Issue 1 Downtime

Mars follows Natalya back to her apartment, stepping inside after her, "Are you sure about this? I mean, I don't want to get in your way."

"It's fine. Better to have someone with you anyway. Not that I think they would be stupid enough to attack the school directly."

Mars raises an eyebrow, "If you say so."

She sets the bow on Natalya's coffee table.

"I'm kind of glad though," Mars says, "It's going to be nice to fall asleep feeling safe for once."

Natalya fished some soft drinks out of the fridge and handed one to Mars. "So how are you doing other than the cuts and scrapes?"

"Oh, I'm fine," Mars says, opening the soda, "I mean, I expected this. I was just hoping it'd take them longer to find me."

"I had to tell Will what was going on. He would have figured it out anyway once he started looking into them."

"That's okay," Mars says, "I don't want to get in the way of an investigation or anything like that."

"I did ask him to keep it as discrete as possible though," she said, dropping onto the couch.

"Thank you," Mars says, taking a seat on the other end of the couch, "It means a lot to me."

"I realize this is probably the most asinine time to talk about this, but given the Circus' insistence, I don't think it can wait either." Natalya took a deep breath, "What would you think about me being your guardian?"

Mars looks surprised, "Like...a foster mother?"

"For now. See how it goes."

For a moment Mars looks excited, but then her expression falls.

"I...I can't," Mars says, "You don't even know what you're getting yourself into."

Mars looks down at her soda, "There's a reason those guys wanted to kill me, instead of take me back."

"I doubt it's that horrible," she said, "But go on."

"It's not horrible," Mars says, "It's just..."

"A few weeks ago, my dad named me his successor," Mars explains, "And there are some people in the Circus that really, really object to that decision."

"If I was just worried about someone dragging me away from you, that'd be one thing," Mars says, "But I don't want you getting hurt trying to keep me safe."

"Hey, I knew the job was dangerous when I decided I wanted to take it," she said. "Their reasoning really doesn't matter to me, but I understand why it matters to you. There's two sets of papers that the lawyers are drawing up. One that names me as your proposed guardian and one that names the school. It's your decision as to which of those gets filed. Either way, I'll be around to help you out with stuff."

Mars smiles, "I'd rather have you as a guardian, honestly..."

"...Fine! I guess I'll just have to make sure to watch your back," Mars says.

The moral of the story: Peter Parker is a jerk.

"Fair warning: I've never done anything like this before, so I'm bound to screw up."

"My parents are supervillains," Mars says, "You have a pretty low bar to clear."

"Point taken."

"So, why do you want to be my guardian?" Mars asks, "If you don't mind me asking."

"I see some of me in you. And I think you could really use a guardian who understands where you come from. And if I'm honest, I like the idea of it."

"Yeah, well, thanks," Mars says, "It...it really means a lot to me, Natalya."

"I'm honored that you'll have me. Want to order some pizza?"

"That'd be great," Mars says, "I'm starving."