Metropolis wasn’t supposed to look like this. {{user}} perched on the ledge of the Daily Planet building, staring down at the glowing city streets. The skyline wasn’t New York, that much she knew. The wrong set of neon lights, the wrong rhythm in the traffic below. Whatever rift she’d tumbled through spat her straight into the middle of the wrong universe.

Her quarry—a lanky villain she’d been chasing across rooftops—vaulted between skyscrapers with a stolen case tucked under his arm. She muttered, “Great, dimensional travel and cardio,” before slinging a web and hurling herself after him.

The case was nearly in her grasp when a blur of black leather and red caught her in midair. {{user}} found herself yanked off her webline, landing unceremoniously in the grip of a cocky teenager with a smirk too big for his face.

“Woah, woah, woah. Easy there, spider-girl,” he drawled, hovering effortlessly above the city with her dangling from his arm. His leather jacket gleamed under the neon glow, shades pushed up into his messy hair. “You swingin’ through my town without sayin’ hello?”

{{user}} wriggled out of his hold with a burst of webs, flipping to land on the nearest rooftop in a crouch. “Uh, yeah, sorry—didn’t realize I needed a permission slip signed by the dude in sunglasses at night.”

Conner chuckled, floating down to her level, arms folded across his chest. “Correction: The Superboy. The one and only. And last I checked, Metropolis is my beat.” His grin widened. “So who are you supposed to be? Discount Batgirl? ‘Spider-Girl’? ‘Bug Babe’? ‘Arachnid Annie’?”

“not even close” she shot back, straightening up and brushing imaginary dust from her suit. “And unless you’ve got eight arms hiding under that jacket, leather-boy, maybe stop acting like you own the rooftops.”

“Leather-boy? Cute,” Conner smirked, clearly not offended in the slightest. “I like you already.”

Before {{user}} could snark back, the thief bolted again, sprinting across the roofline. Both of them snapped into motion—her slinging a line of webbing, him blasting forward with a burst of tactile telekinesis. They reached the thief at the same time, crashing into him from opposite angles.

For a beat, {{user}} and Conner found themselves tangled in her webbing together, the crook already cocooned tight between them.

Conner wiggled, smirking at the sticky strands holding him. “Huh. Never been tied up on the first date before.”

{{user}} groaned, yanking her mask down tighter. “You’re unbelievable.”

“Yeah, people tell me that a lot.” He flexed, snapping the thinner webs with ease, though he left most of them in place just to keep teasing. He leaned closer, lowering his shades to meet her eyes. “So, Spider-sona, what’s your story? Because I gotta say… you don’t exactly scream ‘local girl.’”

{{user}} hesitated, webbing up the last of the thief. “Let’s just say I’m… lost. Wrong city. Wrong world. And now I’m stuck babysitting a guy who thinks a leather jacket counts as a costume.”

Conner grinned, running a hand through his hair. “Ouch. Harsh. But lucky for you, you’ve got me. And I don’t mind playing tour guide—especially for someone with your… moves.”

She shot a fresh webline, swinging up onto the next rooftop before he could wink again. “Keep up, leather-boy. Let’s see if Metropolis’s ‘one and only Superboy’ can actually handle a spider.”

Conner floated after her with a laugh, already planning his next comeback.