Blackout | Matt Murdock

chapter five | vigilante buddies united

The hour-long trip to Queens is not one that Michaela makes lightly. She goes occasionally with some friends from college but rarely ever by herself. It's enough out of her way that she usually finds excuses not to go even if there's an event or what have you that she'd been looking forward to. Half because she's lazy, half because she's not a huge fan of the subway despite being born and raised on public transportation. But today's — not special, there's nothing really marking it from any other day of the week, aside from the fact that she doesn't have classes or work for once. It's convenient, and it's a trip she's been meaning to make for a while now, anyway; her sky-dive over Flushing Ave just happened to be the kick she needed to get over whatever insecurities were holding her back.

Michaela likes Queens, to a degree. New York has a sort of sameness to all five boroughs that makes travelling from one to the other unremarkable, unless you actually give a damn about anything other than Manhattan. Queens probably has less crime than Hell's Kitchen, so it has that going for it, too, and also, tying in to what Michaela's actually doing here — it has its very own Spider-Child.

She doesn't have much of a plan as she climbs the steps from the subway platform, shouldering past the usual assortment of oblivious business people and gaggles of tourists in what could generously be labeled an aimless direction. (She's not going to get lost, Christ, even if she didn't have her phone on her it's a grid system) Like, half of a plan. A quarter. Okay, she has maybe one eighth of a plan on how she's going to both locate Spider-Man and convince him that they should band together, regardless of the distance between their home turfs.

He's friendly, though, and the kid's gotta realize that as talented as he is, he's still a kid. Some extra help would not go amiss. He didn't seem like the prideful type when she met him (brief though that meeting was), like he wouldn't go that extra stubborn mile just to prove he's capable of saving the day all on his lonesome. Which is good, ideal even, and it's why Spidey's her first target.

(Daredevil will probably agree seeing as how they've been batting the idea around already, and as for Jones and Cage, uh... that's a work in progress. At least Michaela has the address for Alias Investigations should she ever, you know, get the urge to pop over and say hi)

Finding Spidey is the first step, regardless of the rest of her plan. On the ride over she considered the ethics of like, faking a disaster scenario to draw him out, but immorality aside, she needs to meet him in costume, because she and Spidey have not yet reached the correct level of friendship to unlock her secret identity. Playing the distressing damsel isn't all that conducive to that end, in part because Michaela has not mastered the art of the quick change and, in an unrelated note, almost snapped her ankle clean in half just the other day.

Anyway.

She's not even sure what options that leaves her with. Climb a tall building and chant "Spider-Man" repeatedly until he appears, not unlike the summoning of a demon? With her luck, she'd just get fined for disturbing the peace, or some other bullshit reprimand. Spider-Man's a kid, right? He's in high school, probably. So — Michaela flips her wrist around, checks the time, squinting against the glare of the sun. Almost four. School's been out for a while, then, but who knows if this kid does extracurriculars. Fucking hell, no wonder the Avengers all live together in that big, ugly tower — trying to make contact with other heroes is exhausting.

Maybe getting suited up would be a step in the right direction. At least that way Spidey can't catch her unawares with her figurative pants down. Granted, this way he could catch her with her literal pants down, but, well. Sacrifices must be made, and all that.