Gwen smiled as she luxuriated in her favorite hobby; web-swinging through the city. The crisp evening air felt great as she rode the rollercoaster of soaring between buildings and freefalling to accelerating with every upswing.

Things had been relatively quiet after she and Batgirl captured the Riddler. The stolen items were sent back to the proper owners and there were no major crimes or developments afterwards. That left Gwen free to do what she wanted. Which mostly meant web-swinging around and stopping the occasional street crime she ran across.

She was aware that the feeling of freedom she got from it would fade into routine eventually, but that wasn't happening today. Gwen felt like she was floating as she reached the apex of a swing and shot off a webline that anchored itself to a nearby radio tower. A quick tug reeled her in until she was able to grab the metal tower and stick there, giving the wall-crawler a decent view over the Gotham skyline and the sunset in the distance.

Gwen liked looking out over the city from up here. Things were small enough that you couldn't see some of the nastier stuff – the trash, graffiti, and most of the smells – but you could still look down and see how busy it all was. It was pretty relaxing in her opinion.

A buzz pulled her from her thoughts and she checked the nifty communicator she had been given to see who was contacting her. Turns out it was a forwarded call from Barbara reaching out to Gwen's civilian phone.

Answering it, Gwen leaned back against the metal tower, feeling the warmth from the sunlight soak into her back through the suit. "Hey, what's up?"

"Hi, question for you," Barbara answered. "Do you know a Samuel Masters? Lanky guy, late-forties, blonde hair?"

Gwen paused and thought about it. "I don't think so? There was a Danny Masters in one of my college courses though. Why?"

"It might be nothing but he's been going around the charity a lot and name dropping you. Saying how he encouraged you to start developing your first game."

"Weird. Should I be worried?"

"I don't think so?" Barbara didn't sound as certain as Gwen would have liked. "It's not like he's saying he had a hand in anything. More just networking and telling people he has an 'in' with you."

Gwen blinked at that. "I didn't realize people wanted an 'in' with me. I mean yeah, Jetpack Joyride sold alright but it's not like I'm some big name developer."

"I couldn't tell you what he's after but thought you should know. I'll let you know if anything else pops up."

"...you're really bored at that charity thing aren't you?"

Barbara sighed. "A little." She admitted. "I know it's important, but this isn't my idea of a good time."

"Better you than me." Gwen chirped smugly. Barbara had tried convincing her to tag along as a plus one. The fact that Barbara was calling her proved she made the correct decision to skip out. "In fact–"

A screaming siren cut off her next statement. Gwen looked down to see a firetruck racing down the streets.

"– sorry, something urgent came up. I'll call you back." She ended the call and jumped off the tower and started swinging after the rushing engine.

-o-

It wasn't long until Ghost Spider didn't need to follow the firetruck to figure out where it was going thanks to the thick black smoke rising up into the sky.

Ditching the roads and just swinging directly over the buildings meant that she made better time to the source anyway. What greeted her was a veritable inferno engulfing an old apartment building from the bottom up. And while there was already a firetruck and crew there, the firefighters seemed to be doing their best to just keep the blaze under control, unable to actually get far enough into the building on their own to put out the source.

Ghost Spider landed on the top of the truck just in time to overhear a firefighter screaming into a headset. "I don't care how you do it, I need those ladders here five minutes ago!" The firefighter ripped the headset off in frustration and looked like he was ready to throw it into the fire, but settled for angrily running a hand through his hair instead.

Ghost Spider though now would be a good time to introduce herself.

Dropping down far enough she wouldn't startle the man, she waved as she called out. "Hi there, I see you've got a pretty hot situation on your hands. Any way I can help?"

The firefighter eyed her for a second before almost visibly dismissing her. "Unless you have some fire retardant in that spandex you're just going to get in the way. I appreciate the offer but you can't punch out fires."

'If you punch hard enough, technically…' Ghost Spider snarked silently. "I heard you talking about ladders a second ago. I'm guessing you need to evacuate the upper levels but can't get the people out?"

The man sighed explosively. "Yes, we can't get through the lower levels and the fire escapes that aren't missing are maybe one good push from coming off the wall. Now please move back, I need to get back to work."

Ghost Spider nodded, not really offended. "I can help get people down. You have a spot you want me putting them?"

The firefighter opened his mouth, probably to tell her to move away again, until he processed what she said. He quickly looked between her and the burning building and made a call. "What's your name, kid?"

"Ghost Spider."

"Right. Captain Ron Dylandy. If you can help those people, get them to the front of the engine. The ambulances are on the way and should set up near there. If you're just making claims – or god forbid, just fucking with me – I'll find a way to make you pay for wasting time. Got it?"

Ghost Spider snapped a salute. "Aye aye, Captain! You have a preference where I start?"

"Top floor down." Captain Dylandy said shortly and turned to direct the new fire engine that rolled up to the scene.

Ghost Spider didn't waste time and weblined directly to the sixth floor and made her way through one of the windows where she was immediately swarmed by the panicking occupants.

"Hiya folks, I'm gonna help get you out of here, but first you all need to CALM DOWN and LISTEN!" She shouted over the general racket. "I need you all to line up so I can do this quickly, children and elderly first. And if anyone can let the people on the lower floors know to make their way up here, that would help a lot."

That got most of the people to start cooperating and Ghost Spider didn't wait around for the rest. A couple young children, around five at most, were pushed towards the front. Ghost Spider crouched in front of them and smiled, her eyes forming upside down crescents. "You kids ready to get out of here?" She asked as she scooped them up. "I'm going to get you down to the nice firefighters on the ground. You just hold on tight, okay?" Not that she was leaving it up to the kids. Ghost Spider could stick to walls with practically any part of her body. Holding onto a couple of kids was nothing in comparison.

Ghost Spider quickly fell into a pattern. She would grab two people from the burning building and ferry them to the street before heading back and doing it again and again. It wasn't all smooth sailing and more than once she had to deal with someone panicking or trying to push ahead of the others but after a while Ghost Spider deposited the last one in front of the EMTs that had shown up at some point and breathed a sigh of relief. The old apartment building was giving the firefighters a hell of a time and they were barely able to keep it from spreading from the second floor anymore. The third was starting to catch and from the grim way the firefighters were looking, they might have decided that letting the fire burn out in a controlled manner was their only option.

"Ghost Spider, are you done with the evacuation?" an increasingly stressed looking Captain Dylandy asked as he walked up.

"Floors six to four at least." Ghost Spider confirmed, snapping to a slightly sarcastic salute. It got some of the younger crowd to laugh or at least smile so she considered it worth it. "Need me to check out the rest of the building?"

"I don't want anyone without full gear and training anywhere close to this blaze." Captain Dylandy scowled. "Unless you're fireproof?" Ghost Spider shook her head negatively. Thanks to the nature of her Klyntar suit, she was actually a little more vulnerable to fire. Not less. "Then you've done more than enough. Leave the rest to–" "Please, he's still in there! You have to get him out!" A loud scream interrupted their conversation.

Both of them looked over to see a frantic looking woman trying to push past the line of bystanders and was barely being kept back by one of the responders.

"Please, my son, he's still in there!"

The fire captain was on the move immediately with Ghost Spider trailing a step behind him. There was a time to be a nosey superhero and a time to know when it was better to let the professionals work. She could always be nosey and run off on her own later.

"Ma'am, are you sure your son is still inside?"

"Yes! We had a scare a few days ago. I told him never to open the door or leave the apartment without me or his father!" Meaning he had taken that to the extreme and wouldn't leave even if there was a fire.

"Where would he be?" Dylandy asked, then cursed when the woman answered. It was an apartment in the middle of the third floor. The same one that had just started going up where the firefighters couldn't reach. Any rescuers wouldn't be able to go through the windows. They would have to actually walk through the floor.

"Damn. I'll have to pull a couple people off the hoses." he muttered.

Ghost Spider felt like this was a good time to poke into things. "You sure you can afford to? Your guys look like they're barely keeping ahead of the fire."

"You have a better idea then, kid?"

"Yeah, I'll go."

Captain Dylandy grabbed her by the shoulder. "Kid, this isn't the same as before. One wrong move could see you roasted easy as that." He snapped his fingers.

"Wouldn't be much of a superhero if I didn't take risks." Ghost Spider brushed his hand off. "You keep working on the fire, I'll handle the kid."

Then Ghost Spider took off before anyone could say anything else.

-o-

"Yeah, that looks like a fire alright." Ghost Spider muttered under her breath as she moved through the building. It wasn't so bad by the windows, but the firefighters' hoses couldn't get all the way inside and the fire had begun climbing up the stairwells deeper inside and was spilling out everywhere it could.

Ghost Spider decided speed was her friend here and booked it until she found the correct unit number. After running through the basic checks to ensure she wasn't going straight into a bonfire she opened the door. Unfortunately she was only partially right about the fire. The living room was nearly engulfed and getting closer. Ghost Spider wasn't going to be able to do anything about that so she sprinted towards the bedrooms instead.

"I should have asked for the kid's name." she berated herself as she did the same check on the door to the left. She started a quick but thorough search only to pause when she heard weak coughing coming from the other room. Ghost Spider spun on her heel and went back to the other door immediately.

This door opened to reveal dark black smoke pooling on the ceiling with more pouring out of an air vent. More distressing was the young child collapsed in the space between the wall and his bed, doing his best to cough out the smoke with little success. She was by his side in a flash.

"Hey there, just hang on a minute and I'll get you out of here." She said gently while checking the boy over. Besides the smoke inhalation, some red eyes, and the coughing he seemed in good shape.

" 'm not sp'os'd to go whi' str'ng'rs…" the boy murmured. "Mom said…"

"That's really smart of you, but your mom is the one who sent me to get you." Ghost Spider coaxed. "I'm going to take you to her, okay? It's not safe here."

"Sup'rhero?" the boy asked when he managed to look at her.

"Yep. One superhero to the rescue. Now relax and hold tight, 'kay?"

The heroine scooped the boy up and made her way out of the bedroom. In the small amount of time she was talking the flames had spread to cover the entirety of the rest of the apartment. There was a loud crackling sound as part of the floor collapsed into the apartment below.

Yeah, time to leave.

"It's going to get real hot for a bit. Just hold on and we'll be out in no time." She reassured again. The boy whimpered and buried his head further into her collarbone but he did try holding on just a bit tighter.

Deciding not to risk the floor, Ghost Spider webbed the outside hallway and yanked the both of them along. A series of quick contortions and some even quicker reflexes had her pulling both of them down the corridor until she reached the spot she had entered from. A cheer greeted her as she swung down to the ambulance and everyone realized the kid was safe.

Ghost Spider handed him off to one of the paramedics and was briefly assaulted by an extremely grateful mother before she ran off to be with her son.

Throughout it all, Ghost Spider couldn't help but feel like this might have been the single most heroic thing she had done since she had gotten her powers. Not dealing with the mob, fighting supervillains, or recovering stolen items. Just making the difference for one person when no one else could, even if that person was just a single scared kid.

Ghost Spider smiled as she watched the mother hug her son. That alone made everything worth it.