Later that evening…

At the moment, there was only one question on Jessica's mind, how did I get into this?

Earlier that night she had snuck out of the house and met up with her friend, Paloma. Paloma had told her about this new club that had opened near Harmony's business district. It was called the Basement. She also said that there would be plenty of guys there who would show them good time. That having been said, the girls hailed a cab and headed to the club.

Paloma had been right, upon their arrival, there was a line of young men who came up and asked them to dance. After dancing with three boys in a row, all of whom bought her a drink, Jessica started to get cozy with a scruffy, young man named Victor. Paloma warmed up to Victor's friend, Nick.

As the night progressed, Victor pulled the dazed Jessica down the hall to a small room with just a bed and a nightstand. Victor went and locked the door. It was at that moment that Jessica suddenly became aware of her predicament.

"Look, I don't think I can do this," stated Jessica, as Victor began bearing down on her.

"Down worry, baby," he replied, as he shoved her down on the bed, "It'll be fun."

"I've never done this before," shouted Jessica.

"First timer, eh?" Victor replied, "Well, don't worry. I start slow." With that, Victor went down on Jessica.

Jessica was scared. She had started the evening thinking she was just going out to have a good time. She knew her mother, Grace, would never approve of this kind of good time. Jessica couldn't help but think about how her mom would react when she saw her daughter, the rape victim, on the news.

As Jessica struggled to get Victor off of her, she suddenly heard a popping sound and felt a tingling feeling in her fingertips. At that moment, Victor jumped off of Jessica and howled in pain. His pants were on fire.

"Put me out! Put me out!" he shouted, as he ran around the room. There wasn't much space in the room to run around.

Jessica looked at her hands. 'Had she done that?' she thought to herself. 'If she had, how?' Seeing her opportunity to get out, Jessica ran to the door, unlocked it, and ran out.


Paloma's situation was not much better. Rather than waiting for her to get drunk, Nick grabbed Paloma by the arm and dragged her down the hall. Once he had found an empty room, he pushed Paloma in ahead of him and locked the door behind them.

"I don't want to do this!" shouted Paloma.

"Hey, senorita," laughed Nick, "You get yourself into this. You've been teasing me all night. Now, it's time to pay up!" Paloma screamed as Nick through himself at her.

Paloma wasn't sure what happened next, but a moment later, Nick laying face down on the bed behind her. It was as if he had jumped right through her. Nick turned and looked up at Paloma.

"How did you do that? he asked.

Paloma shrugged. "Yo no se," she answered, "But I'm going to do it again." She turned and ran through the closed door. Nick chased after her, and discovered that he did not share Paloma's new ability to phase through solid objects. ;-)


In the hall, Paloma caught up with Jessica.

"I think it's time to go," stated Jessica.

"Si, si!" agreed Paloma. The two friends ran for the door.

As they ran through the dance room, the girls were slowed down by the enormous crowd of patrons who were just here for fun. As they pushed through the crowd, Nick and Victor (who had finally put his pants out) entered the room.

"Stop them!" Nick shouted, pointing to the girls, "Don't let them get away!"

The girls noticed a group of very, large men ganging up on them. They suddenly found themselves boxed in at the wall. They looked over their shoulders to see the door, just out of reach.

"What'll we do now, Jessica?" asked Paloma, who was obviously more frightened than ever.

Jessica looked down at her hands and smiled. "Things are about to heat up."

Jessica raised her hands and shouted "Flame on!" Nothing happened. Jessica looked nervously at her hands. She'd have to try something else.

"Power up!" Still nothing. The crowd was beginning to laugh.

"Light me! Incendio! Alakazam?" The crowd was now laughing, uncontrollably.

"Now, get'em!" came Victor's voice from in the crowd. As the crowd moved in on the girls, Paloma spoke up.

"I have one idea," she said. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and pushed herself through the wall. Jessica and the rest of the crowd watched in amazement.

As Jessica turned back to the crowd, wondering what she would do next, Paloma reached through the wall and pulled Jessica through.


When they reached the street, Jessica and Paloma started running. As they turned the corner, Jessica bumped into a young man and was knocked down. As she got to her feet, she heard an all too familiar voice.

"Jessica?" said the voice.

"Reese?" replied Jessica.

The young man came into the light. Sure enough, he was Jessica's ex-boyfriend, Reese Durkee. The only different thing about him was that he wasn't wearing his glasses.

"What're you doing here?" He glanced at Paloma. "And who's your friend?"

"There you go again," argued Jessica, "This is why I dumped you in the first place!"

She leaned over to Paloma and explained. "Reese and I dated for a while. Then, last year, I caught him in bed with my cousin Charity, Miguel's girlfriend. I was not happy, and neither was Miguel. I dumped him. Miguel tried to kill him."

Paloma shot an evil glare at Reese. "Cerdo!" she sneered. Reese ignored her.

"You two weren't down in the Basement, were you?" he asked. "That place has a bad rep. Maybe I should take you two home."

"Si, gracias!" shouted Paloma. She may have thought little of Reese, but at the moment, she just wanted to get out of this part of town.

"No, thanks!" insisted Jessica, "I'll just walk."

As Jessica turned to walk away, Reese raised his hand and fired a webline in her direction. As the line wrapped around Jessica's waist, he gave it a tug, pulling Jessica back over.

"Sorry, Jess," he stated, "But contrary to what everyone may think, I still worry about you."

Just then, the crowd from the Basement caught up with them.

"There they are!" came Nick's voice.

"You'd better climb on," said Reese, turning to Paloma. Without arguing, Paloma climbed on to Reese's back.

"And hang on!" he added.

With that, Reese leapt into the air. The terrified girls screamed as they soared almost fifty-feet into the air. Then, Reese raised his hand and shot a webline that stuck to a nearby building. He began swinging from the webline, shooting another one when the previous line reached its limit.

"We lost 'em," sighed Nick, as they watched the girls fly off with their webslinging friend. He turned back to Victor and noticed the huge burn on his pants. "What happened to you?" he laughed.

"Reese," Jessica muttered, nervously, "When did you start doing this? You didn't do this when we were dating."

"It started earlier this evening," replied Reese, "I realized my glasses made my eyesight worse, I have superhuman strength, I can cling to most surfaces, I have a kind of super-sense that tells me when something's coming and I can shoot my weblines. I had to run in front of a car to find out about my leaping ability." Reese laughed to himself. "Boy, that driver was really surprised!"

'In some ways,' Jessica thought, 'I wish that car had hit you.'


Reese had dropped Paloma off at her house. As he and Jessica took off again, Reese turned to her and smiled.

"The sooner we get back to my house the better," she groaned, rolling her eyes.

"I have a confession to make," Reese said, "I've been a wreck since we broke up."

"Maybe Charity has time to listen!"

"I don't want to be with Charity. I want to be with you."

"I see," replied Jessica, "So how do you explain being in bed with my cousin."

"I can't yet," answered Reese, "But give me an hour and I'll think of something convincing."

"Just shut up." The two finished the trip in silence.


When they arrived at the Bennetts' house, Reese took Jessica up to the window in front of her room.

"Don't call me," she stated.

Reese smiled. "Fair enough. Just don't go down to the Basement again." With that, Reese shot another webline and flew away. Rolling her eyes, Jessica climbed in through the window.