Robin hood (peter parker)

04: battle of wits

"Ms. Anonymous" MAX

joey had not planned on planning another heist so soon. in fact, it was such a sudden decision that she had much less time to think of a new and effective plan. when she found out that she was still short on payments, she knew she'd have to go back in the field and get her hands dirty again. 

she was an intelligent girl though, and incredibly quick on her feet. she had multiple plans for emergencies or to use as a back up and she was going use one of them tonight. if she had just a little more time she could probably come up with a better plan, but she didn't have the luxury and had to hope queen's crime fighting spider wasn't on duty.  if her was, well she had to hope he wasn't too bright.

after grabbing one of her off the rack dresses she had from years ago, she stuffed it into her little bag and left her apartment. her grandfather was asleep already so she made sure not to wake him. 

joey had found months ago that one of the glamorous dress stores in town had a faulty hatch located at the back of the store. as to not raise too much suspicion, the girl had only taken from there only a couple of times. the secret to pulling off her tricks was to avoid anything located in the front of the store. often times there were still extravagant dresses and handbags located in the back that if went missing, they could blame on an incompetent employee. joey did feel some guilt knowing a stranger would get into trouble for her actions, but in the grander scheme of things, she could not afford the remorse.

after finding a fairly expensive outfit, joey pulled out her own dress from her bag and replaced it with the new one. leaving her own dress in hand, she began leaving through the way she had first arrived. 

the ally looked empty and for a moment she thought she was in the clear. before she could take a breathe of relief, a whizzing sound came from above. joey truly hoped that tonight could have been simple, but she knew that was naive thinking. thankfully she was not naive.

"that doesn't belong to you!" exclaimed the red and blue blur as it got closer. with a thwap, web fluid encased joey's free hand and pinned her to the brick wall. another shot and her old, but still kept dress was removed from her grasp.

joey frowned as she struggled to remove herself from the webbing. or so she wanted the hero to think.

"you look a little stuck there, i should help." the boy quipped as he gracefully landed on to of the dumpster adjacent to joey. with a third webbing, the girl's other hand had become glued to her side just as her other was. "there, now you're completely stuck. all better, don't you think?" 

with a huff of frustration, the girl tried to lunge forward, but there was not enough momentum to free herself. she knew she would be in this situation, but she had not looked forward to it. she hated the feeling of being bested, even if she knew that wasn't the case. 

"i've been meaning to ask," she began, unable to contain a snarky remark, "this... stuff, is it coming out of you? are you actually part spider? do you lay eggs too?" she yanked her arm once again, trying to use her foot this time to push off the wall. still no luck.

"what is it with everyone asking me this?" the boy sighed in exasperation to himself as he thought back to a conversation he had only days ago. "i'm the one who's asking the questions here." his mask eyes squinted in the direction of the girl as he directed his words back to her. "why are you stealing this dress? and the purse from the other night? some fancy party you got invited to and not me?" he tried to remain serious, but he couldn't help but sneak in a small joke, even if it wasn't actually humorous.

"yeah, i was gonna have dinner with the queen." she shot back, a small smirk wanting to creep onto her face, but she wouldn't let it. "why does it matter why? shouldn't you only care that i get arrested or something? give a lecture about how stealing is wrong."