Light of a Thousand Stars

21- Calliope

"Spider-man? W- what are you doing in New York? I mean, Omg I'm such a fan, can I get an autograph?" Theresa stuttered, glancing around. "Oh, look, there's a pen and paper over there, let me go get it," she added, trying to escape. Before she could fly away, her father grabbed her arm, dragging her back towards the statue.

"We're sure you're a huge fan," Spider-man said, watching her carefully, "But there's no time for autographs right now. My friend and I saw you flying around and wanted to chat."

She laughed nervously, trying to avert her eyes from where she knew Mayday was. "Heheh, chat? Why- uhm, I like french cats, too, but now's most certainly not the time, right? And, woah, would you look at that, it's getting so late! Oh, I'm getting tired, how about you? Better go get some sleep now, bai," she continued to ramble, beginning to speak faster the more she went on.

She could tell that the boys were raising their eyebrows under their masks. "Hey, we don't want to hurt you," Spider-man explained, "We just want to make sure you are safe- those powers you have could get you in some serious trouble. Being a superhero is a lot more dangerous than it seems."

Theresa had to put a hand over her mouth to keep her from laughing. It seemed that Peter Parker could still seem like an overprotective uncle even if he didn't know you. Glancing at Mayday, who was hanging from the side of the Statue of Liberty, dressed in some random dark shirt and leggins it seemed, must have been thinking along the same lines judging by her expression, Theresa crossed her arms. "I think I can handle myself," she replied, "And whoever said I was a superhero? I could be some random kid who just likes to fly around. Not saying anything either way. But I don't want to hurt anyone either, so please, don't worry about me."

She tried to fly away again, but Nova didn't loosen his grip on her arm. "Also, random girl who may or may not be a superhero, would you mind explaining to us how you got your powers?" he asked, mimicking my crossed armed position.

Mentally, she groaned, wishing more than ever that invisibility was one of the powers of the Supernova. "Why would I need to do that? Are we having some kind of super-bonding time? Why don't you guys tell me how you got your powers?" she retorted, as if she didn't know exactly how they had gotten to where they were today. As if she didn't know their identities.

Nova glanced at his spider-themed friend, who simply shrugged. "It's just... Your powers seem strangely similar to mine," he explained. I shrugged, my pulse slowly speeding up.

"What can I say?" I replied, trying to glance anywhere except for where Mayday was. "Great minds think alike? And I don't know about you, but my abilities are tech-powered," she added, just to be safe. 'At least, it's half-way true that she was tech powered,' she thought as she glanced down at where her necklace would be. When she was wearing her suit, it morphed into part of the design. She sighed, not daring to glance up, still not quite sure if knowing that someone had the power to replicate Nova's powers with tech was a smart thing to tell them.

But before her father could say anything else, Theresa noticed Peter glanced around in the corner of her eye, maybe thinking she had been looking for something. But it seemed he had noticed the one thing she had been trying to avoid with her eyes. "Hey, who's there? And what are you doing here?" Spider-man called down the side of the Statue of Liberty, to the girl he didn't know was his daughter.

As his question brought Nova and Theresa's eyes down to where Mayday was previously hidden, she sighed, trying to come up with excuses for being stuck half-way up the
Statue of Liberty, directly underneath three superheroes. Unsurprisingly, it was harder than she thought.

"Oh, hey, what's up? Wait, I guess you are... What a lovely day... Or night. Just thought I'd take in the view, y'know. But you guys were having some sort of meeting up there, and I didn't want to bother you. Y'know, normal stuff."