**This plot is the only thing I lay claim to. The Character of Spider-Girl belongs to Marvel Comics and the Character of Nightwing belongs to DC Comics.**
You and Me means Team... Right?
They had an almost unspoken agreement. She would patrol during the day while he got the nightshift. It was more comfortable this way; for both of them.
It was something that made things easier for the both of them. Of course, there were times when they were required to team up to take down a 'Big-Bad', but those were few and in-between.
It was convenient; it made their dual lives somewhat bearable. Not that they knew their civilian personas, at least, she didn't know his… He, unfortunately for her, had been trained by this world's greatest detective… while she, she mainly relied on her scientific know-how, back/double-talk and agility to get her out of messes.
Together, Bludhaven was their town; she was bright, he was dark.
She was Spider-Girl and he was Nightwing.
The Webs and Wings of Bludhaven, that's what the local media called them; they really didn't care what the crooks called them.
When he'd first come to Bludhaven, six weeks AFTER she'd been cosmically dumped on her webbed behind in this Hell's Kitchen reject of a city, she'd complained; and webbed a few of his grapples in retaliation for taking down her thugs and informants. He of course had pranked her right back by greasing some of her favorite sight-see spots, she hadn't quite forgiven him for greasing her spot next to 'Greg the Gargoyle'.
But then, they'd ended up teaming up against a 'Big-Bad' from the Justice League and had dumped said 'Big-Bad' outside city-limits with a sign webbed to his chest to "keep the wackadoo-creeps away from Bludhaven"; course that didn't work, and they'd been swamped for three weeks with an influx of baddies of various types and sizes. That was when they'd discussed the situation over coffee in uniform; she'd swung by Stellarbucks (literally) and picked up a couple mocha's and met Nightwing just as he was about to start his patrol. Basic conversation was: 'I don't like you, you don't like me, but I like the bad-guys even less… Truce?'
Of course they were human, so the dislike turned to tolerance which turned into being mild-frienemies.
There were days when she'd find an iced-tea perched on Greg, like in the middle of summer when the days were long; and there were nights, like in the depths of winter, when he'd find a hot double-shot espresso latte on 'George the Griffin' (they were nothing if not creative).
The League had tried to come in, as had Nightwing's old team; but Spider-Girl and Nightwing weren't sharing their city with anyone, even temporarily; and especially not for a 'Big-Bad' take-down.
So when they were both simultaneously yoinked into a transmatter-zeta-beam and up into the Watch Tower, they were less than thrilled. Spider-Girl was just coming off her patrol and had teamed up with Nightwing to stop a 'Big-Bad' and had finished the fight with handing the 'Big-Bad' over to the cops when it happened.
Nightwing had greeted his former team and mentor with a big grin which then turned dark as he demanded why both of them had been pulled here. Spider-Girl could have sworn that the shadows in the Watch Tower got deeper momentarily in response.
Spider-Girl had to admit that Aqualad was definitely cute/hottie material, but knew that a relationship would never work.
"Hi, Spider-Girl was it?" It was Miss Martian; great, she wanted to talk. Normally Spider-Girl had no problems with talking to a fellow superhero, but she was tired, she was decidedly out of her element; and there was nothing more that she'd like to do than go home and see her Avengers team, yes, even Saber-Claw.
"The webs give it away?" Spider-Girl asked drolly, she crossed her arms across her chest, which ached horrendously; busted ribs were nothing to joke about when you swing from webs and use acrobatic maneuvers.
Batman was no nonsense as he spoke to Nightwing, and there was no way that Spider-Girl was going to butt-in on that conversation.
"Whelmed yet?" Robin asked Spider-Girl.
"We're nowhere near an undertow so it's physically impossible." Spider-Girl said turning her large reflective lenses to face the latest partner of the Batman.
Nightwing overheard and looked back towards her, startled. She merely turned her head minutely to face her… partner? Nah….Not quite; her body language spoke of boredom and long-suffering (something that Nightwing shared, but it was mainly his shoulders and head, he was almost positive that he had a minor concussion- it would have been worse had Spider-Girl not swung in and took the brunt of the blow, thus her probably cracked ribs.); Nightwing decided to wrap it up, that was when he noticed Superboy missing.
"Where's SB?"
"That is the problem; his genetic structure has started to break down." Aqualad said stepping forward. "We have him currently detained and sedated in the cordoned medical quarters."
Despite her physical condition, this was something Spider-Girl knew well. Nightwing had informed her of his former teammates, specifically their 'first' mission, where they met Superboy, the clone of Superman. She had at least two or three uncles and an aunt from the cloning of her dad; and she stepped up to the bio-engineering plate.
"What are his mental symptoms?" Spider-Girl asked of the room in general.
"You don't worry about his physical symptoms?" Zatanna, one of the League's magic-user's asked.
Spider-Girl shook her head in the negative. "Physical symptoms accrue in time, Mental symptoms are immediate and unless treated, result in psychotic break." Spider-Girl said. "Have there been any anger issues, freak-outs, deficits in character that couldn't be explained?"
The room was suspiciously quiet.
"From the start then…" Spider-Girl groaned, putting her gloved hand to her fully-masked face. She turned to face Nightwing fully. "I'll need unimpeded access to a Molecular-lab with nanite capabilities. As well as your full and complete support in taking care of Bludhaven while I'm on Million-Dollar-Man duty." The latter she requested of Nightwing, and that was just the top of the list, there were several implements, devices and chemicals that were on the list as well.
It was ridiculous how fast the League and younger team agreed to her terms. Robin volunteered to assist Nightwing in taking care of Bludhaven, but was nixed both by Nightwing and Batman.
Spider-Girl was too involved with looking over Superboy's information to add her nix in, but she did make a request that Nightwing fly by her place to pick up her mini-Laptop and the First-Aid kit beneath the kitchen sink. Batman immediately introduced her to Atom, and she gave him the breakdown on things that needed to be done.
Once Spider-Girl had her lab and was finished setting up, she even had Superman report to her for some reason, alone. When he walked out of the enclosed private lab, there was a suspicious tint in his cheeks. No-one made any comment.
When Nightwing returned, she accepted both the bag with the First-Aid kit and her mini-Laptop as well as the other bag filled with her favorite quick eats. After some Necessary time, she went back into the lab and immediately started to work.
The new Kid Flash was her lab go-fer, someone she could have very easily done without, and the Atom was her assistant. Because she had seen it all done before, and had assisted with stabilizing another clone that was degenerating, she knew what had to be done and startled Nightwing and the rest of the League with her efficiency. For someone who likes to be underestimated and finds joy in the simple things in life, this fact made her day/week.
The fact that she'd cut the month-long process down to a mere week was amazing, the fact that she'd been going almost non-stop to save their teammate with only twenty-minute naps to keep her going was astounding and scary, as was the fact that she only spared ten minutes for daily-upkeep, or so she said.
No-one was complaining about her personal habits.
Nightwing stopped by and spoke with her for about ten minutes as she analyzed the newest specimen before leaving, about half-way through the week. Of course he should have known better;
"What did we say about eating in the lab?!" Spider-Girl demanded of Nightwing as he finished off his protein-bar.
"Did we say we liked it?" Nightwing asked.
When he was looking into a microscope, Spider-Girl got even by spatting a web into his loose hair, it made her feel better, and it would make Nightwing look like a dope.
"How bad was he… Really…?"
Spider-Girl wished, not for the first time that her dad hadn't made their uniform-type with a full head mask, there were times when she wished she could thrust her hands through her hair. But then she remembered the fact of their occupation: saving and protecting the city; their acrobatics, the fact that he had to protect Great Aunt May, and She, Spider-Girl had to protect her family, especially her younger brother, Ben. The thought of her brother brought a sad smile to her face; mentally she shook her head got back to the task at hand.
"Bad." Spider-Girl said succinctly. "Several clusters in his brain ceased to fire causing molecular necrosis, which was the cause of his anger issues. Add in the fact, thanks to the information I gleaned from the computer databanks and members of your old team, that the 'Shields' he'd used seven years ago suppressed his human side, escalated his degeneration, leaving him to barely be able to master the lower limits of his strength. The constant telepathy, which is normal for a telepath-fed-education, which you and your team used for years stabilized him somewhat, slowing the degeneration, but not fully stopping the escalation. The people who created him didn't know how to cope with Kryptonian DNA, and failed to realize that immediate solar radiation, no matter how young affects the fetus, especially that of a Kryptonian-hybrid."
"So basically, they kind-of fried both Superboy and his schizoid-brother at fetal stage and irreversibly corrupted their DNA?"
"Did I say that it was irreversible? I never said that." Spider-Girl scoffed shaking her head. "No, no, no! See, I was able, with Superman's help, to pull apart the degenerated tissue from Superboy and was able to replace it with the corrected DNA. In order to do that, I had to work in extremely dark conditions with Superboy."
"How dark is dark?"
"Pitch." Spider-Girl said. "With the corrected DNA implanted into Superboy, and lack of solar-radiation we were able to re-establish full connection with the formerly necrotic areas and make him stable until he needs another treatment. But there is another issue, which ties in with the 'another treatment'; they halted his aging, and I need to find a way to reverse it; all I, we, can do is wait for Superboy to wake up and once he has, then I'll find a way to reverse the non-aging process."
Nightwing almost asked just precisely how she and the Atom had managed that, but decided that some things were better left a mystery. "And how long will it take for SB to wake-up?" Nightwing asked, as Spider-Girl stretched as tall as she could without stressing her ribs too badly.
"Not long…." Spider-Girl stated with a pleased groan.
"How long does it take for your ribs to heal?"
"For a normal human broken bone it takes a minimum of two almost-three months; for me and mine, it takes a week, but that means a normal sleep pattern, proper meals and whatnot; but if the times demand it, we found a cocktail that hastens our healing to three days; from there-" Spider-Girl leaned back until her head brushed her calves, popping her back; demonstrating that her ribs no longer bothered her. "Well- we only use it as a last resort as it drains our immune-system…"
"How long does the drain last?"
"Two, four days- it depends on the injury…" Spider-Girl said. "Look things are solid here, no reason for you or me to stay, I already filed a report for Batman…"
"Then let's go sort out why criminals should fear the Webs and Wings of Bludhaven…"
"Vanilla-Chai latte after?" Spider-Girl asked hopefully.
"… Depends on the Big-Bad." Nightwing said placing a hand on the back of her shoulder, escorting her to the Zeta-tubes.
It turned out that their Big-Bad was another wackadoo-creep that had come to Bludhaven, and the battle was long and drawn out and they had had to threaten the Justice League and the younger team not to come and try to help or dire consequences would be heaped on them.
After the round of battle with this particular weird Big-Bad, one that required the witticisms of both Nightwing and Spider-Girl to confuse and mock their strangely and crookedly advantageous Big-Bad called CarrionCrook; who was in the habit of taking bank/hotel hostages and eating them (why he was attacking a hotel and taking hostages was odd for them; restaurants and banks yes- but hotels?... Really odd.). They had to reiterate the threat to the League, Miss Martian was adamant about joining in on the battle, so was the kid, Beast Boy. Both were currently out of the way and knocked out, webbed to keep them in place.
They had decided to join in and almost completely compromised the fight for Nightwing and Spider-Girl, sending Spider-Girl crashing into and through a plate-glass window; with an exchanged frustrated glance, Webs and Wings quickly took Miss Martian and Beast Boy out of the equation before they aided the enemy any more than they already had.
CarrionCrook had been able to twist anything they did to his benefit, and it took nearly all their know-how to torque his mind into a way that they could actually win the fight.
Of course along the way they forced him into a situation where- well, he, Nightwing, turned into the fist of Spider-Girl in order to confound CarrionCrook. It worked, painfully for one extent or another on the part of the heroes, specifically Nightwing.
As soon as they delivered a one-two blow, The one thing that neither of them expected was to see CarrionCrook explode, or rather implode, actually- he did something that was like the 'screaming/melting-thing of the Wicked Witch of the West'-esque. Apparently he had to eat people just to exist on Earth… Gross.
"Hah! What do you think of that?" Spider-Girl cheerily asked Nightwing as she faced the now open roof, before she stopped, turned, and eyed his new black-eye. Apparently, sleep deprivation was finally kicking in; Spider-Girl needed a full eight hours of un-interrupted sleep.
"Ugh… I know what I think of that- but I'm not going to say it in public…." Nightwing grumbled in long-suffering with one of his fists clenched as he tenderly touched eye and cheekbone; he was still seeing stars somewhat and he was almost certain that Spider-Girl had cracked or at the very least severely bruised his cheekbone.
"Yea- ooh…"
Nightwing couldn't actually see the facial expressions of Spider-Girl, but her head and body movements as well as her banter made up for his actual lack of visual.
"Sorry 'bout that." Spider-Girl on the other hand had no problems actually seeing Nightwing's facial expressions, she did feel rather guilty about the black eye though… That was when she took a deep-breath and froze as the glass still embedded in her back made itself known.
"Just… as soon as you're done holding a grudge, would you help me pull these odd knives out of my back?" Spider-Girl gasped out.
"Shouldn't we take care of Miss Martian and Beast Boy?" Nightwing asked her; semi-ignoring her question.
"Can't we just drop them off in a Zeta-Beam teleporter and be done with it?" Spider-Girl grumbled, awkwardly webbing her back to try to draw out as much of the glass as possible when they, rather Nightwing, pulled the web off.
"We did tell them not to help." Nightwing considered; then he said: "come on, nearest Zeta-Beam is in East Gotham."
"Before we, meaning: I, tote these two- would you yank on the webbing? I don't want the embedded glass to go in any farther than it already has from the fight…"
"Sure."
After Nightwing made Spider-Girl sit and he removed the glass, and Spider-Girl had re-webbed her back to aid in healing it, they made for East Gotham; well- they would have had not Spider-Girl asked about Miss Martian's Bioship and why it wasn't in the vicinity.
Nightwing grimaced, Spider-Girl was better at noticing some of the smaller things and some of the most blatantly obvious hidden in plain sight, which in this case the Bioship was.
After they found the Bioship and had it open its hatch, they dropped off their cargo and had the Bioship return to the rest of Nightwing's old team.
That done, Spider-Girl went home for a good night's sleep and Nightwing, with some of Spider-Girl's know-how, was armed with a cooling patch under his mask. Fortunately it was skin-tone and the benefit was it kept the swelling down and it increased healing in the wounded area.
The next day, Spider-Girl had just landed next to Greg the Gargoyle to see the thermo-encased iced tea that she preferred on these hot summer days. There was something to be said for working nights… Patrolling high above a city filled with concrete, glass and steel was not the best if you didn't like the heat. Fortunately for her, her shift as 'the Webs of Bludhaven' was just about over.
Spider-Girl smiled behind her mask and reached for the thermos only for her Spider-sense to go off and send her immediately jumping for an… office, six floors… down?
With her Spider-sense still keening in her skull, she saw a young woman about twenty sitting alone in an office. That in itself wasn't odd; the fact that all the other offices were closed for the night and the lights were off, and her Spider-sense was screaming at her was.
Spider-Girl knocked on the window, causing the girl to start and jerk around in surprise. She was even more surprised to see Spider-Girl perched on the glass. Spider-Girl made a motion to open the window and after a second, the young woman nodded and pointed to the corner window.
As soon as it was open, Spider-Girl crawled in and closed it behind her.
"Hi there- I'm Spider-Girl; who are you?"
"Kathy. Kathy Jones-Smythe…"
"Well then Kathy Jones-Smythe, why are you here?" Beneath her mask, Spider-Girl raised an eyebrow at the 'Alice in Wonderland' paraphernalia on Kathy Jones-Smythe's desk.
"I was told to stay late by Mr. Chystoff… He- he said there was something that only I could do…!"
"This Mr. Chystoff isn't a very… private person is he? Like to keep in touch only by e-mail?" Spider-Girl asked, her Spider-sense still blaring inside her skull, it was starting to feel like her nerves were on fire.
"How did you know?"
"Lucky guess." Spider-Girl stated drolly. That was when her Spider-sense vaulted up to an eleven. "Come on then! Lots to do!" Jerking to face the door.
"What do you mean: Lots to do?!"
"Running! It's called running!" Spider-Girl yelled grabbing Kathy Jones-Smythe by the arm and yanking her after her in a dead-heat run; and out of the room.
As they just exited the room, the door slammed shut and an explosion knocked them off their feet as the floor rolled underneath them.
"How- How did you know that would happen?" Kathy Jones-Smythe gasped, out of breath from the explosion and the forced collision with the floor.
"Experience; it comes with the Tights." Spider-Girl semi-joked, but her Spider-sense was still blaring. "Come on! We're not out of the woods yet, not until you're out of the trap!"
Suddenly a blast door crashed down in front of one of the windows.
"You mean there's more?!"
"What don't you understand about the whole: 'alone in the office, no one to call for help, everyone gone home… this feels most likely like an evil villain's trap' thing?!" Spider-Girl asked exasperated.
Spider-Girl and Kathy Jones-Smythe ended up running through several labs, Kathy Jones- Smythe ran screaming almost the entire way.
Spider-Girl's jokes were running thin and weren't easing the situation. In fact it got worse when they exited one lab, and titanium blast-doors came down behind them and in front of their escape route.
"We're trapped!" Kathy Jones-Smythe shouted in dismay. Looking between the two blocked doors.
"Not trapped; just… Inconveniently circumstanced…" Spider-Girl said trying to make the best of it, searching for a way out; she could make the air-vents easily, and then there were the windows, those could work too.
"Now what are we going to do?!" Kathy Jones-Smythe screamed as arcs of electricity started snapping across her body.
"Now… We hope that 'the Wings of Bludhaven' has noticed that the drink he left for me is still there and that something has gone wrong…" Spider-Girl inched a hand towards Kathy Jones-Smythe in an 'easy-there…' motion.
"Kind of long hope, don't you think?! No! Don't touch me! Every time you grab me, thing just go from bad to worse!"
Spider-Girl snatched her hand back as an electricity arc came millimeters from touching her hand, all the hair on her body stood on end; that was the strength of a lightning bolt… Spider-Girl realized and she backed away ever so slightly.
"Look, I know it's a long-shot… But for me and mine, those are the best shots!" Spider-Girl said with a bounce in her step. "Well that, and the smoke from the explosion most likely pouring out the cracks in the windows from the office we left…" Spider-Girl was trying to calm Kathy Jones-Smythe down, but it really wasn't working; Kathy Jones-Smythe was too keyed up.
"Spidey! You here?!" Came Nightwing's muffled shout.
"Here!" She called back. "Hurry up! She won't move, she's too freaked out and won't let me carry her out!"
"Stand back!"
A small explosion knocked the titanium encased door from its moorings and together, Nightwing and Spider-Girl removed it from the doorway. The room behind him was still in flames, but there weren't any more explosions, weird that the fire-suppression system hadn't kicked in yet… Thus another reason that this was a trap.
Nightwing looked at the young woman for a brief second before turning to Spider-Girl; "She weighs all of 120 and you can't pick her up?"
"She's somehow channeling Lightning! Getting fried is not how I want to get out of here." Spider-Girl exclaimed. "She didn't have powers before, but after dashing through various labs in the building to avoid getting dead, she now does! Talk her down will you? I'm going to find the quickest and safest route out of the building!"
"Who are you?!" The girl demanded.
Spider-Girl made introductions. "Kathy Jones-Smythe, meet Nightwing, 'The Wings of Bludhaven'; Nightwing, this is Kathy Jones-Smythe."
"Hi there. What do you do, who do you work for?"
"I'm a Data-Systems Analyst. I work for Prometheus-Tech…"
"Prometheus… Cadmus…" Spider-Girl muttered, as she made her way through the lab; then she jerked to a stop. "Prometheus and Cadmus!" She quickly made her way to a computer terminal and after hacking through some firewalls, was into the mainframe and downloading data from the Hard and Cloud-Drives.
Once that was done, she put a programming worm into the system that would systematically delete all files pertaining to either. From what Spider-Girl flashed through as she downloaded, Prometheus-Tech was finding a way to steal the powers from Super-Heroes using… a hand-held vacuum? These people were weird.
Nightwing and Kathy Jones-Smythe came up behind her as she worked; "Nightwing, did you notice the thermos?" Spider-Girl cheerfully asked.
"Actually, I noticed the bank of windows of that office below him of blown in, and then I noticed your thermos."
"I'm going to need to find a new 'Greg' won't I?"
"Yeah, Greg found the ground; he couldn't take the repercussions of the explosions. Good news is your tea survived the fall…"
"Great! I'll need something to rinse my mouth out with after this is all over…"
Nightwing sent a dry smirk in her direction over Kathy Jones-Smythe's head. "You're such the charmer…"
"Is there a way out? Up preferably?" Kathy Jones-Smythe asked slightly hysterically.
"I've got her…" Nightwing stated with a sigh.
Nodding, Spider-Girl dashed about the area looking for a way out, up in due preference to Kathy.
No other way out; and the stools not working against the windows, that left down. But there was nothing in the lab that would serve to even dent the floor.
That left Nightwing's explosives. Spider-Girl jogged back into the room and saw that Nightwing wasn't having any better luck than she had.
"Kathy, tell me about this Mr. Chystoff…" Spider-Girl said, swinging Kathy Jones-Smythe up and onto her back.
"No one really knows anything…" Kathy said, using her arms to secure herself to Spider-Girls' back.
"Founder of the company?" Nightwing asked as he ran alongside Kathy and Spider-Girl. "Never seen any glimpse of him other than his picture?" He finished.
"How did you… KNOW?!" Kathy asked then screamed as Spider-Girl and Nightwing jolted into the stairwell and skipped the stairs down.
"Standard MO for Evil semi-homicidal Maniacs…" Nightwing answered as they free-fell to the bottom.
Just as they were a floor from the bottom, Spider-Girl shot a web-line out and eased their descent to basement level of the building.
"Evil Masterminds and Plots: Ground floor!" Spider-Girl cheered.
"Is there any reason why I had to come along?!" Kathy Jones-Smythe demanded hysterically.
As they landed, Nightwing and Spider-Girl shared a look, "Actually, um- not really, but with no other way out, we're pretty-much your only way out, so best to stick with us…." Nightwing said. He wasn't too keen on keeping the hysterical girl with them, but didn't see another option.
"~Miss Jones-Smythe, I thought I asked you to work late; not lollygag in the basement!~" Came an unknown voice out of one of the speakers along the ceiling.
Kathy Jones-Smythe stammered, "Th- The office I was in exploded, and I would have gone with it had Spider-Girl not gotten me out of the way."
Spider-Girl palmed her face. If the CEO didn't know what had happened, he knew what was happening now, and there was the almost definite possibility of secure- Ah, there they were, Security Cameras connected to a CCTV more than likely in a control room here in the basement.
As the "CEO's" voice made demands/conversation with Kathy Jones-Smythe, Spider-Girl absorbed her surroundings.
Nightwing had been little-to-no help whatsoever and normally he was Mr. Technology with a minor in quippage and banter. There was something that Spider-Girl was definitely missing.
Of course the whole thing wasn't what they thought it was. IN fact it was the complete opposite of what they perceived.
In reality, both Nightwing and Spider-Girl were lying on med-beds in the hospital ward of the Watch Tower.
A Beta-level telepath by the name Kreed (and of course had been subsequently mocked by both heroes as soon as he had declared his name to his audience, [Later Spider-Girl would swear she heard crickets chirping in the background.]) had joined up with the Mad Hatter and found a way to put both Bludhaven heroes out of commission. What they were experiencing was a shared hypno-hallucination.
Aqualad as well as the original members of the Young Justice team were out for blood, but they had no idea which direction to go to; and there was no way that Batman was going to tell them his suspicions on the matter.
So, they had the Bat-clan looking for the Mad Hatter, and Green Arrow was going after Kreed. The reason Green Arrow was going after Kreed, was because, it seemed that Kreed was from Star City and also, that before Mad Hatter and Kreed had knocked them for a loop, Spider-Girl had scored an awesome right-hook, which should have caused a severe concussion and Nightwing had tagged a tracer to the neck of Kreed's spandex. The concussion would make sure that too much movement would be a disaster, and well- the tracer made things that much easier.
Martian Manhunter and Miss Martian as well as Zatanna were keeping the two Bludhaven protectors under surveillance in the hospital ward; the two Martians were constantly scanning the minds of the comatose heroes, but hadn't been able to glean more than nothing had harmed them in their dream-state.
As they ran through the basement, Spider-Girl glanced around her. Things were going by ridiculously fast, so she slowed down. The signs, there was something wrong with the signs…
"I'm gonna go check something out! Be right back!" Nightwing yelled to Spider-Girl and left Kathy Jones-Smythe begging her case to one of the wall/ceiling speakers; with that he dodged off and ran to what he thought was a control room. The blue-prints didn't even show the room; and what was with Spider-Girl? She ran from an 'open' bank of windows with a victim and ran deeper into a maze of a building? Was her 'spider-sense' off or something?! When he got there though, the man whose voice Kath had identified as the nearly never there CEO, sounded out, sounding a lot like… well, KF. But that was impossible as the original Kid Flash perished into the Speed Force helping in saving the world from 'The Reach'!
There was definitely something off about this whole thing. Nightwing brought up the blue-prints of the building again and tried to make sense of them; nothing doing. Things just weren't reading. Nothing made sense!
The only thing clear in his mind was a hard-light flash of 10/6 in his mind's eye which gave him an immense headache.
To him 10/6 only meant one thing: The Mad Hatter had something to do with their predicament.
Then, like a guitar string that was plucked, vibrations shook things to pieces, leaving only Spider-Girl and Nightwing standing in a grey-misty psychic-plane, that Spider-Girl had been told of, but had never experienced.
"Madame Webb?" She questioned the scene, she felt kind of stupid asking nothingness for someone only her father had had dealings with, but who else would have done something like this- It really wasn't Xavier's style…
"Spider-Girl, Nightwing; I trust things are going well?" Madame Webb questioned both heroes; first they heard her voice and then they witnessed her fading into existence, with a unitard/dress ending in a point at her feet, a white spider embossed on her unitard/dress and a white web at the back of her chair extending up into the psychic-planes.
Nightwing immediately noticed the red-blanked out glasses encasing her eyes and her frosted grey hair; for some reason, this woman felt like a combination of Batman and Dr. Fate.
Spider-Girl stammered, Madame Webb was someone that her Dad had dealings with back in his prime- and she was in her sixties then! How was she still alive?!
"Technically I'm not Spider-Girl; as you know I am a psychic and I have pointed your father in the correct direction more than once on his path of life…"
"And made things very confusing for him too."
"Of course; as to why I'm here, well- as a friend from another timeline put it: 'Time isn't linear as you think: it's more like a big ball of Timey-whimey, wibbly-wobbly… stuff'. Some points in it are fixed, and others can be changed."
"That probably sounded better at the start."
"Of course it did, the sentence got away from him…" Madame Webb said with a wistful smile. "Spider-Girl, things are changing for you; you were sent here to make a difference in the way that the Spider always does in its environment, and as soon as you awaken, you will have two days to sort out your affairs before you must return home."
Spider-Girl was startled, but then again, this was Madame Webb's Modis Opperandi; this was how she did things.
"Why does she have to go? Why can't she stay?" Nightwing demanded.
"Because the way that Spiders do things in life are supposed to be short-lived and unappreciated." Madame Webb said turning her chair to face Nightwing head-on. "Spider-Girl is the heart of New York, and like her Father, she needs to return to her city to bring the greater-good."
"With Great Power, comes Great Responsibility." Spider-Girl quoted her dad and great-uncle Ben Parker. It was almost the family Credo, they should either make key-chains or hats; Hats- they sell better… Spider-Girl decided with a nod at her errant thought-pattern.
"Exactly Spider-Girl, which is why you were needed here, just as you are needed back home." And with a wry smile, Madame Webb added: "Hats sell better, but seminars make more money with less up-front cost…"
Spider-Girl and Nightwing stared at Madame Webb in incredulity. With that the scene went back to what they had been in before and after giving one-another a put-out look, they ignored Kathy Jones-Smythe and walked up and out of the basement up the stairs to the lobby where they walked outside and into the path of an out of control semi.
Beneath their masks, their eyes snapped open. Miss Martian, Martian-Manhunter and Zatanna were surprised at their sudden awakening as they had had no idea what was truly going on, and were even more surprised when Spider-Girl and Nightwing removed the medical apparatus from their persons and left the medical-bay heading for the Zeta-Tubes.
Once they were back in Bludhaven, they passed up Greg as it was the evening hours and headed for George. Once there they sat back on either side of George and stared across the cityscape in silence.
Finally Spider-Girl couldn't stand the silence anymore, and moved till her body was perpendicular to the building's wall. "So I was thinking: Nothing fancy…. Just a brass band, a meringue pie, and a sign that says 'Good Riddance Spidey!'"
Nightwing looked at his daylight partner, not believing what he was hearing.
"You're kidding." He said flatly.
"You're right," Spider-Girl said stretching backwards till her head brushed the back of her knees. "A mime parade would be much cooler."
On that note, Spider-Girl jumped off the building and headed home for a quick change of clothes and then off to her job, a desk-jockey for the Bludhaven paper.
Nightwing looked after the swinging form of his partner in the dusk of the evening before he spoke. "She's not coming back."
"Dr. Fate informed me." Came the gravelly voice of his former guardian and mentor. "You want to change her mind." It wasn't a question, it was a statement.
"She makes the mission easier to bear."
Batman understood, in his brief encounter with the arachnid-heroine, he too had noted that his burden was lifted for a moment.
Batman's eyes followed Nightwing as he stood up; his ward was a well-liked man, both in costume and out; but the hole in his life that had become Spider-Girl's niche would not be so easily filled; Batman knew from experience.
When it came time for Spider-Girl to return home, Nightwing had made sure that she wouldn't be forgotten, and with the help of Cassie: Wonder Girl, a party had been planned. They had originally planned to use Spider-Girl's SRO in Bludhaven, only to find that she had moved out and she'd paid two weeks' worth rent for an overworked single-mother. Her possessions had either been sold or donated to the Salvation Army.
He'd coerced her upon finding her into coming to something that she'd never seen before. Behind her mask, she'd rolled her eyes and he knew she did it too.
"I promise you'll like it."
"I may be a web-slinger, but I'm not a Swinger." Spider-Girl quipped as she followed him into an alleyway.
This time Nightwing rolled his eyes. He opened a door to a small factory and flipped on the light-switch. "Surprise." He said, and Spider-Girl allowed her masked face to pan the room. A lot of heroes and heroines were there. As soon as Nightwing closed the door behind him, the other heroes and heroines echoed the sentiment joyously.
The party was a huge success, Spider-Girl was really enjoying herself. She'd even cornered one of Young Justice's overseer's and drew him off to the side. She'd made him close his eyes as she put something on his face. When she had him open them, she'd made him face a reflective surface and he saw himself with a black T-Mask with red lenses over the eyes. "I'm calling you Mr. Terrific; only cause calling you Mr. Fantastic would be wrong, you don't stretch." He didn't understand and neither did Nightwing; but the newly named Mr. Terrific swung her up and into a spinning hug.
Spider-Girl disengaged herself and slugged him in the arm telling him that he gets to pick his own uniform, before she left his side.
Nightwing was seated at a table eating meringue-pie, like Spider-Girl had requested and was suddenly joined by Spider-Girl.
She had pulled her mask up just over her mouth and kissed his cheek. It was the first skin-on-skin contact they'd had, and it startled him.
"Thanks for the Going-Away Party…" Spider-Girl said sweetly, "but why aren't you out on patrol?"
Nightwing was still shocked, so when Spider-Girl suddenly yelled out, "Someone get this guy either some peanut-butter or ice!" he grew even more confused.
When everyone's eyes attached their gaze to him, he turned to get up, only to find that he could neither turn nor get up.
The sneaky Spidey had webbed him to his chair. It seemed the prank war was back on.
Finally released from his chair he searched for Spider-Girl only to find nothing.
She was gone.
The following morning, after his patrol, he returned to his flat and entered. Nothing was out of place. But when he went to hang up his uniform, several pictures in picture frames were attached to the rotating wall. They were all memorable moments in their time as 'The Webs and Wings of Bludhaven'; but in the middle of all the framed photographs was just one photo printed on regular paper, held to the wall by tape.
It was going to be the photo he treasured the most.
It was a picture of Spider-Girl's Going-Away Party: Spider-Girl was kissing his cheek and webbing his back to his chair; 'I Win.' Was written beneath the picture in permanent marker.
Richard Grayson couldn't hold back his laughter anymore; this was so completely Spidey. Only she could, would, and did this to him and was able to get away with it.
Back in her own Universe, it wasn't more than ten in the morning, Spider-Girl swung past the Daily Bugle only to be yelled at by the elderly J. Jonah Jameson and barely being held back from falling out the window by Mr. Robinson himself.
She could see the headlines now: "The Spider-Menace Returns!"
Spider-Girl went back to her apartment and changed into her civvies, it was time to see her parents.
Once she got there, she rang the doorbell. It was answered in minutes by her brother Ben.
May Parker grinned. "Hiya Ben!" She signed and said.
"Mayday!" Her younger brother shouted clearly, and with no sign of his deafness, and he practically flew into her arms for a ginormous hug.
Her Mom and Dad raced into the room and Mayday was pulled from the doorstep into the house her parent's had raised her in.
"Did you eat?" Mary Jane Watson-Parker wanted to know. "Because if you have or even if you haven't, you won't be able to not have a Welcome Back Party with any team you've worked with."
"I'd watch out for Thor's people, they celebrate for weeks." Peter Parker said, enjoying seeing his daughter and New York's Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Girl back in her familiar environment.
That afternoon, Spider-Girl was perched next to Greg the Gargoyle and was purveying her city.
Bad Guys Beware of the Spider.
A siren sounded several blocks away and she jumped off the building to start swinging in the direction of the sound.
Several citizens in the street pointed up at her as she swung by.
It was official: She was back.