Chapter Text
It was a random Tuesday in November the first time he saw her. He was swinging by a neighborhood in a bad part of town that had recently seen some improvement. He hadn't know why until he saw her. A girl, relatively young, and taller than average. That's all he could tell as he swung by. He wouldn't have given her a second look if it weren't for the fact that it was January in New York and she was wearing a sleeveless crop top. He landed on a roof to get a better look. She was wearing black pants and combat boots. She also had something white wrapped around her arms and he thought he saw feathers sticking out of the top. He couldn't see her face as it was covered in a large hood. The fact that it was around eight o'clock at night didn't help. As she moved passed his position on the rooftop he noticed the silver fighting staff strapped to her back. That's when he finally dropped down to her.
"Isn't it a little cold out for that getup?" He asked her as she jerked to a halt in front of him. She didn't answer.
"I can handle myself Spider-Man. And you don't need to keep a watch on this side of town. I've got it covered," the girl said.
"And who are you exactly?" the girl didn't move from her position or respond. He leaned more towards her but she backed away, finally looking at him. She was younger than he'd originally thought, around his own age. He couldn't see much of her face because she had on a black domino mask around her eyes and a white hand print pressed over her entire face. He could, however, see that she had black hair spilling out of a ponytail.
"Why hid under the hood if you have that getup?" he asked.
"Ever heard of being thurow?" she asked. "You can call me Echo. I've got this place handled but I'm trying to keep a low profile."
"I'm probably seem like the last person to be against this but I don't know if you've noticed that I have superpowers."
"What makes you think I don't?"
"Do you?"
"Maybe."
"So no."
"I didn't say that."
"So what can you do?"
"I'm a grade A badass. You gonna call the cops on me or what?"
"I honestly don't think that will stop you but uh I'm still going to check up on the area.
"You wouldn't be Spider-Man if you didn't." And with that the girl, Echo, pushed passed him on the street. He was going to follow her when he got a message from Ned telling him about some emergency across town.
The next day he'd told Ned and MJ about the girl and asked if they'd ever seen her before.
"I think I know her," MJ told him from where she sat on his bed. "She saved me once, I was volunteering at a homeless shelter across town and these guys tried to mug me, I went for my pepper spray but this girl dressed in black and feathers came out of nowhere and did a flying side kick into one of their faces. Didn't say anything, just beat them up then disappeared. Didn't even look at me."
"What! Why did you never say anything?" Peter asked.
"It was before we were dating and I was only 67% sure you were Spider-Man. It's not like it came up in conversation before now."
"So she really is a grade A badass," Ned added.
"Oh yeah, girl can fight," MJ said.
"I'm still going to keep an eye out for her, she might be able to fight but that doesn't make her Black Widow, she might be better off working with SHEILD than on her own."
"Black Widow worked for SHEILD," Ned said confused.
"My point is working with people with resources is helpful, my suit now is a lot better than my hoodie. I can actually talk to people!"
"Yes, you're a badass too SuperDeafy but did you ever think that this girl's fine on her own?" MJ asked.
"It couldn't hurt to ask her if I see her again."
"I suppose not," his girlfriend agreed.
"Okay, enough freaky ninja girl talk, this project is due tomorrow."