toe on ground, ready to leap. He looks this way and that, looking for someone who needs saving.


Police sirens are in the area, which of course isn't at all unusual, but after a time their sound changes. The Doppler effect is truly weird given the three dimensional landscape of a concrete jungle, but there's a hot pursuit going on, one that is quickly about to approach the block where Peter is hanging out.

The muscle car being pursued comes into view, and it's barreling toward a red light with no intent to stop. However, it soon does. The tires are still moving, but now they're burning against the asphalt, kicking up a cloud of white smoke.

Behind the car, holding onto a pair of webs with each hand, is Spider-Girl. Her body is contorted oddly, muscles flexed, feet digging into the street, and the exposed lower half of her face is contorted into a horrible expression.

Finally, one after the other, the spinning tires pop. A moment later, the transaxle burns out completely, and the engine revs out of control. That car won't be going anywhere. The moment it happens, Anya lifts her feet off the ground and the webs spring with built tension, sending her up, over the car, over the intersection, and toward the very building where Spider-Man is perched.

"Whooo hoooo!" she cries mid flight. "De nada, officers!"


Spider-Man catches sight of Anya doing her work, and in his suit he tilts his head to watch, rising up a little bit to prepare to leap down— but when its clear Spider-Girl has it handled just fine, he settles. As she flies towards him, he of the red and blue lifts a hand, "Hey, yo!" He calls out, the grin on his voice if not seen on his features themselves, "They never do say thanks, do they?" Hmph. He's left more then his fair share of criminals stuck to a wall for the cops to pick up later, and all he gets is bad press. Of course, he takes his own photos to get printed in the Daily Bugle.


To save herself from an ugly impact with a brick wall, Anya fires a line skyward with a flick of the wrist. A yank, and the web grows tight, slowing her enough that she can skip off the building with a few clever leaps. The whole affair brings her back toward the wall next to Peter with a would be thud, were it not for her releasing the webline and catching herself with a twist and the snatching of brick with her fingers.

"Phew!" Spider-Girl looks on as the cops surround the resigned driver, smirking. "No, no they don't."

Spider-Girl finally turns to look toward her counterpart, and her grin broadens for a moment. A part of her genuinely admires the fellow, but after a moment, the grin fades. She flicks a hand free, and a glob of organic sticky silk ends up heading for his masked temple. "And just where the hell have you been, compadre?" she complains. "Gw… Widow and I have been worried sick!"


Peter is moving a moment before she flicks her hand, just a moment, but that's enough warning for his reflexes to deftly dodge out of the way of the webbing. "Hey, hey, hey, peace!" he lifts up both his hands and holds them there, perched. "Family vacation, couldn't get out of it, my Aunt would have had questions. Then there was this mission? I'm basically an Avenger now." His voice bristles with pride at that, though he glances down, then ducks onto the roof proper and out of view of anyone else. That way he can pull off his mask, and grin at Spider-Girl with that bright grin of his. "Then I had tests at school, and my internship… there's just not enough _hours_ in the _day_." But he sounds like he likes it. He steps over with an arm up intending to offer a hug, though he's ready in case she tries to shoot him again.


Anya Corazon has always been a bit too feisty for her own good. She's not about to lob anymore spit balls, but she still seems hurt by Peter's lack of communication, if only for a short while. She sighs and nods her head in an understanding manner, before smirking at his bristling pride.

Anya clambers up and over the wall behind him, and follows suit by removing her own mask. "Well, look at you. Fancy Vengador." She nods her head approvingly and says, "Congrats, pal. Proud of ya." Talk of school has her rolling her eyes. "Tell me about it," she grumbles. "This last year is killing me, and Abuela is always giving me mierda. Then there's Gwen and this band she wants to put together, and this boy who won't leave me alone and I can't -"

She cuts herself off, seeing that Peter wants a hug. She walks forward and hugs him big, before intentionally messing up his hair more than the mask likely already has. "Good to see lack of sleep is still a part of the game and I ain't alone there."


"Whoa, whoa, whoa. What's this about a boy not leaving you alone?" Spidey's eyes narrow and it darkens a little bit, "Do I need to stick him to a ceiling? I will do this—" Then there are hugs, and he doesn't mind his hair getting mussed up. He laughs softly, an easy, light sound, "Yeah, pff, who needs sleep. Maybe that's part of of the changes from the bite, I only really maybe sleep four hours a night, max? Then every couple weeks crash out." He snorts and shrugs, "My Aunt's a bit of a pain; she's not a fan of the Stark internship, says it takes too much time away from my studies. So I can relate. BAnd, though?" He perks up, "I'll take photos if you want, work up some promotional art."


"I have no idea," Anya admits, her face screwing up a bit as she considers radioactive spiders and weird old mystic cults. "I eat like, a lot, and you know I heal pretty fast, so I'm guessing hyper metabolism? Makes sense, I kinda do the same thing. Crash out. Hopefully not on a school day."

Because yeah, that's happened.

When promoted about the boy, Anya laughs and shakes her hands around. "No no, Roberto's harmless. He's just… well, I think he's got a big crush. He's one of those powered guys, you know, so, don't go tryin'a stick him to anything. He'd just burn his way out." She reaches up to scratch at the nape of her neck while talking about him; seems Spider-Girl is a bit conflicted.

Thus she's happy to change the subject. "Oh yeah, you should! We just need like… a guitar player and a singer. I'm learning the bass guitar." She throws her hands into position and mimics playing. "Just like Paul McCartney!"


"My mark 5 webbing formula isn't particularly flammible…" Because Peter is a science nerd and invented his webbing, since he didn't get it for free like some people. "…in fact its flame resistant, that's part of … well, see, Mr. Stark said he'd get me this chemical that's hard to get in regular amounts, if I agreed to take an internship with him." You don't usually get bribed for an internship. Normally, you beg for one and thank heavens for the unpaid gig padding your resume. But he shakes his head quickly, "Yeah, I eat more then normal people, but not … impossibly more that my aunt doesn't just say, hey, teenage male." He grins and rolls his eyes a bit.

"I, uh, know nothing about music." He's a little embarassed about that. "But when you're ready for promo photos, yeah, let me know. Or I can take photos during your first gig… besides science? Photography is my favorite thing." He's downright enthusiastic about that.


Science nerds unite! Anya can relate, even though her particular blend of nerdom lies in the computer realm. "Yeah, yeah," she says with mock annoyance. "Mine's as organic as it comes, but it's tough."

She's not about to press the music thing, but she does mimic playing the bass for a moment. "Your hands are doing this kinda stuff, right?" Her fingers move and flex around the invisible fretboard and strings. "First couple times I tried, I ended up webbing all over the thing. I kinda… have to play it differently, or else." At that she laughs aloud, before moving over to sit herself down on some object sticking up on the rooftop.

"So, this boy is CEO of some big company, tech company. Da'Costa enterprises, and he wants to get me an internship. Paid one. Good one. Oh, I dunno, Pete." She flops her head into her hands, contradicting her earlier need to not talk about it. "He's cute and all, and nice. Really nice. Maybe too nice, ya know?"


"Ah, but that means you can't improve it over time." Peter counters with a grin, before he nods to the thing about the music, "Hey, I support the arts, even if I'm terrible at most of them." He listens for awhile, and looks thoughtful, "Heard of them, promising. Not Stark or Future Foundation, but still, no slouch. Still, isn't a paid internship just a job?" He wonders aloud, before he shakes his head, "Dunno if there's a such thing as a too nice guy. Nice guys are to be cherished when found. Well, I hope so, otherwise no one's ever going to cherish me." He smirks just a bit, "But what's the problem? There's got to be something there, your instincts, if they're keeping you away from a nice and cute and rich and smart guy."


"Rub it in, Parker," Anya replies. It's enough to lift her head from her hands and shoot him a rueful smirk.

Feeling restless, she stands up. "I want to go to grad school, you know," she points out. "I get some job like that, you know, all of a sudden I'm paying to get my family out of that hell hole, and I keep working. I learn a lotta stuff, sure, and I'm probably set for life, but… I want that masters degree."

She stops pacing after a moment and looks back toward Peter with a smile. "Abuela tells me, be worried about something that looks too good to be true." The words make sense, but the way Anya speaks them, it sounds as if she's not even convinced.

"So, what's Tony Stark like in person?"


"Hey, I'm doing grad school, I plan on not quitting school until I have at least one doctorate, and maybe more. I don't come from money. We come from Queens, its not _bad_, but my Aunt lives week to week… and I'm in school only because a scholarship." Peter shakes his head slowly, rubbing at his nose a bit, "I'm not saying hey, don't take that job. Take it. But don't quit school for it. Mr. Stark and I negotiated about this and I made it completely clear that the internship came second, Columbia first. Unless someone's life is at stake, make school first. Yeah it might take a little longer to get your family out, but you'll be able to get them out *better* then."

He sits down at the edge of the roof, leaning his back against it with his knees bent and arms on his knees, "So its a risk, this guy. You know who never wins? The person who never puts themselves out there to win."

"Mr. Stark is… Mr. Stark. He's surprisingly encouraging, he listens to me and my ideas, but he's still _him_, essentially. Arrogant but not in a bad way, sure of himself in a way that makes it seem he knows what to do, brilliant, driven…"


It doesn't need to be said that Anya is attending NYU on scholarship as well. Her family has nothing, and she's not only a female, but a minority. "Yeah," she says, considering Peter's advice about Roberto. "Maybe."

Anya strides up to the edge of the rooftop as well, only rather than sit, she looks down to watch as the police go about finishing their arrest and arranging for a tow truck. "He sounds pretty cool," she admits. "I'd love to meet him. You know, unmasked me." Pause. "Or masked me. Really, either way." She takes a deep breath, then sighs. "It's changing out there, isn't it?" she asks. "It's like… the more of us who show up… the crazier the bad guys get."


Rising, Peter turns to lean against the edge of the roof, wind drawing his short dark curls. "I can introduce you, either way." he notes, "I don't think the whole spider thing is proprietary. I can introduce you to Mr. Stark as a brilliant girl I know, suggest he might be interested in you as a mentee too. But don't get me wrong, I get his motivation." Peter shrugs, "Mr. Stark things I'm the next generation him— and maybe you too— smart as can be, and this internship is about setting me up to want to ultimately work for Stark Industries. It's a slow recruitment, but I know that, and I'm fine with it. If I introduce you like that, it might be the same."

But, Peter waves a hand, "Or I can introduce you to Iron Man, as Spider-Girl. There it'd be different, I'm introducing you to one of the leaders of the Avengers. I have no ego like that, I don't care if another spider-person is on the team. If that's how you wanna meet him, I can make that happen too."

Then, Peter goes silent, frowning, "I don't know. Things are crazier. Is there a link between us and them, a causality, or is one or both of us tied to something in the world itself? I don't know. I got bit by a spider. You know how many people get bit by spiders and don't get powers? Countless." Peter sighs, "Its changing, but I don't know why. I don't have the variables."


Anya shrugs about it all. Tony Stark, the Avengers, internships, causality. "I met Thor," she says, making a broad assumption that Peter knows about him. "We stopped this big, super strong idiot from wrecking Times Square. Sometimes I wonder if we're gonna be pushing forty and still putting on costumes to fight off dragons from outer space. Rather than, you know, changing the world through science, or activism."


"Would that be so bad? If not us who?" Peter asks back with a light challenge to his voice, looking awy, "With great power comes great responsibility. That's what my uncle said to me the day I let him die. I won't stop." He lifts his mask up and pulls it on, "Doesn't mean we don't do the other things, too. But you and I, we can do things scientists and activists can't. Anything we don't do that happens, is on us. See ya." And he flings himself off the root, webbing shooting off, and latching on to speed him forward, and he races off.


Its a heavy conversation but Anya was due for one. Always helps to keep ones head grounded. She doesn't say anything, but when Peter makes for a sudden departure, she forms a grin.

Down comes the mask over her face. "And don't be such a stranger, amigo!" she calls after him, before dashing to the other side of the building in a similar departure.

Where'd she leave her backpack, anyway?


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