They hovered above the smoldering city block waiting on authorization to deploy and stop the Hulking Goblin rampaging the city. The giant green monster had already made quick work of the local law enforcement and had left a giant gaping hole in the Baxter building large enough that the skyscraper itself was on the verge of collapse. Sergeant Miles Morales was kneeling over the edge of the open tailgate of the Blackbird insertion and extraction aircraft across from his lifelong friend Jessica Scarlet Spider Drew, who was laying prone on her stomach surveying the chaos and destruction below. The two were the last of a group of uniquely trained and skilled soldiers created by the Super Human Enlisted and Intelligence Department, S.H.E.I.L.D. The process to create the Spiders, as they became collectively known, had an extremely low success rate that had managed to produce around 10 of them. One by one though, unfortunately, their numbers had been dwindled down slowly over the years they were active.
Slinger, Tarantula, Mania, Scorpion, Araña…The names and faces of his comrades suddenly came flooding back into his head, and with them their most recent losses, Edward Brock and the White-Widow. Never got to tell her how I felt…never got to fulfill that promise…
"Listen up Spiders, here's our new set of orders," Captain Carol Danvers' voice came in over their shared radio link. "Alpha company is on their way, but they're being held up by another operation at the other-side of town and Commander Fury agrees that we can't wait any longer. You're to secure the area around the Goblin and engage it, but non-lethally. So only web-slingers, Venom tabs and your web-shooters are unauthorized understood? Keep him busy until Alpha company arrives and once they get there, help setup the cage and capture that thing."
"Non-lethal?" Miles snorted. "Doctor Conners wants to dissect him doesn't he?"
"Ma'am, Scarlet here, going non-lethal is going to raise the probably of increased casualties and property damage. Spider and I highly recommend engaging with full lethality as to minimize civilian casualties and-" Jessica shot Miles a worried look. Even though their faces were covered up behind their custom fitted ballistic spider masks, the two knew enough of each other's body language to tell when the other was raising an eyebrow.
"I highly recommend you both shut up and follow orders." Their Commander snapped and then cut off the link. Miles hated Captain Danvers almost as much as he hated Goblins. Goblins had come about during the same testing that had created the Spiders. The Spiders being created by a young genius named Parker, and the Goblins were the brainchild of one Norman Osbourne. During the early trials one of the goblin subjects named Banner had a negative reaction and gone on a rampage that had leveled the testing center they were at, and had led to the premature death of Parker. And with his death, all the knowledge of creating any new Spiders… Miles thought. The fact that the brass wanted to capture this one alive set so many alarms off that he couldn't tell if he was just extremely nervous, or if it was just his spider-sense warning him of danger. The Goblins themselves had been ordered scrapped, but years later they resurfaced organized under the banner of the self-proclaimed Goblin Queen.
The goblins themselves had been responsible for the deaths of numerous Spiders. While Goblins did come in various different states of insanity there was one thing unique to Goblins that Miles always found to be true; They were usually tough to kill. He shook himself out of his thoughts and focused back on the task at hand.
"You ready?" Miles asked trying to disguise the obvious aversion he had to their standing orders. Jessica gave him a thumbs up and what he could tell was a reluctant smile from behind her mask. He pushed himself o and leapt off the edge of the tail-gate. A half moment later Jessica launched herself off the edge of the open tail-gate, joining Miles in free-fall. Miles enjoyed the rush of the free-fall for all of the twelve seconds he had before aiming his web-slinger towards the nearest building and shot himself a line. He and Jessica made their way behind the rampaging Hulk, who was busy tossing cars and busses at buildings like a child in the midst of temper tantrum. By the way the streets below resembled a scrapyard with the number of vehicles that had been hastily abandoned, Miles guessed that the rampaging Goblin could be entertained indefinitely if left to its own devices.
Using a combination of acrobatic web swinging and their inherent agility, the two Spiders landed on the street with the flowing grace of their namesake. Miles wondered for a moment by the way they were crouching, Spider-crouching. That's what would Widow would joke, how it would turn out if they were infused with the essence of a cat. The Goblin was busy smashing up another car when they landed. Miles wasted no time pushing himself upright, Jessica sprinted alongside him. They'd worked together long enough that very rarely did they ever need to verbally communicate. A head nod, a twist of the body here and there…
Jessica struck first like she always did. Diving underneath the car the Goblin was readying to smash over its head, she struck out feet first, pushing the giant forward into the pavement. The car was flung backwards as the Goblin stumbled forward. Miles leapt onto it mid-air, using it as a spring-board to launch himself forward. He rocketed up above the goblins head. At the apex of his jump, adjusted his descent vector slightly as he aimed his body towards the goblins neck and shoulders. Suddenly the goblin regained its balance and became aware of his presence. The green monster turned to aim a large vicious green fist at him. At the last possible second he reached out with his left hand, catching the goblins' knuckles. He used the momentum to swing up and around the Goblins arm.
Kicking out with his left foot he struck the goblin on the left side of its face hard with his heel. Quickly he aimed his web-slinger towards a nearby building and pulled himself to safety as Jessica struck the goblins left knee with her fist, dropping the giant down to its knees.
"Control," Miles tapped his ear-piece in his mask to activate his radio as he hung from the side of the building by his fingers tips. "Somethings off, this isn't a normal goblin. It…it shouldn't be this easy…"
"Then you should probably focus on keeping it busy rather than chatting with me…Sergeant." Captain Danvers rebuked sharply.
"Bitch," Miles muttered under his breath. Jessica was working the Goblin over with her fists like a boxer beating down a new untrained sparring partner. The Goblin was swinging and connecting with air and pavement as Jessica darted around him. If he was watching from the outside, Miles would guess that she was simply having fun toying with her victim. Jessica dodged a low sluggish swing, leapt up just above it and drove her fist hard across the Goblins face. The Goblin staggered for a moment, pulling a hand to its face as if it truly felt the blow.
Miles pushed himself off the windows of the building and drove both feet into the back of the Goblins neck. The Goblin fell forward, its face connecting to the pavement with a loud satisfying crack. Miles leapt off the Goblins head, taking position next to Jessica.
"Wow, either we've gotten stronger or-" Jessica paused mid-sentence and Miles didn't need to guess as to why. His spider-sense had started buzzing a sinister warning in his head as she trailed off. Moments later, sinister cackling came from high above them signaling the arrival of Hob-Goblins. Hob-Goblins weren't as dangerous as Green Goblins, of which there were only a handful that were known. But they were still dangerous. They had strength and speed that nearly rivaled that of the Spiders. But that wasn't why they were dangerous. Dressed in a hodge-podge of chain mail and medieval steel, the Hob-Goblins were heralds of the Goblin Queen. And the Goblin Queen was as deadly as they came.
"Jess…" Miles warned and started retreating back towards the Baxter building down the street.
Jessica instead clinched her fists and readied herself. "Oh its payback time!"
"Jess wait!" Miles reached for his partner and attempted to pulled her away from the two high-flying incoming goblins. Jessica shrugged him off and as the two Hob-Goblins came in high from seemingly behind the sun. Riding on rusty steel bat-shaped gliders, and each wielding a large sword the Hob-Goblins came barreling down at them at near super-sonic speeds. "Jess!" Miles urged again.
"I'm taking her down Miles. She's gonna pay for killing Slinger," Jessica ejected the non-lethal web-slinger capsule on her left wrist and quickly exchanged for it for more lethal web-shooter. The look she was probably giving him behind her mask dared him to go against her. "For Slinger…for Araña…." With that she had him convinced that she wasn't going to back down.
"Spider," Captain Danvers shouted into their ears. "No one authorized you for lethal-"
"Sorry Captain," Miles sent a small charge into his radio. A nice nifty ability of his he liked to call Venom sting. It allowed him to attack a target nervous system and other vital targets if he focused enough. This and his ability to turn invisible made him unique among the spiders. Though being unique didn't necessarily equate to strongest. That had been Eddie Brock, before the sinister Human Torch vaporized him. "Comms seem to be down."
Quickly, Miles ejected one of his non-lethal capsules and swapped in a lethal one. The Hob-Goblins were only four blocks away as they changed their trajectories, arced downwards and aimed their gliders at the Spiders.
They came in fast and hard on their gliders. If not for their super-human reflexes Miles and Jessica surely would've been decapitated or ran through as they passed. Miles had dodged to his right towards the fallen Goblin that was now beginning to shrink down to more manageable human levels. Jessica and ducked under the gliders, letting her body go limp as the two goblins shot upwards into the sky. She let the gliders drag her up through the air, gathering enough momentum to land on the shoulders of the Goblin on the right. The other Hob-Goblin glanced at his compatriot and sped off aiming himself back towards Miles.
"Come and get some you dollar store gargoyle!" Miles taunted the Goblin and began sprinting down the street. Weaving in and out of cars and vaulting over them, Miles ducked behind an over turned mini-van and used his second ability. Turning completely invisible Miles stayed perfectly still as the Hob-Goblin sped past his position, completely confused as to where his target had disappeared to. The Goblin changed course, coming around for a second pass. As he neared him, Miles bounded up high, grabbing ahold of the Goblin by the shoulders he flipped over his head, pulling the Goblin off its glider and slamming him head first into a nearby taxi.
Quickly, Miles reached for one of the pumpkin shaped grenades deep inside the goblins bag, activated it and webbed it directly to the Goblins face and leapt clear for safety. The following explosion decapitated the Goblin as the Goblin Jessica was battling earlier slammed face first into the pavement quickly followed by its glider impaling it dead-center in its chest.
"Ya know, when we're not restricted to non-lethal tactics, these guys aren't so bad." Jessica made quotations in the air with her fingers as she said restricted. Miles nodded slightly in agreement before turning his attention back to the Goblin they'd been tasked with capturing earlier. When they returned to the body surprisingly, instead of a de-powered Goblin, they'd come face to face with their worst nightmare.
Jennifer Walters was once an up and coming U. Corps Captain. Her cousin, U.S Navy Lieutenant Commander Bruce Banner had been the first subject that perished under Norman Osbornes Goblin program. Thinking that Bruce was simply too mentally fragile to withstand the process, Jennifer volunteered to be the second test-subject. For a time, she managed to retain her sanity, and even helped the Spiders to subdue Bruce after his rampage has left millions dead.
It wasn't long after that, that she too started to lose control. Ben Reilly, codenamed: Slinger had been Captain Walters first victim. Ben and Jessica were to be married that week, and Jessica had sworn revenge ever since. At eight feet tall, dressed in a combination of rags and barely fitting chainmail, no shoes but metal scrap wrapped around her legs for greaves. Her finger and toe nails had been grown so ridiculously long that they might as well as have been claws. In her right hand was a large chiseled sword that had had as much care as her dirty and knotted mane of dark green hair that rested upon her shoulders. In her left hand she was holding their target up by his neck much like a mother dog would do one of her pups. She raised the limp body up to her nose, giving him a series of inquisitive sniffs.
"Jessica…Miles…" The Goblin Queen smiled at them with familiarity. "So nice…to see you again…." After one long final sniff she tossed the man to the ground and plunged her sword through the back of his head before they could stop her. "This one. Isn't mine. Wasted my two favorite Heralds. Carol must want war."
"I'll give you war you sick fucking-" Jessica started and was sent flying into a car before she could finish her sentence. She crashed into the windshield with enough force to shatter the entire reinforced sheet of glass.
"Jessica…Jessica…" The Goblin Queen chanted over and over. "Jessica…you used to do my hair…. Why don't you… come do my hair anymore?
"Jess!" Miles called out to her. He saw her immediately struggle to free herself from the confines of twisted metal and glass. Knew he had to buy her time. Quickly he scanned his surroundings, spotted a loose bag of pumpkin bombs laying silently near the fallen Goblin with the glider impaling him in the back.
"And little Private Morales." The Goblin Queen slowly turned her head towards him. The sight of it reminded Miles of a monster or ghost in a Japanese horror movie. Slow, jerking motions. Movements that when he saw them on screen were laughable, but in reality they were scarier than he could put into words. "Why don't you come here and give me-"
Miles shot a glob of webbing at her face and then bolted for the bag of pumpkin bombs. Behind him the Queen was shouting 'My hair! My beautiful hair!' As she struggled to get the sticky substance off of her head. He reached the bag, snatched it up as he turned to lob a pumpkin bomb at the Goblin Queen, but in that breath she was already charging him, that heavy rusty sword drawn up high over her right shoulder. Miles dodged as fast as he could as the sword slammed down mere inches of away from where he was standing. Though he avoided the strike, the tip of the giant rusty blade scratched and tore at his mask.
Thank god for Kevlar! He thought as he tumbled backwards in an attempt to get some distance between them. The Goblin Queen turned and slashed again with the sword and Miles dodged, realizing too late that the attack itself was a feint. She brought her large green and smelly foot up and punted him hard as if he was no lighter than a soccer ball. He didn't know how many vehicles he smashed through, or how he managed to keep hold of the bag of pumpkin bombs and not have any of them go off. He was simply glad her disgustingly long toe nails had not managed to cut him, or his suit. Miles skidded across the ground a good few hundred feet, finding himself in the street in front of the Baxter building.
Gotta get her to chase me. Despite the pain he pushed himself up to his feet and aimed his Web-shooter. The Queen was stalking back towards Jessica when his third shot struck the side of her head. The .40 caliber round did little more than make her angry. Which is what he wanted.
"Come on you stinky string bean, let's dance!" He emptied the lethal capsule of its rounds, and swapped in another clip as the big green Goblin Queen rushed towards him. Miles slung the satchel of pumpkin bombs over his shoulder and rushed to snatch up the nearest car. Miles hurled the car at her as hard and as fast as he could. As he expected she knocked it out of the air with her arm, her sword being too brittle to actually cut through metal. "Aw baby what are you doing? You tossing away my tokens of love?" Miles quickly picked up and tossed another car then another and another one after that. They didn't seem to slow her down, and she was getting dangerously closer than he wanted.
By now, Jessica had managed to pry herself free from the car she'd been tangled in and was starting to make her way to him. She was web-swinging his way when he picked up the next car that was near him and hurled hit hard and fast like a quarterback. As the Goblin Queen knocked this vehicle aside, Miles lobbed an activated pumpkin bomb through its rear windshield.
The explosion managed to knock her off her feet, into a Hydra Securities van. Miles quickly aimed his web-slinger up at the side of the Baxter Building and began sprinting vertically up it.
"Miles! She's going to catch you!" Jessica called after him. Miles dared not look back in case her warning was correct. With a combination of sprinting and web zip-lines, Miles made his way up to the roof top. A half-breath after he landed, the Goblin Queen had some-how launched herself high up over the ledge. She landed bare-foot on the gravel in front of him.
"Ah come on." He snorted as she snatched him up angrily by the throat.
"YOU HURT MY PRETTY FACE!" She screamed loudly. For a moment Miles thought his ear-drums were going to burst, or she was going to snap his neck. He tried to pull his nose away from her rancid breath.
"You know we always hurt the ones we love." Miles latched onto her wrists and channeled a venom sting to the nerves in her hands forcing her to free him. "And what is love?" He managed to dodge her next strike with her sword unscathed. The sword itself shattered and angrily the Goblin Queen tossed it over the side. She came at him with a giant right hand. Her fist coming faster than what he was prepared for, even though he managed to raise his hands up in time to block the hit, he wasn't quick enough to block or dodge her follow up attack.
She punched him once, hard in the ribs knocking the wind out of his lungs. Miles gasped loudly, feeling as though he was going to die. Here I go Widow. I'll be joining you soon. Her next strike sent him tumbling into the metal vents and pipes. By then Jessica had arrived on the roof-top by way of a re-purposed Goblin Glider. The Goblin Queen, though, quickly snatched her out of the air as she came into view and sent her crashing into the debris next to Miles.
"What is love?" The Goblin Queen cackled as if somehow she finally understood the joke. She hunched herself over like a lion about to finish off a wounded zebra. "Baby don't hurt me…" She growled low. "Don't hurt me…"
"No more!" This came from a new voice. One Miles didn't recognize at first, but something in his brain was telling him he was imagining it. A pumpkin bomb exploded to the side of the Goblin Queens head. Miles glanced around trying to see where it came from. His satchel had spilled across the gravel of the rooftop as he'd gone tumbling. He followed the loose bombs across the way, and saw a few resting at the feet of a familiar looking figure.
Though, tattered, burnt and covered in blood, the pattern of the white suit was un-mistakable. The figure snatched up a second pumpkin bomb and hurled it towards the Goblin Queen as she recovered from the blow of the first bomb. The second detonation sent the Goblin Queen reeling backwards towards the edge of the roof.
Jessica was the first to get to their feet. She reached down and pulled Miles up with her screaming
"THIS IS FOR SLINGER AND WIDOW YOU SLIMY BITCH!" Jessica was suddenly invigorated by her anger and lust for revenge. She shot forward nailing the Goblin Queen once with a hard right, then left. The Queen laughed again and began to trade hard blows with Jessica. Miles stumbled in to back up his partner. For every swing Jessica was unable to block or dodge, Miles countered with a shot of his web shooter, or by simply absorbing the blow completely not truly caring how much it hurt. Jessica did the same for him.
The two spiders darted in and out, doing their best to confuse the Goblin Queen and beat her down as much as possible. When it seemed as though they were getting the upper hand, the Queen managed to snatch Jessica up by her arm and slam her hard into Miles. She threw her head back to laugh, when a giant glob of webbing struck her dead center of her face and covered her entire head in webbing. Without missing a beat, Jessica was up and drove her shoulder hard into the Queen. Using all the strength she could, Jessica took the Queen over the edge and held onto her as they both toppled over the edge screaming and raging at each other.
Miles rushed to the edge nearly ready to leap after them when he paused. He knew it wasn't the time but he decided he needed to know if his eyes were playing tricks on him. Just a cursory look. It's a long way down, Jessica won't do anything stupid. He quickly glanced behind him catching a glimpse of a quick movement. Someone, who wasn't setting off his spider-sense was attempting to hide from him. Against his better judgement he investigated further, stepping over the twist and broken pieces of vents and copper, he turned the corner around the roof access door nearly died there where he stood.
Sitting, slightly slumped against the brick housing of the roof access, in a nearly completely destroyed Spider-Suit, was Gwen Stacy…The White Widow. He shook his head not truly believing what he was seeing. Was it his imagination playing tricks on him? Imagining a dead comrade whom he secretly loved while his best friend was some forty stories below probably getting killed. Need to check if this is real. Have to know if its…
"H-heee-y there handsome…." She spoke. Her breath was short and shallow. As though she was struggling to breath. Her skin was pale and clammy from what he could tell was massive blood loss. Her entire right side had been almost completely stained with blood. Her mask sat tattered on the ground next to her, revealing bright, shining golden locks that rested neatly across her neck. "What's a girl gotta do to find a doctor around her?"
"Widow?" He asked dumbfounded. Then, shaking himself out of his stupor, realizing what was going on was real the urgency to return to Jessica was even more drastic. He quickly dropped down to her side, his fingers fumbling to reach his first aid kit. Fumbling with it at first before retrieving a package of quick clot and some gauze from one of his belt pouches. He tore open the packet and hurriedly dumped as much of the white powdery substance over the stab wound on her side before taking out a clump of gauze and taped it to her body. "Listen, I need to check on Jess, gonna need you to come down with me is that okay? I'll set you someplace safe."
Gwen weakly raised her arm up in response. Miles quickly scooped her up in his arms and sprinted for the edge of the roof. He leapt off the edge, cradling widow in his arms. If not for the situation being urgently dire, he probably would've reveled in the feeling of finally being able to hold her. He shot out a few lines of webbing to slow their decent to ground level. As they reached the bottom, he spotted Jessica and the Goblin Queen still locked in combat.
The two were trading blows again, yet this time when the Goblin Queen struck Jessica with a hard left hook, the Spider dropped down to one knee suddenly unable to keep up with nearly unnatural speed and power of the Queen.
"Okay, I'm gonna set you down," Miles said as he stepped behind an over-turned police squad car. "I'm gonna go save Jess, then we'll be back. Stay put." He ordered. Heart racing in his chest he stepped back around to see the Goblin Queen scoop Jessica up and hold her high over her head like a wrestler about to power-slam an opponent into the canvas. Miles sprinted, urged his muscles to give him enough power so that he could make it in time.
Jessica went crashing into the pavement before Miles could stop it from happening. His fellow Spider lay prone, un-moving as the Goblin Queen stood victoriously over her. She then turned her attention to Miles, who now angered at the prospect of losing another Spider just after he'd found White Widow alive and almost well. No! He told himself. Not Jess! I won't accept this!
Concentrating as hard as he could, he focused whatever remaining charge of his venom sting into both of his fists. The Goblin Queen took off towards him and he met her, fists flying in a flurry that would put most boxers to shame. They traded blows, but Miles' wasn't sure if he'd be able to keep up his momentum. Every time he landed what he thought was a finishing blow, she laughed or shrugged off the hit and struck him harder, faster and more ferocious than before. She snatched him up by his throat and spun wildly him around in the air once before slamming him hard into the pavement onto his back. The street cracked and sunk in at least twelve inches, and somewhere along the side of the street a fire hydrant exploded.
"Miles, Miles, Miles…" The Goblin Queen placed her giant foot onto his chest, keeping him in place. He struggled to free himself, but she kept pushing him deeper into the street. "Itsy, bitsy Miles…I only came to see if one of my children had escaped. But it was not so. This was fun though. I haven't played with you in a while...seeing as your kind break sooo easy..." She laughed and looked up towards the sky as if the damage the rogue Goblin had done was a masterful piece of art. She leaned down, swapping her foot for her knee, and taking ahold of his wrists and pressing them against the ground. Using her teeth, she pulled his mask up off his face, resembling a dog trying to tear up a rag in the process.
"Get off him!" Jessica appeared suddenly. Having had leapt onto the Goblin Queens back, she produced a thick line of webbing and was wrapping it tightly around the Goblin's throat. The Goblin reached back over her shoulder as if there was a dastardly itch between her shoulder blades she was unable to scratch. Jessica ducked down, continued wrapping her webbing around the Queens throat until the Goblin stood up, struggling to breath. The instant she was off him, Miles aimed his web-slinger…and nothing.
"Shit!" A cursory glance told him that both his web-shooters and web-slinger had been rendered unusable. Still, not wanting to waste the opportunity that Jessica was giving them, Miles scrambled out of the hole as the Goblin continued to twist and buck in an attempt to throw Jessica off her back. He dove for her feet, holding he breath as the foul musk of her body began to fill his nostrils. He managed to trip her up, and as she fell forward onto her face, Jessica alternated between jerking hard upwards with her webs and emptying the magazine of her web shooter with her other hand.
As the Goblin Queen collapsed on the ground, Jessica rolled off her back. Still holding onto the webs garroting the Queen, Jessica scrambled back up to her feet. The Queen managed to push herself up to her knees. She reached up, took hold of the web-lines with enough force and speed that it pulled Jessica off balance, jerking her forward. She took a firm hold of Jessica's wrists and squeezed hard.
Jessica howled loudly as the Goblin Queen broke both her arms at the wrists. As she rose to her feet, the Queen punted Jessica hard into a taxi. The Queen leapt up but Miles managed to intercept her before she crashed back into the ground.
"Time to go to sleep sweet princess." Miles shouted into her ear as he wrapped her arms around the Queens neck, desperately and forcefully applying a rear choke hold. She began smashing herself against everything in an attempt to get Miles off her, but his hold was firm and true. Still, she threw herself into buildings in an attempt to remove him from her back. After what seemed like forever, The Queen finally began to slow down, swinging wildly like boar she finally collapsed to down to her knees. "Shh…go to sleep now precious," Miles whispered over the Queens long drawn out breaths. He felt the Queens body go limp as she finally collapsed unconscious to the pavement. It wasn't until the Queen began snoring loudly, and her body slowly began reverting back to normal size that Miles finally released him hold.
Exhausted he fell back against an overturned vehicle, looking up as the drop-ships carrying the Winter Soldiers of Alpha company finally arrived. He watched as they rappelled down to his position, blocks away from where he'd left Jessica and Widow. Ignoring an Winter Soldier officer as he landed on the street, Miles rushed back towards where he'd earlier left his comrades in a full dead sprint.
He found Jessica sitting with her back against the taxi she'd been kicked into earlier, her arms laying limp in her lap. He slid up to her on his knees as she woozily raised her head to greet him.
"Jess, you alright?" He asked, quickly examining her wrists. When they had been a full squad, Miles had taken up the dual role of the squad's medic and infiltrator. Jessica had always been a slugger and in their infancy, the Spiders had often been deployed in support of other teams. When Ben Reilly, Slinger, had been killed it had been because he was deployed alone with Captain Walters.
"I think I can retire from juggling for a bit." She winced as he began splinting her wrists in place. "We get her?"
Miles shook his head. "Alpha company is here cleaning up. Gonna have to answer to Captain Rogers here shortly." Miles removed her mask and stuffed it into her belt. Her short brown hair was damp with sweat as was her face. He gave her face a cursory inspection with his hands and was satisfied that she had only acquired a possible fracture to her right cheek bone and a couple of bruises.
"Sorry Ben," Jessica whispered, tears welling up in her eyes.
After he finished wrapping the splints on her arms, he lifted her up to her feet and began leading her towards where he stashed Gwen. "Come on, we need to check on Widow."
"Who…?" He could feel Jessica staring at him wide-eyed and confused. They found Widow laying curled on her side, her hands still pressed up against her side. In her left hand she was firmly gripping what seemed like a busted web-shooter of some kind. Miles rushed to her side and quickly checked for a pulse. He found it faint, yet stable. "My god…" Jessica had said in complete utter disbelief. He peeled her fingers carefully away from the device in her hands and stuffed it into one of his free cargo pouches. He set her up into a upright sitting position, Jessica knelt down and threw her arms around the unconscious Widow.
"I don't believe it either. Thought we lost her to that so-called Fatal Four and their negative zone." Miles said. Their drop-ship passed overhead, circling for a safe place to pick them up. Miles sighed happily to himself. Though he knew a massive butt chewing was on the horizon for them, for the first time in their history, the Spiders would be coming home plus one.
