Crouched atop the New York skyline, Gwen took in a breath before yanking her mask over her face, her hand quickly taking her hood and cowling it over her head, checking his shooters next as dictated by her usual routine, not wanting them to jam or clog in the middle of duty. Her muscles still felt weak, but just as her father's said, S.H.I.E.L.D. agents never had the night off, and if she would ever join the likes of them, despite Jessica's mentioning of the opposite, she would need to be prepared to serve this entire planet 24/7. Her body was a machine that couldn't afford to whir to a stop, lest it begin taking longer and longer her to churn itself awake again. Examining her second shooter, Gwen teetered off the mighty tall building, lazily throwing her web after a moment of weightless delight and coursing through the dark night of New York City.
Spider-Woman was back in business.
Meandering through the city, Spider-Woman kept an eye out, working her mp3 player from within her pocket, her wireless headphones popping online before one of the ragged recordings of the Mary Jane's began playing in her ears, thankful that her Spider Senses, for the most part, freed her ears to take in more exciting fair at times.
She spun through the air, freedom taking her on occasion as she whirled about, often allowing herself to fall for a few meters simply to feel the rush, the feeling still somewhat new to her. She remained uptown, away from the lights and bustle of lower Manhattan where the police might have collected in enough numbers to offer her something of a headache. Uptown was so much darker, so much in the back of everybody's mind. The perfect breeding ground for wily criminals hoping to score one or two hits to gain confidence before making a hassle downtown. It was, more or less, a training ground for villains, which was ironic, as Spider-Woman had mostly taken it as her own training ground.
"Alright, New York," she thought to herself, "What'chu got for your girl tonight? Carjacking? Robbery?"
The back of her brain began to tickle as her eyes darted around, narrowing in on a street she was just passing, groaning underneath her breath as she mumbled to herself, "…or, you know, domestic abuse."
Sure enough, there stood a man and a woman having a spat out on the sidewalk, both in their pajamas and the man robed, his arms outstretched in pleading while the woman with him was deep in her cell phone, probably to get a ride away from him. Spider-Woman groaned at such a lowly objective, though she quickly figured that trouble took on a gradient of forms, and she slowly let herself swing down to the street just as the woman had made it into a call.
"Margine?" she spoke, loud enough that the man could hear her over his own pleading, "Yeah, honey! Look, I need a ride outta here; Justin got home drunk and started yell- Yeah! Yeah, I just need a-!"
The man begged with outstretched arms, "Baby, please, I'm sorry! Just come back inside- it's too cold ta' be-!"
"Justin! I'm not going back in there with you! I told you last time, I-!"
The two froze in terror as a white-dressed form hopped atop the nearby car, its ghost-like eyes appearing from out of its hooded frame as it crouched there, head tilted in curiosity. The woman's jaw dropped in time with her arm, the only sound in her direction coming from the phone in her hand.
"Barb? Barb, you there?"
The man's eyes were bugged out of his face nearly in shock, slowly tip-toeing away to take flight before Spider-Woman spoke up, "Okay, you two, it's too late to be having this outside, disturbing the peace 'n all. Now, if you two need a mediator, I'll happily accompany you both-"
"GAH!" the woman cried out, dashing back toward the open door to their duplex, the man having already made a furious sprint himself back indoors, both desperate to escape the Spider-Woman.
Such an exit merely left Spider-Woman to drop her head in defeat, groaning to herself as she somersaulted off the car and taking to her feet, walking up the stoop toward the door and offering the courtesy of shutting the door behind the two. Shaking her head in disbelief, she pulled out one of her homemade 'business cards', scribbling on the back of it before examining it.
"Consider a change, ma'am," she repeated, frowning as she spun it around to its front face, "Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Woman, huh? Not soon enough…"
She dropped it in the appropriate mailbox before exiting the doorstep, pulling out another card to critique as she walked down the sidewalk, frowning to herself, "Wow, these really do look stupid. Dammit, Jessica… No more creativity on a stomach full of Dollar Dogs."
Stuffing the card back into her pocket with a dismissive sigh, Spider-Woman mumbled to herself, "At this rate, I'm gonna have to find Bandit and chase him for anything productive. Wow, I'm a loser."
Having shaken her wireless earbuds from her ears to deal with the couple, Spider-Woman returned them to her ears, swiping through her mp3 player and starting her music up again, greeting herself with the lovely music of the power rock'n roll of the Mary Janes, recognizing the song as the one they'd practiced the other day in front of that manager dude. She shot a web up toward the top of a nearby building, though before she could yank herself along, a troubling thought crossed her mind as she continued staring down at the screen in her hand.
Not only had her Bluetooth settings been shut off, but she was pretty sure the Mary Janes hadn't recorded that song yet…
Her eyes shrunk curiously, staring at her player with a serious look as the quietly muttered to herself, "That's o-"
Suddenly, the music in her headphones disappeared in a split second, as though her earbuds had shut off, leaving Spider-Woman turning her head over her shoulder, getting that sort of skin-crawling feeling of being watched. Her hand still grappling her web, she quickly pulled herself up into the air, swinging away with a skeptical feeling in the pit of her stomach. The same thing had happened while catching those back robbers, she remember; her music was still playing despite having been paused. Perhaps she truly was more tired than she'd though.
"Ooookay, Spider-Woman," she muttered to herself, "No thinking about being creative on nothing but Dollar Dogs while on nothing but Dollar Dogs… Seriously though, the hell?"
She pat the side of her head with an open palm mid-flight, thinking to herself, "Okay, Gwen, just take a deep breath- there you go. Let the stress go, let the stress go. Let the-!"
Her eyes opened just as her neck tingled furiously, her arm instinctively yanking herself up into the air as the headlight of a large truck drove through the path she'd absently been on, a late horn blaring through the chilly air as Spider-Woman attempted to steady herself, instead slamming her side into a brick wall before simply letting her feet hit the ground to reorient herself, gritting her teeth as she rubbed the abrasion from her arm.
"Fuck," she grimaced, "Okay, keep the stress piled on. Keep it- Hey!"
At the random shuffling of somebody nearly burying themselves within a nearby trash pile, Spider-Woman zipped herself up to the adjacent wall, eyeing the collection of trash bags sitting outside one of the handle-less kitchen doors leading out into the alleyway, her eyes narrowed to scope out the source of the disturbance, unsure if it was just a raccoon, or-
"Yeh HA!" cried the Bodega Bandit as he leapt from the assortment mess of trash, aiming a deliberate finger in Spider-Woman's direction, "You got me! but not for long, Spidey!"
He was preparing to take flight, not noticing Spider-Woman's head falling low in defeat, "Goddamn… Look, any other night, Bandit, but tonight- Couldn't you be like Electro or something? Something worth mustering up the strength for? I'm, like, on zero right now."
"Pfft, I ain't buyin' that!" the Bodega Bandit cried out enthusiastically, "I swiped fifteen gift cards from this place 'n you'd better catch me, Spidey! I ain't goin' easy on you this time!"
Giggling as he rushed off in a sprint, Spider-Woman grumbled lowly to herself, knowing this might be the only thing she'd accomplish tonight, though the thought still trampled upon any amount of determination that she might have been able to conjure up. Her eyes wandered upward just as the Bodega Bandit broke onto the sidewalk, Spider-Woman's eyes blaring wide open as another figure burst out down the sidewalk, knocking the Bandit into the dark corner and sending the other figure to the ground as well. She darted to the ground, webbing herself over as the Bandit began shouting out angrily.
"Yo, stiff! Yah ruined my escape plan! Jerk!"
Spider-Woman watched the Bandit incredulously, though her vision immediately wandered toward the new figure in the dark night as her senses began to tingle once again, her eyes growing in gradual realization as Nick himself, that former band manager from the other day, began pushing himself to his feet, brushing off his lengthy coat while watching the Bandit with surprise.
"S-Sorry," he spoke up warily, slightly taken by the getup, "I didn't see you- Oh, hey again."
He'd turned to Spider-Woman, her eyes like disks. Again?! What did he mean by that? She hadn't seen him before he'd wandered into their band practice! How could he've- Did- Did he know?! Had she let it slip somehow? Had her voice-
Nick's head tilted to the side curiously, "You, uh- We met the other day. You broke my lamp and-"
"OH!" Spider-Woman shouted in realization, "I, uh- I did do that, didn't I? Of course! Where else would you have, uh…"
Her voice trailed off, recognizing the possible hole she was digging for herself, though Nick was helpful enough with a quick, "I mean, tabloids 'n all. You know, those ones where you supposedly freeze puppies and eat them."
"God," she murmured with exasperation, dropping her forehead into the palm of her hand, "At least they're getting further out from inside the box. I'd really hate to discourage that kind of crea- You know what, forget that mess. Sir, thank you for assisting your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Woman. I'll be sure to-"
She reached down to swipe away the gift cards from the Bodega Bandit's grasp, waving them toward Nick, "-return these flimsy little…"
Her stare wavered as she realized how pathetic her night's work appeared to be, particularly to somebody whom she'd saved from certain death at the hands of a careening train car just a week or so ago, dropping her arm in defeat as her shoulders slumped.
"Slow night, huh?" Nick asked with something of a knowing grin.
Spider-Woman replied with zeal, "Well, yeah, but most nights, I'm totally kicking crime in the ass!"
Nick chuckled, "No lamp left unwarranted, huh?"
"Now that's just unfair," Spider-Woman confirmed with crossed arms and skeptical eyes.
At that, Nick dropped his head to hide the rest of his laughter, shrugging, "'s all good. I needed a new one anyway. But hey, you'd better get back to your- Well, whatever this is."
He pointed to the Bodega Bandit, whose head was still swirling from the impact, causing him to sway aimlessly as he attempted to work his way to his feet, though Spider-Woman simply sighed, "I keep getting back to him, but even the police got tired of wasting space on a guy stealing, maybe, three bucks of stuff. I mostly just-"
Spider-Woman's eyes went blank beneath her mask as her skull began to vibrate, shaking her head to free herself from such a massive spike from her spider sense, raising a hand, "Hold that thought."
With that, she shot a web upward and flew into the sky, leaving Nick to swing around to try and follow her, though was ultimately unsuccessful, his trenchcoat bellowing in the breeze as he aimlessly returned his attention to the Bodega Bandit, the 'criminal' groaning with frustration as he tossed the gift cards to the ground, leaving Nick confused as the striped-dressed man started off.
"Hey, uh, Bandit? You dropped these," Nick noted.
The Bodega Bandit only shrugged, "Eh, there's no point no more. You know how much cardio I burn runnin' from that thing? 't's all wasted, now."
With that, the Bandit sauntered off, Nick watching with concern from behind. Eventually he swooped down, collecting the gift cards and matching their fronts to the nearest restaurant, dropping the stack of plastic into the mail slot. Turning back toward the lowly-lit street, his eyes couldn't help but touch the sky for any sign of the white-cloaked woman for just a second ago.
"J-Jess?!" Gwen shouted in surprise as she awkwardly tried to web her way along the flat rooftop that lined every home down the street, catching up to the new mother that was strolling along as though nothing was out of the ordinary, "What're you doing here in my universe?"
Jessica turned her head around with droll expression as Gwen rolled out of her darting grapples, now walking at her spider-partner's side, "Wait- Wait- Wait. Don't tell me. What, you need me for some big assignment? Oh, is 616 in peril or something? Is there a universe where they need a Spider-Person to model for a monument for the Met?!"
Severely uninterested, Jessica didn't reply, instead bringing up the box of food in her arm, scarfing down a hotdog from within, the box merely containing about ten 'slider dogs' that she'd been nursing for a while, judging from the half-empty contents. Gwen watched with a wary curiosity as Jessica shrugged in reply to her question.
"Water must be different here; these things are so much better," Jessica explained with a meandering, disinterested tone, "Did you know your cravings continue even after you give birth? This shit's insane; I can't get enough of these things."
Inhaling another bite-sized hotdog, Jessica continued walking along the rooftop, seemingly ignoring Gwen's increasing frustration, "That's it? A box 'a hotdogs?"
"It's a testament to your New York," Jessica explained easily, "Take pride in it. Protect those dogs. For me."
Gwen swooped downward as her shoulders fell dramatically, "Jess!"
"Alright, okay. I'm sorry to burst in and get you all excited," she apologized, "I suppose I could take this opportunity, during my humble hotdog run, to offer some form of instruction. If not that, perhaps some wisdom to impart upon you. That's what I'm usually here for, isn't it?"
Frowning in reply, Gwen mumbled, "I mean, you make it sound like such a hassle…"
"It's really not," Jessica confirmed, "At the very least, it's mom training for me. Goodness knows, Gerry's gonna be eight handfuls- that may be equivalent to one Gwen Stacy."
"Not helping," Gwen groaned.
Jessica took the chance to grin before taking a sip from the large soda resting in between her arm and torso, "Okay, okay. What's on your mind? Any new baddies crop up? Any progress on your public image? Did you finish doing what I instructed?"
"No, and…well, no," Gwen sighed, "Everything's just been slow tonight."
Nodding, Jessica replied, "Isn't that what usually happens before something inevitably crawls out of the woodwork?"
"I mean, maybe?" Gwen answered with a hint of insincerity, "Even if something were to pop outta nowhere, I- Have you ever had any issues with just being tired? Like, totally devoid of energy, like you've got a ball of nothing in your gut?"
Jessica turned her head, shooting Gwen a stare, "It's called pregnancy, dear."
"No, I know that, it's just- I thought my powers augmented my body, you know? I mean, up until a handful of days ago, I never felt exhausted, but now, it's like I'm strangled in a tether, with my powers being the only thing keeping me from falling into an abyss, my body just…dangling there. I've never felt so…weak."
Jessica's lips whirled in thought, her gait slowing to a stop before turning toward Gwen with curious eyes. Gwen responded in kind, albeit behind her mask, trying to figure out what exactly Jessica was looking for. The mother reached over and took the hem of Gwen's mask in her fingers, lifting it up enough to catch a glimpse of her neck, shrugging as she released it.
"Skin color's looking normal," Jessica noted, "Any eye discoloration or anything? Any illnesses?"
Gwen thought for a second, "No."
Humming in contemplation, Jessica stared at Gwen with a furtive glare, leading Gwen into a shudder of nerves, wondering what had her mentor so intense upon her, "Uh, is there something I'm-?"
"Your spider-senses," Jessica wondered quietly, her eyes narrowing into a piercing stare of inquiry, "They been giving you any issues?"
At such an unexpected question, Gwen was taken off guard, forcing her to think critically for a moment before, "I don't- No? I mean, what does that have to do with anything?"
Jessica sighed, scarfing down the last of her hotdog sliders and dropping the empty box and drink, catching it in a web to dispose of later, before crossing her arms, "Okay, obviously we never went over this. To be fair, I kind if took it for granted, but- Okay, your spider senses aren't something you control, right? It's instinctual, like a defense mechanism; you can't turn them off, right? I mean, in the movies, yeah, but this is reality."
"If you're constantly on edge, your senses will remain on edge as well. You're expecting something to happen, your reactions will heighten as well. Simple," Jessica concluded, "So, what, are you stressed out or anything? Anything weird going on in your head?"
"I mean, yeah, I'm stressed, but- Actually…" Gwen slowed, suddenly thinking of those two instances with her mp3 player playing in her head when, really, it shouldn't have.
It was rather nice to have those two moments in some sort of context that might not amount to insanity, but still, Gwen couldn't help but feel a slight shame at her mentor's perception of her should she admit this. It was one thing to need work on athletics, or agility, but her spider-senses? Something within her that she shouldn't have a problem with understanding or reining in. She must be one poor excuse of a spider-woman, she knew.
Still, amidst a sigh, she allowed the woman before her to offer any sort of aid, quietly admitting, "There have been, uh, two things. The first time, I had my earbuds in, listening to music, but when I checked my player, it was muted…but I was still hearing music as if it were real. Then, as soon as I realized it, poof, it shut off."
Jessica gave her a critiquing glance as she went on, "Then, just earlier tonight, my earbuds weren't even connected to the thing and I was still listening to music as if they had been."
"I'm not crazy, am I?" Gwen asked with a sincere tremor in her voice.
Her look unchanged, Jessica watched her with an intensifying stare, though it gradually began to wear off, leaving the mom with a far more pensive look that what she had previously put on. Arms still crossed, Jessica leaned against a nearby chimney, lowering her head ever so slightly as her lips pursed in deepening thought.
"No, you're not crazy," she confirmed quietly, her voice aquiver, "Just think about it for a moment. It's not as though it's something that been heavily studied- hell, even the Peter Parker's of the multiverses don't have everything down to a science. It's some esoteric thing that benefits us, and beyond that, it's a mystery."
Her face twitched, signaling her teeth biting at the tip of her tongue, "I will never forget that feeling of feeling my son in a way no other woman has probably ever felt. That moment of connection to something inside my body. One night, my spider-senses just went alight- I was so worried, nesting 'n all that- but as soon as I realized it was by child's own spider-senses, fluctuating in some developmental dance as he remained in my womb. It was-"
Her brow fell in a manner that wasn't quite sadness, though maybe something like melancholy, "I don't know what it was. It just was."
Gwen had brought her hands together in front of her while tilting her own head low in respect of her mentor's sudden honesty, lifting herself up only as Jessica pushed herself back upright, "But that's- That's neither here nor there. My point is, your spider-senses aren't just tendrils inside your head. Those senses act alongside the world around you; and if my unborn child was any indication, without you even being conscious of their activity."
"If they're working overtime, subconsciously, perhaps that's what's wearing you out," Jessica assumed with a shrug, "Maybe protecting you from something trying to get into your mind."
Turning to a pensive stare, Gwen attempted to conjure up a reason on those lines, but couldn't think of anything, unless it were some sort of ethereal creation hell-bent on relaying music into people's minds whenever they mistake their mp3 players for being on when they aren't. Unable to think of one, she simply admitted defeat as she shot out her next question.
"But I- Hey!"
Jessica had already taken off, strolling down the rooftop as Gwen once again was forced to catch up, unhappily chiding as she did so, "Y'know, you're not really attentive, Jess."
"However do you mean?" she wondered curiously, "I have to get back home to my child. My biological child, that is. I'm plenty attentive."
Gwen frowned, "That's not what I mean. I'm having a serious issue here and looking for reassurance from somebody who should understand."
With curled lips, Jessica answered simply, "Figure out what's got your senses in a tizzy. Simple. Maybe while finishing the assignment I gave you. Talk about attentive."
"Oh yeah, like I've got the time to-"
Gwen suddenly froze, her eyes immediately darting to the side before even realizing that Jessica had done much the same, the two women turning cautiously, both of their minds quivering dangerously. Lost among the shadows cast by the chimneys on this frigid, dark night, somebody was nearby.
"You felt that?" Gwen asked lowly.
Jessica nodded without reply.
Gwen's eyes coursed with intensity as she slowly began to stride toward that nearby darkness, Jessica following suspiciously as well, deferring to Gwen's knowledge of this world as the two met a shadowy figure standing there, still hidden in the shadows. Shoulders slid against the chimney in a lackadaisical pose, feet held out, astray from the rest of the angled body. A cold sweat began to form at the back of Gwen's neck, suddenly terrified of the prospect of these two meeting. All the while, Jessica's head turned ever so slightly toward Gwen, sensing her knowing dread.
At that, all that came from the shadows was a singular sound.
*tap* *tap*
