The Gotham streets were not safe to the unprepared at night, but that didn’t mean crime vanished during the day. It also didn’t mean that you ran the same risk of being mugged just walking down the street. If there wasn’t a supervillain enacting some scheme in the middle of the city, most people were actually pretty safe as long as they avoided side-streets or alleyways. Of course there were always exceptions.

Some time late in the afternoon, a high pitched scream echoed through one of the Gotham parks where a nearby, younger couple was slowly being surrounded by five muggers in ski masks and brandishing knives.

The young woman of the two victims shrieked again when one of them flashed his weapon threateningly.

“Wallets, phones, jewelry. Hand them over and no one gets hurt.” the leader ordered. “Do it quick.”

The two victims tried babbling some pleas and huddled into each other for protection, but another wave of a knife, this time closer, had both of them scrambling to hand over their possessions.

“Hmph, should’ve done that sooner,” the leader smirked, then a snarl appeared on his face that was visible even through the mask. “then we wouldn’t need to make an example of you. Beat them.”

Three knives vanished into coats or pockets as the muggers moved forward. The couple cowered closer to the ground when one of them raised a fist. But just when the thug was about to bring his fist down, there was a soft *thwip* and his fist was encased in a white web-like substance.

All the people there, muggers and victims alike, traced the line back to where it came from and spotted a person in a black and white costume casually leaning on the side of a building like she wasn’t fifteen feet off the ground.

“Hello there,” the masked figure said cheerfully. “I saw you were getting real friendly over here and wanted to join in.”

There were several skills criminals in Gotham picked up just by being on the streets. Picking a mark, knowing where to buy a weapon, and knowing when to avoid certain areas because one of the major players had an operation going on were just some of them. Another one that most low level criminals had learned in the past few years was when a mask showed up and wasn’t shaking in their boots...run.

“Freak, book it!” the leader shouted and the four muggers not caught in a web tried to run in different directions, leaving their captured companion behind. It sounds cruel, but for the lowlives of Gotham risking a confrontation with a mask wasn’t worth it.

Sure there was a chance they could win in a fight or get off with just a beating if the mask was like Batman, but there was always the chance this was a villain or hero who had snapped. And the spectrum for those ranged from ‘beating’ to ‘dead’. Not odds a couple of thugs mugging wallets near a park were going to bet on.

Not that it mattered for them. A few additional webs later all five of the muggers were tied up on the sidewalk waiting to get picked up by the GCPD while the couple from the park were thanking Ghost Spider as she returned their possessions.

The two hung around until a couple squad cars pulled up and gave a statement before hurrying back home, apparently getting mugged had killed their desire to be out and about for the rest of the day. Once they were gone, three of the officers began moving the muggers into the squad cars while the last one nervously approached Ghost Spider.

To her surprise she actually recognised him right away.

“Nick! How’s it going, find any more Venom dens lately?” Ghost Spider threw an arm around the officer and pulled him into a light headlock. “I saw your interview in the paper, very exciting. I loved the part where you single handedly drove off a thief trying to steal the Venom for herself. So heroic!”

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Officer O’Hara sighed and hung his head at her teasing. “Please don’t,” He pleaded. “I get enough of that at the precinct. That reporter barely listened to a word I said!”

Ghost Spider chuckled and released him. “I figured. But at least if you guys are talking to me then everythings been cleared up?”

The young officer shrugged. “Kinda? We don’t have any outstanding warrants out on you, but opinion’s kinda split. Montoya seems to like you, but Bullock and his crew hate your guts. Although I’m learning they hate the guts of any masks out there so maybe it isn’t personal?”

“Eh, as long as they do their jobs I don’t really care what they think of me.” Ghost Spider waved off his comment. “Besides that just means I get to spend more time talking to the ones that actually like me!”

“Or the ones sacrificed to distract the crazy spider lady so the others can do their jobs.” O’Hara said dryly.

Ghost Spider gasped and theatrically placed her hands over her heart. “What happened to my stuttering baby officer?” she exclaimed sarcastically. “They grow up so fast!”

“Heh, sorry ma’am. This time I’m not pissing myself after almost getting shanked in a back alley. So you get my normal charming self.” Officer O’Hara smirked.

“Oh well, guess that means I need to find another officer to terrify.” The spider-themed meta shot a webline to one of the nearby rooftops and pulled it taut. “Have fun with the muggers, I’ll give you a call if I find any more of them!” with those parting words, she shot herself into the air and was swinging through the city in no time.

-o-

Gwen fell back on her couch with a satisfied sigh.

For the most part things were looking up. Her deal with Wayne Entertainment had been signed and she was seeing the first bit of money come through, her Ghost Spider persona had been cleared by the police so she was free to swing around the city, and she had managed to snag a fresh meatball sub from her favorite sandwich shop before they closed for the day. Yep, things had definitely gotten better in the few days since the Falcone Fiasco as the event had been called by the media.

She had just finished unwrapping her sub and was about to sink her teeth into the delicious combination of sauce, meat, and cheese when the doorbell rang.

Gwen gave a mournful glance at her sub, stuck between answering the door and her dinner. Another ring of the door bell managed to galvanize her into setting her food down for the moment and heading to the door.

“Coming, coming...what can I-” Gwen stopped when she opened up to see an uncomfortable looking redhead standing on the welcome mat. “...help you with.” She finished in a very neutral tone.

“Uh, hi Gwen.” Barbara Gordon awkwardly waved. “You mind if I come in?”

The two girls stared silently at each other for a few seconds before Gwen’s shoulders slumped and she took a step back.

“Come on in, I guess.” She turned her back and made her way over to where she had left her sub, taking a bite before she could be distracted. It was still great, but the faint bitterness that appeared when Barbara showed up kinda ruined it. She took another bite before she turned back to her unwanted guest.

“So what’s up? Thought up some more questions to grill me with to justify you being terrible friends? Sorry, this time you’ll have to ask them when I haven’t just been stabbed through the chest and drugged up, points for trying again when I’m starving but unfortunately for you my evil plans have a solution for that.” She said sarcastically, presenting her sub like it was the final component of some master scheme.

Gwen didn’t know what reaction she was looking for, some returned sarcasm, a self justifying rant, some speech that would try and convince Gwen that they were right to treat her like they did. She wasn’t expecting Barbara to fold in on herself and sigh with a defeated expression on her face.

“I wanted to apologise…”

“...oh, uh…” For some reason an honest apology hadn’t been on Gwen’s list of things to expect and now it was throwing her off.

“I’m not going to apologise for being suspicious. That was us just being careful.” Gwen secretly let out a sigh of relief. At least the world hadn’t gone completely crazy. “But the way we treated you after...and how I treated you in the Cave...that was inexcusable. You saved Kara’s life and we never even thanked you for it. Hell, I never even asked if you were okay! Can you ever forgive me for that?”

Gwen rubbed at her temples while she collected her thoughts.

“I’m not going to turn around and just forgive you.” She said firmly, and to her credit Barbara nodded like she wasn’t expecting anything else. “You messed up. Bad. But I don’t want to ruin friendships over this, especially if we need to work together at some point. So, you aren’t forgiven, but I accept your apology and we can try working on your bedside manner later.” she finished with a smirk. This time it was Barbara’s turn to sigh in relief, she even chuckled at the poor joke even if it wasn’t very funny.

“That’s really great to hear because we might need your help.” Barbara revealed, shifting to a more serious tone. “Remember the mind controlled bank robbers? They struck again, and this from what we can tell this wasn’t the first time since the bank. They might have done another heist the same day as the Fiasco went down. If you aren’t busy…” she trailed off leadingly.

Gwen didn’t take long to accept the olive branch, “Yeah, I can help. And Dick is fine working with me? No more ‘issues’ he needs to work through?”

Barbara groaned, “I’m going to be paying for that comment for a while aren’t I? Yeah, he’s fine with it. He’s still going to tear through every file he can get on you to find out where you got powers and training but the whole team is fine working alongside you.”

“Not going to ask me for that yourself?”

“We burned enough bridges. I’d like to think you’ll tell us yourself once we get you to completely forgive us. So until then, I’ll let the others do the detective work.”

“Thanks Barbara…” Gwen felt touched Barbara was willing to go that far to avoid putting any more pressure on their strained friendship. “But if you don’t mind, I’d like to actually eat sometime today.”

“Yeah, I’ll get out of your hair,” Barbara said as she headed back to the door. She paused by the frame and looked back over her shoulder. “And Gwen? Thanks, for the chance.”

“Sure.”

Barbara closed the door behind her and Gwen was alone again. Her sub had cooled a bit during the conversation but the next bite was better than any she had before.