Felicia found all three of them after sixth period near the east exit. Peter hadn't arranged it. She just appeared, seemingly randomly at a moment that felt slightly too convenient to be entirely accidental.
"Hey guys, let's walk together," she said.
They walked. Out through the east exit and down the steps onto the street. The four of them falling into a loose formation on the pavement. Felicia between MJ and Peter with Gwen on the outside.
"So," Felicia said. "The Queens thing."
"Yeah, we saw it," MJ said.
"Everyone saw it. Everyone's talking about it," Felicia had her phone out. She scrolled through coverage without looking where she was walking.
Confident spatial awareness that reminded Peter of something he couldn't quite name yet. "Thirty-seven news articles this morning. Social media is split between people calling them a hero and people calling them a menace. The Daily Bugle already has an editorial drafted apparently. Something about unaccountable vigilantes operating outside the law."
"That's fast," Gwen said.
"Jameson's been waiting for something like this since Iron Man showed up. Now he has a local version." Felicia put her phone away. "Honestly though. Whoever it is. That was impressive. Four suspects, six hostages, zero injuries, whole thing done in under ten seconds according to witnesses." She paused. "It's likely someone who trained for a long time for that.. Or are there people with actual superpowered abilities in this world?" She was genuinely curious.
Nobody said anything after that.
Felicia walked another half block in comfortable silence. Then:
"You know what I think the hard part will be? Not the criminals. Not the physical danger." She looked up at the sky for a moment. "Humans are complicated. We don't agree on what help looks like. One person's rescue is another person's interference. The same action gets called heroic on Tuesday and reckless on Wednesday depending on who got inconvenienced." She glanced sideways.
Just at the street ahead. "People need saving and then they resent being saved. They want someone to protect them and then they don't want to feel like they needed protecting. There's no version of this where everyone is grateful. There's not even a version where most people are grateful."
"So why do it?" MJ asked.
Felicia considered this for a moment. Genuinely. Like it was a real question deserving a real answer. "I think the people who do it anyway, knowing all that. Knowing the ingratitude is coming, the criticism is coming, the days where it feels completely thankless." She shrugged. "They must have a reason that doesn't depend on anyone else's reaction. Something internal. Something that doesn't need to be validated."
She stopped at the corner where their routes home diverged.
"Anyway." Felicia adjusted her bag strap. "Good for Queens. Whoever they are." A small smile. "I hope they're careful."
She turned and walked away.
The three of them stood at the corner for a moment. Watching her go.
"She can't possibly be suspecting us already right?" MJ asked quietly.
"She might be," Gwen said.
Peter said nothing. Just watched Felicia disappear around the corner. Thought about what she'd said. About reasons that didn't depend on anyone else's reaction.
He thought about the elderly woman in the convenience store. About the teenager who hadn't cried until it was over. About the particular silence of a city block at midnight when something terrible had just been stopped.
He didn't need anyone to call it heroic. He just needed it to have happened.
That was enough of a reason.
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