Chapter Text
When one chose to be a reporter, there were obviously going to be days where there wasn’t going to be a case in sight.
Michelle Janes knew this all too well from the fact that Green Spider wasn’t her best scoop ever.
Green Spider was New York’s oddly friendly vigilante that helped the police solve crimes, and for the last year Michelle had been chasing the masked crusader hoping to get some answers.
All the pictures, newspapers, and other avenues of getting an inside scoop of the masked man always ended up not being enough for a full disclosure of the man. That’s not to say she didn’t make money off the part where he stops crime and she gets some pretty writing material and pictures for the New York Times, but that doesn’t mean Michelle doesn’t want to get to know the guy.
Wait, maybe she should start a little from the beginning, as in she herself was saved by the Green Spider once and that was what started to figure out who this guy was.
When he had saved her a few times, he always just gave a simple nod or something, never really speaking.
Michelle wouldn’t say she had a crush on the guy, considering she was slightly more interested in her coworker Micah Nelson, who got the pictures for the papers. His main rule being he didn’t take pictures of Green Spider, because he’s never meant the guy, which was stupid everyone’s at least met the hero once, New York really wasn’t that big of a city after all.
Right though, Michelle was at her desk in the office, with Micah editing the photos for next week's paper.
Maybe it was because she was already sighing so much or something, but Micah looked up from his work, glasses slightly crooked with a frown.
“Rough night? I heard you went to Frank’s party last night.”
When Micah spoke you had a small window to understand that he never said anything as an insult unless you took it that way. Considering he was commenting on something minor, he didn’t go to parties, only worked and then went home.
Still Michelle just rolled her eyes, already annoyed with Green Spider, not really caring about some party.
“The party was fine, I’m just worried about something else.”
Her response was more clipped than she wanted, but Michelle never had to worry about Micah misunderstanding her moods, it's like he had an extra sense or something with how well he talked to people sometimes.
Micah leaned back in his chair, to properly look at her since most of the desks had built in dividers.
“Really, is it about your friend visiting again? I thought you said she was going to like visiting here?”
He said, attempting and failing to fix his glasses.
Micehlle though just snorted, “Yeah, Patience's going to like it here, but I’m worried she’s going to ask all these questions about Green Spider, you know because he’s just hanging around the city.”
Micah frowned at that.
“Wouldn’t that make sense, since he’s the city’s only crime fighter besides the police.”
Michelle laughed, turning her chair finally to look at him.
“That’s not true, what about Purple Star and Carrot? He fights with those guys sometimes.”
Micah’s eyes twitched at the names, as if perfectly annoyed with both of them.
“They're alright, sure, but they can be a little annoying, you know getting in his way and all that.”
The reporter in Michelle jumped at that statement, curious by the way that was worded. Before she could follow that line of thought though, Micah’s phone rang loudly, Micah himself jumping from his seat upon seeing whatever was on the phone. Ducking towards the door.
“See ya later Michelle, I’ll have those photos of yours done by tomorrow morning.”
After that he was gone, now left alone in the office for the evening Michelle couldn’t help but look over at Micah’s computer. Noticing that everyone was already closed and the computer shut down for the night, which was odd, wasn’t he working on the photos like two minutes ago?
Sighing, Michelle got out of her chair, deciding that at this moment she’ll get an answer one of these days, but at the moment she just wanted to shower and go home. That was until Patience shot her a message.
Girl you got to get over here, Green Spider just showed up!!!
The number of excitement that Michelle could feel from that statement alone was enough to get her moving, closing up the office and heading out onto the sunset lit streets of New York.
By the time that Michelle actually made it to where Patience was, the fight was over, and she spotted the retreating back of the Green Spider, already moving onto some other part of the city.
Groaning, she dropped into the seat across from her friend, who was already chowing down on something.
“Well I told you to get here earlier, but I’m certain that you didn’t see my text messages.”
Patience said around a bite of a sandwich, seeming proud of herself for some reason. Michelle cocked an eyebrow at the words.
“So? Green Spider is a common sight, but I have been trying to get him to stick around for an interview.” She reached over and took a fry from her friend’s plate, “Which you understand, you interview models and all that.”
Patience rolled her eyes.
“Interviewing supermodels is different from superheroes, but hey if it makes you feel better I got to speak with him before you showed up.”
Michelle paused at that, about to snatch another fry.
“What?!”
She leaned a little more towards her friend.
“What did you guys talk about? What did he say, I need details girl?!”
Michelle exclaimed.
Patience for her part just shook.
“All he did was just hi and I asked if there were any spots worth eating besides the place we're at now.”
Michelle’s joy immediately plummeted.
“What? That's it, I thought you would at least ask for something nice to change.”
Patience shrugged.
“What? I assumed he was a local and asked. What’s wrong with that?”
Michelle laid her head on the table.
“Patience I’m trying to find the guy, not get food recommendations. I’ve lived here for four years, you can just ask me.”
Her friend just gave a roll of her eyes.
“Yeah, but you say that and we’ve only eaten at the same two restaurants for three days. I needed something new.”
Michelle has never wanted to throttle her before, but right now she was cutting it very close.
“Come you didn’t really do that did you?”
Patience shook her head.
“No, I really did ask him about the food thing.”
Michelle kept her head on the table, not even bothering to respond to that, until she thought about it for a moment.
“Did he at least recommend anything good? I’m starving from having to run all the way here.”
Patience nodded, already pulling out her phone.
“Yeah, I made a note of them, we can try a few tonight for dinner.”
The reporter decided to just call that a win for the night.
—-------------------------------------------------------------
The next morning at work was the same, working with Micah over the newspaper photos and complaining that she got no new leads yesterday.
Micah for the most part just rolled his eyes and kept working on the photos.
“Don’t you think at this point it's time to give up, find some other project?”
Michelle smacked his shoulder, the man barely flinching like normal.
“Don’t be like that, I have a back up plan, that I’m not dying to try, but it might be my best bet.”
The photographing reporter huffed, “What exactly is your “grand plan” to get Green Spider’s attention? Especially when he’s busy saving New York.”
Glaring at him, Michelle rolled her own eyes.
“I’m going to deliberately put myself into danger, that no he had a choice, but to save me and I can get close enough maybe to get a glimpse of him.”
She said stiffly, she had discussed the plan with Patience before and her friend had told her that it was both insane and dumb, but could be a step in the right direction.
That wasn’t to say that Patience wasn’t a doctor, but also a person that sometimes liked to support bad ideas. Maybe sometimes she was a bad influence.
Still Micah’s immediate shift to annoyance to worry was quick.
“What? Don’t do that, what if he didn’t know, you could die or something.”
He happened to shout this, and considering they were in the main space of the building, a good bit of heads turned to the two of them.
Both reporters glanced at the crowd, everyone still watching for a moment, before going back to their own complaining about the summer heat.
Michelle folded her arms and leaned back in her chair.
“What if? I don’t know, it was the only plan I had to keep from throwing myself at him or something, but I’m not that desperate.”
Micah turned back to sharply look at his coworker.
“This sounds both dangerous and desperate to me. One doesn’t just shout, “I’m jumping” and expect Green Spider to drop everything to save them.”
His argument was valid, and if it weren’t for the fact of not wanting to be wrong, Michelle had an idea.
“How about this, we go to the top of the abandoned apartment complex on the edge of Queens that will be demolished soon, and I’ll prove it to you.”
Micah looked at her like she was crazy, eyes slightly twitching at the offer.
“Prove what? That you're crazy and the hospital is going to make money off of your potential corpse.”
Michelle shook her head.
“No! That Green Spider will come to save me, and you know it.”
The man looked like he wanted to say something about that, but held his tongue, closing his eyes for a moment.
“Fine, but know I will be trying to talk you out of it the moment that we get on that roof.”
With that said, he turned back to his photos with a little more effort than before, as if trying to rush through the task for a reason and purpose that Michelle herself didn’t know.
At that though, she returned to actually writing her report for the week that would be going with the photos, knowing that this was technically due in an hour.
It was later that day that she arrived alone to the place that she had mentioned earlier, not really knowing if Micah was going to follow her, but she was determined to do this.
For the sake of research, even if there was a high risk and obvious danger.
When she got to the top of the building, Micah was already there, looking over the edge with a pure grimace on his face.
“You know you could’ve picked a lower spot, one where there wasn’t a chance to bash your skull into the pavement.”
He started with, as if he sensed her behind him.
Michelle brushed off his words though with a scoff.
“Sure, sure, whatever. I know what I’m doing, and I know that he’s going to be here.”
“Sure he will, and in the meantime I might as well ask what flowers you want for your grave.” Micah deadpanned, hands in his pockets as he watched her.
There was a moment of a beat of silence, as Michelle nodded carefully stepping towards the edge of the building.
The closer she got, the more nervous she felt, maybe Micah was right, this was dumb and the chances of expecting a super hero to save her was just as old fashioned as the comic books in her dad’s drawer.
“Michelle you don’t have to do this, really.”
Micah said from behind her, startling out of her thoughts and she turned to glare at him.
“One, don’t scare me and Two, I’m doing this.”
Without thinking further Michelle jumped not bothering to look back, where she missed the absolute look of fear and panic that crossed Micah’s face.
The slight free fall in the moment made Michelle realize too late that this was the dumbest thing she had ever done right this second, and that was compared to the time she drunk called her and called him things that somehow didn’t get her fired.
Yet in the flash of a second, she saw another blur jump from the building, almost was fast as the wind. Whoever the person was reached her and curled their arms around her as their hand shot out and the two of them barreled forward together.
In this case it was through a window, glass shattering, as they rolled across the rotten and dusty earth of another part of the old apartment complex.
As the amount of slight pain from just rolling about and the fear of almost dying, Michelle realized that her hands were clutching a green trenchcoat and with a single glance saw a familiar face breathing heavily, his hands still tightly holding her.
“Hey, I’m okay you get let go now.”
She whispered, not sure if she should speak any louder than that, the panic still open on his face.
Micah Nelson had just jumped from a building and saved her, and that was no more confusing than the fact that she wasn’t splattered across the pavement.
He carefully let go of her, eyes still roaming her face as if to make sure that life hasn’t left her.
“You're not hurt are you? I didn’t mean to go through a window that had glass, I was trying to aim at a different spot.”
He actually just kept talking, hands still hovering over her, as if he wanted to check himself for any lasting injuries.
Michelle shook her head though, making him pause.
“I’m alright, just probably going to have some bruising from the fall, but I’m sure that’s normal.”
Micah nodded, getting to his face, and held out a hand to help her.
“Yeah, but it goes away after a few days, but please don’t go jumping off buildings again. I definitely don’t know if I’m going to be there next time.”
Michelle nodded, not stunned or anything, but from the sincereness in his words. As if knowing that she might do it again just to try, but Michelle was already making a note to herself not to do something that dumb again.
It wasn’t something that she wanted to risk all that much.
After that, they brushed themselves and headed out of the building and back onto the streets, deciding to just walk home.
Michelle really did leave that far from her work place, and Patience wanted to sleep and stay in for the day.
Micah on the other hand, walked her home, instinctively reacting to anything around them, as if trying to make sure there wasn’t any further danger following them.
When they got to the entrance of the building that Michelle lived in, Micah looked at her again, running a hand through his hair with a sigh.
“Be safe getting up and I’ll see you at work tomorrow."
He went to leave, but Michelle stopped him for a moment placing a hand on his shoulder.
“Micah, I’m sorry for this afternoon, I shouldn’t have even thought or acted on the idea.”
She said, Micah just stared at her for a moment before actually leaning forward and hugging her tightly again.
“I’m just glad you're okay Michelle,” he said, “but please know that there are better ways for Green Spider to reach, you know I’ve always enjoyed our conversations.”
That last part was whispered, and he drew back from her, they were already getting weird looks from the people in her lobby.
It only took a moment for her to realize what the man said, while he walked away, giving a final wave before fully going.
Michelle stared for a moment, before laughing out loud, getting another round of stares, before she started up towards her apartment.
On a different day she’ll actually deal with the thought, but for now she was fine with letting it be.