2014.01.18 - Along Came a Spider

At the end of Miles' school day his teacher informed him that the headmistress of the Academy, Emma Frost wished to speak with him that afternoon. Thankfully the teacher didn't look particularly concerned when sharing this news, it was fairly common for the headmistress to do. Well, beyond just the necessary disciplinary actions.

When he arrived to the top floor, and allowed in by her personal assistant, Emma was sitting behind her desk looking through her laptop. She was dressed in a simple gray suit, with a blue silk shirt underneath with silver glasses.

Emma smiled when Miles entered her office and gestured to the seat in front of her, closing the laptop as well, "Mr. Morales. Please have a seat."

Miles Morales makes his way into the office almost nervously, though unable to hold back his curiosity and glancing around quickly. He turns his attention back to Emma when she greets him, though, and he answers, "Hi, Miss Frost." He steps over to the indicated seat and sits down.

Emma opens her top drawer and pulls out a manila folder from it. There is silence for a moment as Emma glances through the contents. She rests her chin on the back of her fingers, "Hm. First things first...excellent test grades. Little lacking in sciences, but apply yourself and that could change. We have some of the best minds here. Your attendance could also be improved."

Her left brow quirks as she closes shut the folder, and makes eye contact, "Let's talk about that. Shall we?"

Miles Morales nods a little bit and says, "Yeah... I *try* to be in classes on time, but things keep happening..." He shrugs a bit nervously. "I still manage to keep up in most of my classes," he adds hopefully.

There is another moment of silence. She lets out a soft laugh, and leans back in her chair and to the side, "I know you do. But that isn't particularly why I called you up here today. Now that there aren't scalpels being shot at us everywhere, I wanted to assure you that your secret is safe with me."

She took off her glasses and placed them onto the desk, "Meaning for one...should anyone come to know your secret, and you want that fixed I could be of some help."

Miles Morales lets out a breath of relief and nods, "I wanted to talk to you about that, yeah. Wasn't sure how long you knew..." Then blinks at the last offer and says, "Oh, wow." And for a moment, his thoughts flash to his uncle and occasional calls to blackmail Miles, but he doesn't mention this out loud. He shakes his head and says, "Don't think that'd be right. At least, not unless things get really bad."

Emma nodded, "I mean that purely on a life or death basis, not like...say you dropped your backpack in the middle of school. I know you are responsible."

She rose to her feet and moved to look out the window, "I've known since the convention. But I knew you had /some/ sort of secret. Just wasn't quite sure what."

Miles Morales nods and says, "As long as my dad doesn't find out. I almost got pulled from school when he found out you were a mutant, at the convention. My mom put her foot down over that, but..." He shrugs a little. "Um.. you said, or thought, something about combat training at the party?"

Emma quirked a brow and turned to look at Miles, she would remember that for any parent teacher conference. His mother currently gained a brownie point. She nodded, "Yes. I have a few options in mind for martial arts training. Your raw skill is fantastic, but it's time to fine tune a bit. What do you think?"

Miles Morales grins and says, "That'd be awesome. I don't really have any skills. I've mainly been watching old cell-phone videos of Spider-man and Scarlet Spider and trying to copy what I see. And just think up new moves as I need them. I don't even come close to them, though."

Emma let out a soft chuckle as she returned back to her seat, resting her elebows onto the surface of her desk and steepled her fingers together, "Actually I can easily acquire one of those two names. They will only know you as 'The Spider', of course. Would you be interested?"

Miles Morales blinks again and says, "Wow, really? Yeah, that'd be great! I know Scarlet Spider's willing to help me. He gave me my costume and webshooters. We were supposed to train more but he sort of disappeared. Spider-man, though, he doesn't really want to work with us. I think he's afraid we'll figure out his identity or something. He gave me his web formula, but he's not been around much."

A smirk spread across Emma's face, "The Scarlet Spider was who I had in mind, in fact. I've been reviewing footage of them as well, I like his tactics. And I can assure you Miles, I can find anyone."

She tapped at the side of her forehead, "Don't you worry. While I have you here, did you have anything you wish to discuss?"

Miles Morales grins, "Cool." Then he nods again and says, "Yeah. Um... I was wondering, if I needed to, is there any other teachers I can trust?"

Emma leaned back onto her chair and rested an arm onto the arm rest, "Yes. Specifically you can trust Mr. Hall and West with your secret, if you wish. But I would get to know them first. Beyond that there are other students who know how to handle large secrets, and other teachers as well."

She opened back up her drawer and pulled out a flash drive, sliding it towards him, "On this you'll find as much video footage I've acquired of the other Spider's whereabouts. Mostly video cam footage, but some better high resolution mobile video. Perhaps this will suffice until I can acquire your new tutor."

She stood at her desk and held out her hand to shake Miles', "Thank you again for coming to see me, and entrusting me with your secret. I am most eager to see what you can accomplish."

Miles Morales nods and says, "I'm not gonna go right out and tell them. Just wanted to know who I can trust, besides Ganke, if something like the party happens again." He smiles and nods, "Thanks for keeping my secret." He stands up then.