3755/A Cluster of Spiders

A Cluster of Spiders
Date of Scene:	09 October 2020
Location:	Alleyways: Brooklyn
Synopsis:	Mania meets Spider-Woman meets Araña meets Spider-Man...eats White Castle.
Cast of Characters:	Peter Parker, Andi Benton, Jessica Drew, Anya Corazon

---

Peter Parker has posed:
It's always interestiing introducing your friends to each other, but when one of them is a human with an alien and the other is an accomplished agent, it's not exactly something you can schedule at the local White Castle, no matter HOW good their sliders are.

So, it's going to happen on the ROOF of the White Castle. Because really, big white building? Can't miss it.

Spider-Woman and Mania got the request at roughly the same time through the Spider-Comm system.

<In the interest of continued good relations, networking, and increasing the ability for everyone to know they are not along in this whole superheroing thing, I wanted to introduce you to each other. The roof of the White Castle in Brooklyn, 9 PM? I'll buy the food, I got a bonus at work. Uhm, personal-privacy settings up to full, though. We should maintain a certain level of decorum. Uhm, RSVP if you can make it.>

Okay, he's no Nick Fury.

Andi Benton has posed:
Mania has taken to carrying a phone with her when out 'in the suit,' and messages can be received and sent that way well enough. There were some complexities to the whole Spider-Comm system that have left her not going all the way with it.

Mainly, Mania itself doesn't like the extra 'noise' and has helped convince Andi likewise. One voice inside the head at all times is enough, and the HUD can be..distracting.

Regardless, there was agreement to the plans conveyed and she showed up about five minutes ahead of time, swinging in on a line of webbing of her own. It's so similar to Spider-Man's, yet completely different. The approach, a silent one, ends with a soft landing followed by a crouch as she looks around. Definitely a unique appearance.

Jessica Drew has posed:
Work has eaten her alive. Analogies with spider-kind abound in her head for that situation as she makes her way to the meeting. Taking the time to hobnob with other Spiders is a privilege and as Spider-man knows not that easy for Spider-Woman.

The climb up the steep white wall ends in her flipping over the edge of the building soundlessly. She crouches for a moment, a dark shadow in her new costume of sleek black and red webbing on her shoulders. It makes her feel like less of a target. Rising to her full height, she pads across the roof, flipping her hand up in silent greeting to the others.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man is there. He has one of the "hot-bags" made for bringing four pizzas, a souvenir from one of his failed jobs as pizza delivery driver. The job went belly-up, but the hot-bag came in handy every now and then. Right now he was using it to hold the sliders (singles, doubles, chicken, panko fish) and the desserts - a chocolate creme pie for Mania (and anyone else brave enough to wrangle a piece) and one of Aunt May's signature apple pies.
Adn because he's not a Philistine, he has soda and a jug of Arnold Palmer (half iced tea, half lemonade) handy for drinks.

He waves to the both of them. "Glad you both could make it. I..."

He stopped. That little tingle at the back of his neck. Low-grade threat assessment. Not imminent danger, but more of a...caution sort of thing.
He paused, then looked towards another building, where a water tower sat.

In a voice eerily close to Bugs Bunny, in spite of his nuclear-waste-grade singing voice, he says, "...You evah get the funny feelin' you was bein' WATCHED?"

Anya Corazon has posed:
Across the way, there is a spider. Not one of those spiders, but one completely unrelated from the Spider-Bite or the Spider-Powers that be. A t-shirt and jeans are the outfit, the goggles letting her see a little further than would be expected. She watches, and it is a thing that is happening.

The fact that she's hanging upside-down is more of a personal event than anything. "No, I don't want to do this normally," she says to the voice in her earbud. "Let me approach them. Look, I will shut you off if you mess this up for me." She listens a moment, hanging from her grapple line, hooked to her wristlets.

Then she and her unseen watchers seem to come to an agreement. "They've probably spotted me anyway. I can't just not, chico." Male, then. And she smiles, the goggles huge and obscuring her face. Then she retracts her line and casts it out, grabbing a section fo building.

The sight of a webslinger in the sky above them, coming in...they've all seen it before. Just not quite this...awkwardly.

Andi Benton has posed:
Mania starts with the wordless greeting thing herself, but it's little more than a slight nod to Spider-Man and the..other spider? With some of these types, it's not easy to figure out what they're thinking given how their faces are covered, and it's no different in her case. There's body language, but the all-white eyes that slant and curl upward a bit toward the temples help tell a bit of the story. There's skepticism present in her, a guarded nature, but also some level of curiosity as attention turns toward the stuff Spider-Man has the food in.

//How many spiders does the Spider know?//
<<I have no idea. Just keep..alert.>>
//We are always alert, Andi.//

This internal conversation lasts only for a few moments as Mania sizes up Spider Woman, only for her to squint at Spider-Man afterward. "We do not see..oh. Now we do." A claw-tipped finger raises in the direction of Anya's less than graceful approach.

Jessica Drew has posed:
Red lips curve in a smile, at ease, under her impassive mask as she nods a second time in greeting to the unknown woman. Refined senses tell her that this is indeed another spider though something subtilely different leaves a question write large for the dark-haired woman.

It doesn't require her hypersensitive senses to smell the burgers in the hotbox bag. Spider-Woman's finely tuned nose picks out the fruit pies, the tickle of cinnamon from aunt May's pie a pleasure. When Spider-Man stiffens, she turns in time to see a goggled girl swing in among them.

"Quite the convocation, Spider-Man," she comments, a hint of laughter under her British accent.

Peter Parker has posed:
The approach actually generates a little nostalgia. He remembers how many walls he had face-planted into when he first got his powers. Seventeen. He counted.

The new person, however...well, the spider motif is prevalent, and the approach is the kind of thing he used to do as well. And they are not exactly in some corporate boardroom or official conference room. Just another blue-collar meeting on the roof of a building.

<Be polite, but I think we're being observed. Act accordingly. I'll approach.>

Spider-Man steps forward, and no one can doubt this is the infamous "star" of YouTube, the DAILY BUGLE, and www.spider-fail.com. (Now with its own Patreon.)

"Hey there. This isn't a members-only kinda thing, but since we didn't get your RSVP...how can we help?" he asked the spider-lady.

Nice grapple line. And the goggles are giving off a tell-tale RF signal.

Anya Corazon has posed:
She releases the grapple, pulling in the line, and stands there. Not too close, not too far to hear. She's got tennis shoes, she's got a spider dead-center of her t-shirt. She's got a cool tat on her right arm, super spiderey. She's clearly not enhanced, from that crap landing she did. And yet, slinging webs in her own way too.

Wow, her lips say. Clearly she's not ready for this. "Um, hey," she responds to Peter, though she's looking at all three of them. "You're...them. The real thing." She's coiling up her grapple line in her hands, practice making it smooth. From a quick look, she's muscular and strong. She works hard to get fit, so she can do this. Or she's something else.

"I'm here, nobody sent me an invite. We doing a job?" Ballsy, too. She's not backing down from it.

Whatever 'it' is.

Andi Benton has posed:
Mania's attention drifts toward the food Spider-Man has.

//CHOCOLATE, ANDI. WE MUST HAVE--//
<<Jeez, be patient. You'd think you never had it before.>>
//WE MIGHT AS WELL NOT HAVE. WE WANT IT.//
<<It can wait. Something a little more important here, you know?>>

Clearing her throat, arms with spiked bracers or something at the forearms cross in front of the large spider symbol emblazoned across the torso, the same at the back. While Spider Woman is a source of curiosity, and Spider-Man is a source of interest given he's got all the food, it's the arrival of the last person that draws most of her attention - and a narrowing of those eye slits.

"Who is this poseur? That's not even a real web. And there is no job." The voice carries a strange sense of duality to it, like two combined into one. By the time she's finished speaking, Mania has moved closer to Anya, leaning even further toward her, obviously peering directly at her. "Someone needs to explain herself." Hands have now settled at hips, a posture full of challenge. In fact, those spiky bits? They seem to fan out slightly at arms and legs.

Jessica Drew has posed:
Eyebrows hike beneath Spider-Woman's mask at the challenge from Spider One (still no introductions, so this will have to suffice) to their newly acquired Spiderling. This group makes her feel decidedly ancient though she is only just a shade past twenty-five.

"Now, now. Not as though we couldn't handle her," she says, taking a step forward as though she intends to interpose herself.

"Got enough burgers for four, Spidey?" A smile wavers fanned by her amusement at the situation.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man chuckles as he looks to Mania. "Relax. You should have seen me when I started out." He looks back to Anya. "You got heart, ma'am. But this is more of a meet-and-greet than a call-to-arms kinda thing. Since I'm officiating, I should probably do the honors."

He looked to Mania. "This is Mania. But I guess the proper term is 'they,' but the reasons for that are not mine to share. But the fact remains...is that they are one of the bravest people I know...and the strongest."

Because you have to be strong to fight temptation.

He looked to Jessica. "And this is Spider-Woman. She is gifted AND skilled, which is a pretty solid one-two punch. She's certainly more skilled than me in a lot of ways." He smiles wryly under the mask, then looks back to Anya.

"And I'm just your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. There's a hyphen, please remember it. I just hope you're not a big fan of J. Jonah Jameson, star of print and online vlogging. Because I'm not the menace he says I am..."

He steps to one side. "But if you're here to help out...I got dinner."

Anya Corazon has posed:
Araña's hands come up as Mania closes the distance. Good form, she's been trained. Looks like a boxer's guard at first glance. And at second, because that's what it is. "Back of, Chica," she says, eyes uncertain underneath the goggles but likely riveted to Mania. Especially with that show of ...whatever those were? It tends to get the attention.

"You could. I mean, of course you could," she says, eyes still on Mania, but attending to the others. "I'm just me," she lies. They're meeting for burgers? Seriously? I was out busting my ass and they're noshing?

She begins to lower her fists, her entire body made tense by Mania's aggression, but turns her head to look at Spidey and Jessica. "Araña," she says, her voice...uncertain. "Nice to finally meet you all. I saw that silver guy a while ago, he tell you much? I assume you talk." Don't have told them about the armor. Don't have told them about the armor.

"Jameson's a hack," she adds bluntly. "Real investigative reporters have more class than that."

Well. that hit a nerve, too!

Andi Benton has posed:
There is a reason Spider-Man referred to Mania as 'they.' Split personality? After a fashion. It's complicated, and he is correct in saying the reasons aren't his to share. Brave and strong, that's up for debate. He could just be trying to diffuse a potentially dangerous situation brought on by territorial aggression.

//He called us brave and strong.//

Mania picked up on it, enough that the fanning out of the spikes begins to settle back down, only to rise again for few seconds when Anya reacts the way she does. Perhaps strangely, there's little to no evidence of an actual face behind whatever the mask is, no definition of a nose or mouth, though there is subtle motion that suggests the presence of one.

"Whatever," she decides, turning away from Anya to go right for the burgers. See, she can manage not to eat dessert first. There is a glance between the Spiders she was expecting, the other female more welcoming of the stranger than she is, and she digs out a bag of sliders. Dumping them into her hands to get them out of the paper packaging, she stares at Anya as a change begins to take place. There /is/ a mouth that forms, one that curls into a too-wide grin, lined with more teeth than are normal, all of them fang-like. With that, a snake-like tongue. "We could probably eat a dozen of these at once, but we don't need to show off."

So, she subsequently does exactly that, just on a lesser scale, with the four in hand, tossing them into her mouth all at once. "Yummy."

Jessica Drew has posed:
'Diplomacy, diplomacy,' Spider-Woman repeats to herself. Masks cover a plethora of reactions as she returns Spider-Man's wry tone with a wry twist of her mouth. She has seen enough in SHIELD to keep her reaction to the aggression display to herself, she cues off of their host and her own senses to decide about the hot pepper Arana.

"One will do me. A fish burger if there are any left and a piece of that divine pie. So, a meet and greet among the Spiders?" She gestures to Spider-Man, her smile widening briefly. "Spider-Man is especially flattering this evening. He is as skilled, brave and gifted as they come himself."

Addressing the others, she straightens, pulling herself formally to her full height, dipping her head to each in turn, "Hello. I suppose if we are keeping our street names to ourselves, you can call me Spider-Woman. But, I'm not averse to sharing my street name. Up to you."

Peter Parker has posed:
Great! Progress!

He looks to Mania as she carpet-bombs four sliders. Must be one hell of a metabolism. He keeps HIS wiry figure by constant aerobic exercise for hours on end. He looks to Spider-Woman, then says, "On-the-job training counts for something, I guess."
He smiles to Araña. "Well...nice to meet you, Araña."

He had heard about the armor. But, like Mania, that isn't his business to reveal either. If Araña wants them to know about it, she'll tell them.

"We have sort of a loose-knit group using the same communication network. Nothing official. No dues, no regular meetings, no fancy Spider-Lair..."
At best, a basement lab.
"...but it gives us a way to connect to each other, to call for help, to ask for information. We have a private database that isn't connected to any official network, so privacy is maintained..." He chuckles. "AND...it piggybacks the cell-tower network, so unless you know what you're looking for, no one can detect it."

Spider-Man goes to the hot bag and takes out two fish sliders breaded with panko, then walks it over to Jessica. "Figure there should be enough apple pie after you finish your meal."

Yep. Old-fashioned to a fault.

Anya Corazon has posed:
"Okay. Creepy," Anya says, watching Mania do her food type thing. With all the teeth and stuff. And the mouth and the jaw and...I'm staring. She yanks her gaze away, ending up looking at Jessica. Which is when she raises her right hand, palm out. "Stop," she says bluntly. Then she looks from one to the other to the third, and says, after a breath, "I'm not alone. I'm being recorded by a remote system, don't tell me anything personal and private unless you really don't mind it being shared. Got a team backing me up too."

The bug in her ear goes berserk, yelling at her, and she visibly winces. "No! I will not do that! I don't give a.." She lapses into Spanish, cussing at someone who isn't even there, til she reaches up and hits her ear. "Fine, go dark then. I turned it off."

She grunts, she spreads her hands. "I'm not alone often anymore. Mind if I steal a burger?"

Andi Benton has posed:
There had to be a reason Mania was wary of Anya from the jump, beyond just being a bristly symbiote and host. Although the woman comes clean about the whole monitoring thing, having a team somewhere, it does not exactly reassure her, even after being told it's off now.

"So is this a normal thing, going around interrupting others while recording them for your friends to watch?" she asks, thick with sarcasm. The mouth and jaw works like a normal mouth, abnormal as the whole display is. Some or maybe all of that gets out before the connection is apparently closed off, and the suspicion only grows as she gestures toward Spider-Man. "He paid for them." Her way of saying it's up to him.

However, she's going back over to find the chocolate pie and claim all of it for herself.

The other two Spiders, she watches less closely, -Woman a bit more than -Man since she already knows him. "This way, we are Mania. That is all. We do not need to know your other name. If you wanted us to know, you would have come here that way and told it to us." Yes, -Man named her already, but she has a way of saying it herself.

Jessica Drew has posed:
"A lot depends on who is backing you up, Arana. Thank you for the warning, much appreciated. We will have to get to know one another then. No hurry." Spider-Woman takes the fish burgers from their host, unwraps one and takes a bite, fascinated by Mania's eating abilities.

"Not being alone is painful. I've been there under circumstances that were not of my own making. If you'll forgive the question. Are you being coerced, Arana?"

Mania has her attention because of the mystery she smells, intuits. She watches her without giving the appearance of being on guard, amused at her going straight for the pies. "You don't seem to watch calories, do you Mania?"

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man chuckles. "Be my guest, Araña." He stops as he watches Mania...well, watches her loom over the chocolate pie. If they're lucky, she won't eat the pie tin.

He looks to Anya as Spider-Woman brings up an interesting point. They themselves might not be threatened, but Araña...the Spider-Sense might not register HER being menaced, seeing as they only just met.

"Yeah, if you're being harassed or pushed around, Araña, we'd want to help."

Anya Corazon has posed:
And there, Anya reveals the best part of her suit. An exposed mouth. She takes a huge bite of a full sized burger, chowing down on it like there's no tomorrow. "Huh, what?" she asks, wiping her cheek with the back of her hand. "What, no! I mean, yes, I can't exactly work for them without them being online, but...I mean, it's part of my gig. I've got a team backing me."

She frowns further, then looks at her burger, half-eaten. "Um," she says, as she's asked the hard stuff. "No. And, kinda, yes," she says. The burger looks a little bit less appealing suddenly. "I mean, I've got access to trainers, they keep me in shape. I've got backup if I hurt myself. But I wasn't...I mean, I wasn't asked if I wanted to do this. Were any of you given a choice?" Her hand goes to her tattoo, which is subtly glowing in the darkness.

"It was this, or, you know. Morte."

Andi Benton has posed:
Mania spends a while in silence, the clawed hands gripping at the pie itself. She squints further at Anya, then she looks between Spider-Man and Spider-Woman to see how they're handling this. -Woman seems to be taking it all in stride, but Mania's eyes narrow at the glowing tattoo, sharpening on that detail but also taking in -Man's reactions.

"We found each other," is all she has to say to that question, the tongue flicking out as if it's going to make a beeline for the pie before it pauses. If anything, she looks less dangerous when that mouth isn't wide open.

It's Spider-Woman who gets a flat response of, "The more, the better, we say."

Then, the entire pie, tin and all, is consumed. A few seconds later, the tin itself is spit out to one side, full of teeth marks. If it remains on the rooftop, let whoever finds it someday try to figure out how /that/ happened.

"Ahhh..." There is an immediate sense of contentedness from the strange thing, enough that the mouth sculpts into a lazy grin before fading back to nothing, Mania leaning against the interior wall of the rooftop with her hands resting at her stomach. One could almost imagine a purr.

Jessica Drew has posed:
All of Spider-Woman's amusement disappears under an unbidden onslaught of memories. The young one asked the most telling question. There is a slight movement of shock at Arana's last word.

"That sounds like coercion to me," she glances at Spider-Man, head tilted in question. He brought her here.

With a lift of one shoulder, she continues, "I am a free agent now. As free as anyone can be in this world." She nods gravely, "But no one asked me if I wanted these abilities. No," she holds her arms out, putting herself on display.

Her eyes slide to the replete Mania then back to Spider-Man, her eyes narrowing under her mask, mouth set primly straight before she takes another bite of the slider.

Peter Parker has posed:
Oh, good. Mania's keeping down on any tin in her diet.

He looks at the glowing tattoo, the built-in camera of the hood taking pictures of the pertinent details. Except Araña's face. That ain't kosher.

The oddness of each permutation is interesting. Each of them has a different background, really, but they are all here.

"Well...my uncle told me that it's how you react to what happens to you that makes you who you are. In any case...if you have your own support network, then more power to you, Araña. However...if you would like to reach out to other similarly-minded people who want to help people...then I'd like to extend an invite to Spider-Comm. I'd like to avoid being the choke point for our communications. It'd be great if each of us was able to reach out to anyone on the network."

Anya Corazon has posed:
She doesn't know what to say, that much is clear. Anya nods, but she doesn't speak. Not until she's thought. It's a good sign, that she can actually think before opening her gob. If she needs to, that is. "I..should show you the whole thing. Thing is, once this goes on, it saved my life. But it's forever. I was dying. So..." She pauses, then nods. "I could use a comm. If you still want me."

Then she looks directly at Mania, and grins. "Even you two," she says to they/them. And then the armor slides up her skin into place, a blue THING with red veins all over her chest. She stops looking like a person, and suddenly she's this unworldly thing. Armor, chitin perhaps, but she is a spider apparently. Because when she's armored up, she looks like one more than anyone here.

And spiders are not human. No matter what the papers say. Damn Jameson.

She says, "This...is me, now." And she waits to be judged.

https://arousinggrammardotcom.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/spidergirlkraven8.jpg

Andi Benton has posed:
//ANDI--//
<<I see..>>

Some of this was going beyond Mania's level of interest. Spider-Man seemed to be on the road to handing out Spider-Comms to anyone, even if they just had, like, a t-shirt with a spider on it or something. Let him. And let him be the one to carry the discussion. Let Spider-Woman, too. Mania didn't care that much, although there /was/ a note of interest forming following the thought that maybe Anya wasn't doing all of this of her own free will. That is something both symbiote and host might take issue with.

Before they can voice any of that, however, the demonstration is made with the armor, and the veins, and..whatever the rest of that is. The symbiote's spikes bristle again, initially in a defensive manner with her now a little further away than the rest, but Anya soon has the /complete/ attention of the one called Mania.

"Oh, snap," they say as one. In the next moment, Mania is /right there/ by Anya, circling her, giving a deep visual inspection of every last detail.

<<What is that? It's not like you.>>
//No, Andi. Not like us at all. We have never seen this before.//
<<Should we be careful?>>
//Yes, Andi. Very careful. Find out if we will have to kill it or not.//

Inside the mind of an alien entity.

Jessica Drew has posed:
"Impressive!" Spider-Woman takes a step toward the Spider-Girl, then to the side to get the full splendor of the veined armor. She came to terms with her otherness years ago now, let humans deal with her as they can. Leery of Mania's reaction, she divides her attention between the two.

"How much can it take?" Full-blown nerd evident in her voice and stance despite Mania circling the girl as though sizing up a target.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man steps back as the transformation happens. It's instinct, to retreat in surprise.
He watches as it completes, leaving the girl in some kind of segmented, chitinous armor. But there is something else in his stance, and it is not hard to see.

Fascination. No disgust, no fear, simply an intense clinical interest. Spider-Man has nowhere near the combat training Spider-Woman has, but the scientist in him seems to override anything else.

"...That's *amazing,*" Spidey says, moving around Araña's left side, peering at it. "Fully-articulated...coverage as the body moves...wow."

Anya Corazon has posed:
Anya...no, Arana's eyes turn, following Mania now. Her entire body moves differently; if there was any awkwardness it is absolutely gone. She's not just covered, she's changed. There's a more feral motion to her stance, and she is not entirely who she was. "Snap...yeah, that works," she says, her lips pursing a little. "Not too close, I have to...you make me more nervous now, I think you're waking something inside of it." She's speaking to Mania alone there, and her fingers twitch. This thing does not like being around the alien hunter. GEE I WONDER WHY.

"Bulletproof at least," she says, still tracking Mania. "I mean, I haven't had time to really try it out, but it's very alive. It lives inside me, but when it's like this...hang on." She concentrates, focuses, and then says, "I can't turn it off with her so close," she says, motioning to Mania. "It's acting to protect me."

Then she takes a step back, trying to make some space, and visibly relaxes. "I didn't know it was so alive." She's that new, she's still learning how her own gear works. Great. "Still. Pretty good armor, and I can lift a car now."

Andi Benton has posed:
It's like two raw predators sizing each other up, with the Spiders getting a front row seat. The fuzzy warmth of the chocolate pie disappeared in an instant, replaced by a very, very attentive symbiote leading its host along for the checking out. It's done with a measure of caution, given what they see, given what they don't know yet, but it's a clear mixture of curiosity and sought-out knowledge to file away for the future.

Unless they try to tear each other to bloody pieces here and now, which would not go very well with the color of the White Castle walls.

Suddenly there are so many parallels that fit for Mania and Andi compared to what they see before them. However, she does not reveal anything about her host side, not visibly. The eyes do the job of reflecting the body language and shifting emotions felt by both, and the stance is indicative of someone almost preening, trying to show more strength than the other before the host, perhaps, wills some of that away and gets Mania to take a few steps back. To see how it alters Anya's, or Arana's, body language in return.

"It makes us..something, too." No, she's not going to just come out and /say/ there's nervousness. Not gonna give that away so easily. Mania adds, "We felt things you are probably feeling. But it is time for us to go. We have things to think about."

With barely a wave toward the others, a hasty "Thanks for the food," she weblines her way off the rooftop, swinging into the night.

This will not be their only encounter, that much is for certain, but the best thing is for the two beings to be apart from each other right this minute.

Jessica Drew has posed:
"Smart one. I didn't want to be picking up the pieces," Spider-Woman says with off-handed haughtiness following Mania's disappearing form until she fades into the night.

Returning her eyes to the two remaining, "Symbiotes then?" The question is open to both Arana and Spider-Man. She sends Arana a complex glance, a mixture of sympathy and distrust. "Who controls who then? It might be an important question concerning motives."

Peter Parker has posed:
Well, this is another first. Something raised Mania's hackles, and he's seen enough nature documentaries (thank you, public television) to suggest that Mania and Araña are both...alphas, of some kind.

He has dealt with a lot the last year. Demons, trolls...crime lords. And the concept of MJ wanting to be his girlfriend again. (Don't laugh, the concept was as outlandish as seeing trolls at the plague hospital, but here we are.)

He watches Mania go. It's not cowardice. He doesn't think Andi or her passenger were cowards. No, this was control, control of self, removing themselves as a catalyst for violence.

Yeah. Strong AND brave. Because bravery also means keeping something bad from happening.

Spider-Man looks to Araña, then points a finger at her. "Boom."

The team working with her is suddenly notified of a contact with a new, unidentified network, requesting if they wish to connect to it.

Anya Corazon has posed:
"Magic tattoo, linked to the mexican god of Spiders," Anya says, straight-up, as Mania leaves. She pauses, then as the symbiote gets back far enough she relaxes. Relaxes, and the armour dissolves into nothingness. Her burger is destroyed, the remnants crushed in her grip when the armor went up. It is, clearly, not entirely in control. A weapon.

She watches Mania go, her gaze slightly dazed, and adds, "I'm in control," as if not entirely believing it herself. Before she turns to go. "My team is pinging my earbud, like you wouldn't believe. I should go." And yes, she should. It's not a school night but she does have homework. "Also...its Anya."

She's pulling out her line with the grapple, getting ready to leap off the building. Which, without powers...still pretty badass.

Jessica Drew has posed:
Fish sandwich forgotten and somewhat mangled, Spider-Woman considers it for a moment before finishing it off. Waste not, want not.

"Ah," she says enigmatically, wiping her fingers. Magic. Old magic at that. "The god has become rather high-tech, don't you think, with the armor? But another time," she nods acknowledging the grapple line, "Anya. Thank you. Jessica," she says with a faint smile.

"I have a feeling we will be meeting again. Don't let us keep you." The smile widens, "Can I have a piece of pie to go, Spidey?"