xp_logs | Miles & Gabriel, backdated to Sunday 1/4

Busted. When Miles returns to school after winter break, Gabriel confronts him about his secret nocturnal activities.

This winter break seemed longer than any previous ones. Maybe because this was the first time that Miles was actually excited to go back to school and every day he wasn't there, the hours just dragged on. One could only play Dragon Age Inquisition so many times before even that got boring.

He'd found some entertainment by going out on patrol again. His poor costume had sat all crumpled up in his duffel bag since September so it was good to let it out. Most of the nights he'd been out were uneventful. Saturday night finally brought on some fun, though, as Spider-Miles took down a pair of robbers who'd stuck up a nearby gas station. He might have had only 4 months of training with the New Mutants, but even he could tell that he'd stopped these two douchebags faster and cleaner than ever before.

So it was in high spirits that he found himself back at the mansion, unpacking and getting ready for another semester. One that he just knew would be marvelous.

Gabriel, who appeared suddenly, leaning against the door jamb with a smile on his face, was in high spirits as well. "Welcome back, Miles." His smile morphed into a smirk. "You are so busted."

"Uh, I don't know what you're talking about." Miles hastily stuffed his goggles back into his bag. "And you have to stop that appearing-out-of-nowhere trick. Some day you're going to make my sp...danger sense go off and I'm going to electrocute you. 'By accident.'"

"Cuate, por favor." Gabriel raised his eyebrows. He was unable to hide the amusement from his face. "You and I both know I could grab that bag and empty it before you move a finger." To prove a point, he darted over and leaned against the dresser. "Besides, heroes got a code." His eyes met Miles'. "Don't they, Spider-Man?"

"Ugh. Everyone really does know, don't they?" Miles reached into the bag to grab his spider-adorned hoodie and throw it at Gabriel's face so he didn't have to see Gabriel's overly amused and smug expression. "Fine. Not really something that could be a secret for a long time, anyway. You gonna make fun of me now?"

"I haven't decided yet." Gabriel grabbed the hoodie before it made impact and inspected it. "Were you really trying to hide it? Because I have to tell you, man," he reached into his pocket and grabbed his phone, "this was super obvious." He used his thumb to unlock it, tapped into a browser and tossed it to Miles.

The headline of the article that loaded read: "Spider-Fan Foils Midnight Gas Station Robbery." The cell phone photo of a masked Miles disarming one of the robbers wasn't very clear, but it happened not too far from Miles's home when he was back from school. Didn't take a genius to put 2 and 2 together. Miles shrugged and handed the phone back. "Well there you go. That's me."

"Not to be, you know, immediately dismissive..." He grabbed his phone, handing Miles back his hoodie. "But, like, why?"

Miles thought back to when Kyle first confronted him in September. Same conversation but no one was trying to convince him to give it up this time around. Progress. "Lots of reasons," he answered, shrugging. "But mostly, I have the power to do it, and the police sure as hell aren't doing crap to keep Brooklyn safe, so that means I have a responsibility."

"You also have a responsibility not to get yourself killed," Gabriel said, complete with a pointed look. "Or to wear tacky-ass costumes and emulate dopey-as-hell Tobey Maguire. I mean, really, dude." He crossed his arms. "Of all the role models, Spider-Man? That guy?"

Miles spread his arms and shrugged again. "Still not dead," he said as if that answered everything. "Spider-Man makes sense. We have pretty much the same powers except mine are better. No webs but he can't camo or venom blast. And whatever. You might think they're dumb movies -- and you're wrong, by the way, because Spidey's the best -- but the theme was on point. With great power comes great responsibility. Isn't that what the X-Men do? The only difference is they're older and have better costumes, but everyone has to start somewhere."

"Okay, wait, first off, I feel like no webs means you're basically not Spider-Man. Ask anyone to describe Spider-Man, and that's like the first thing they think of. And that rain kiss." Gabriel shifted his position. He suddenly felt like he was ruining Christmas. "Also, I wouldn't really look at the X-Men as model humans either. But that's just me."

To his credit, Miles didn't just snort or make some other derisive expression. The tone of his voice said it all, though. "Yeah, but you're a villain, te acuerdas? I can't trust your opinion on these things. Which you already made perfectly clear a couple weeks ago when you called me a famewhore and didn't know you were saying that to my face."

"Okay, well, obviously I wouldn't have said that if you had just told me you were Spider-Man. I just banked on it being some Brooklyn hipster trying to launch a webseries or something."

"Heh, webseries." That pun would always be funny. "I really do wish I could shoot webs, though. That would really complete the whole look."

"Dude, hello." Gabriel looked at Miles like he was an idiot. "We live in a mansion full of geniuses who are used to keeping secrets. I'm pretty sure Sue's dad's, like, an actual invention god or something. Just ask someone to build you webs."

"So now you think I should stay as Spidey?" Miles reached into his bag to get the goggles and ski mask he wore in place of Spider-Man's full-on face covering. Which looked really uncomfortable and probably smelled bad. "You know, the cops hate me. I think that's pretty win on its own."

"I'm afraid to express an opinion at this point, since I don't want it shoved back in my face in a week." Gabriel wrinkled his nose as he peered at the goggles, because tacky. "But I'm a do-what-you-want kinda guy, you know that. Part of my whole woobie cool guy thing."

"Maybe you should have better opinions, then," Miles shot back, but he was smiling. "And nobody ever said you're cool."

"Ouch," Gabriel snorted. "Daggers. This from the guy who wears that."