"Okay, Miss Cooper. Why did you page me down here?"

Police captain Frank Quaid looked at the young forensic officer who darted back and forward in the room she been placed in while they rebuilded the forensic lab.

"Oh you're gonna love this, Captain." she said as she put on a pair of rubber gloves and lifted up something heavy. "Take a look at this."

Carlie lifted a large heavy axe and put on the table in front of the captain.

"Is that the thing we confiscated from the hostage situation downtown?" he asked.

"You bet your butt it is. This one of the weapons that the supercriminal Menace used against those two superheroes. And as you know, we managed to snatch this before the feds did."

Captain Quaid scratched his chin. "An axe? You think a gun or something would be more efficient."

"Yeah, but this is no ordinary axe. I made some test and check this out."

Carlie handed the captain a clipboard with a paper she printed out from her computer.

"So? What does that tell you." she asked.

"That I feel just like Mark Harmon in Navy CIS." the senior officer deadpanned and handed back the clipboard, which he hadn't understand the numbers on.

"Oh that is a good show. Michael Weatherly is so hot."

"Carlie."

"Sorry... So, I thought this thing was a little odd so I tested it, and the blade showed some funny result. That showed positive for pure adamantium."

Captain Quaid looked up from the axe to Carlie. "Miss Cooper, I don't have a masters degree in chemistry."

"Adamantium is only one of the hardest materials on Earth." the young woman said with rising enthusiasm. "It's harder then diamonds, extremely rare and cost millions per ounce. This axe can slash through anything, and when used by someone with, say, super-strenght... then this thing is way dangerous than any gun I know of."

"Good thing we got it now then."

"Here comes the good thing, however. I searched the axe for fingerprints, and found this."

She hit a key on the keyboard and on the computer screen a picture of fingerprint showed up. It was however a rather warped and enlarged version of a fingerprint.

"Is it just me or does that look like a rather weird print? This can't be from a normal human." the captain said, and Carlie nodded.

"Oh I totally agree with you. This print obviously comes from that Menace. At first there were just no idea to even search for similar prints in our archives, that was bound to fail, however... I did found some identifiable points and ridges that I thought I could use as a starting point and run a check for any prints in our own archive that held any kind of similarity."

Captain Quaid nodded. "Mhm. And?"

"And I draw a blank. BUT! Then I thought about something. Adamantium is really expensive, right? Plus the government demads that you have a certain license to handle it. So to get a hold of even the slightest amount you have to own a multi-billion dollar company or something."

"Go on."

"So I ran a check if there were any people working for, or with, such a company that could been in the police archive. And voilá!"

Another picture came up on the computer screen, this time a mugshot of a blond woman around the age twenty-five to twenty-eight.

"I'm pretty sure this is our guy... or gal." Carlie said with pride.

"You're telling me this woman is Menace?" Quaid said with some skepticism.

"Well, you know, stranger things has happen'd. After all, we got mutants, spider-people, norse gods and aliens running around."

"That is true. So who is this girl then?"

Carlie adjusted her glasses and took a closer look at the profile on the screen.

"Her name is Lillian Hollister, but goes by the nickname 'Lily'. Top graduate at Empire State University. Got herself a nice job as a scientist at the Roxxon Corporation. Almost two year ago, however, she applied for a job at Oscorp, which they gave to Doctor Otto Octavius. The one with the metal arms you know. Lily here didn't liked that, so she broke into the Oscorp facility and tried to steal some classified formulas. When she got arrested, her father, who was some fancy DA, pulled a few strings and Miss Mad scientist here just disappeared from the face of the earth."

"Did you say Oscorp? As in Norman Osborn-Oscorp?"

"Exactly. Didn't he turned himself into some kind of green monster?"

A smile appeared on Captain Quaid's face. "Now that's just too good to be a coincident. Can you ensure me that this fingerprint belongs to this woman, Carlie?"

"I'm ninety-eight percent sure it does, Cap. Her fingerprint have several points matching the ones of Menace."

"Then I'll trust your judgement. I'll sent out a warrant for this girl right away, she's our head suspect from now on." the police officer said and turned around to leave the room.

"Um, captain?" Carlie called out after him. "If this woman really is a supercriminal... shouldn't we contact SHIELD on this one?"

The NYPD officer stopped walking and thought about it for a moment. "You're right. I'll tell the boys to only keep a look out for her, not to approach her. But if we're lucky... someone else we know might already be on to this one."


It was a beautiful Wednesday, early afternoon, and some of the few friends Peter Parker had was gathered in his backyard. Kenny McFarlane, or Kong as he was sometimes called, had convinced Peter to play a game of football with him on Aunt May's lawn. Peter tried to politely decline, but Kenny had insisted. How many had ever throwed ball with a superhero, he argued. Meanwhile, MJ was watching from the porch, leaning against the rail, right next to Kitty Pride.

"So... how's the superhero-life treating you?" the mutant girl asked.

"You guys figured out it too, huh?" MJ asked back without being surprised. She was getting used to this by now.

"Yeah. Wasn't really that hard after seeing you two smooching on the news. What does Peter think about you having your own costume-life?"

"Well..." MJ said while reflecting over it. "I have to admit it took a toll on our relationship, but we worked our way through it and we're adjusting. You know, crimefighting looked much funnier on TV when you guys did it. I didn't realize how serious it was when you're actually in there. I mean, the whole going up against crazy people, risking your life and all that."

"I hear that. They don't tell you about things like that in the brochures."

The two teen girls smiled warmly at each other. This was nice, cracking jokes and sharing a good time. Things had been really tense between the two of them. Kitty had dated Peter while he and MJ were broken up because he thought that he couldn't protect her. But after Mary Jane had been abducted by a mad clone Peter realized how much she really meant for him and the two had rekindled their relationship. The break up had left Kitty devestated, and the fact that all three of them now went to the same class didn't help. In time, however, things had warmed up, specially thanks to the fact that Kitty had taken interest in their classmate Kenny.

"Kitty, I'm propably gonna regrett bringing this thing up, but... How was Peter when you guys were together, in costume?" MJ asked, somewhat hesitant.

"How he was? Well... he was fun to be with, but... to be fair, he was never as honest about our relationship as he is with yours. If someone asked then if we were together, he'd just avoided to answer. He just wasn't as comfortable with me out in the open, and it wasn't just because I was a famous mutant. But he don't seem to have that problem with you guys."

"Yeah... yeah, we- we do feel comfortable around eachother out there. In one way, it has strengthen the bond between us."

"Plus you got to kick Michelle the bitch's ass." the brunette pointed out.

"Yeah that WAS fun." the redhead agreed.

"And these days you get to do the horizontal mambo in the girl's dressing room." Kitty said with a sly smirk on her lips.

"Oh come on. You don't believe in that too, do you?"

"There's no smoke without fire, girlfriend."

"You're saying the talk about you and Kong making out under the bleachers are true too, huh?" MJ said, and now it was her time to smirk.

"So how about the economy? Crazy, right?" Kitty answered quickly, anxious to change the subject.

MJ started to laugh at her friend's reaction, and soon Kitty started to laugh too as it rubbed off on her. Their laughter however ended when they both saw Kong fall down to the ground onto his back as he catched a hard football from Peter. Kitty ran hastily out to Kenny's side.

"With did you do?!" she yelled at Peter.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to use that much strenght." Pete said as he rubbed his neck in guilty conscience. "You okay, big guy?"

"Yeah, I'm okay." Kenny groaned. "I broke the fall... with my back."

While Kitty was bissy giving Peter a angry telling-off, MJ was standing a bit to the side and just watched the spectacle. When Kenny was trying to convince Kitty that it looked worse then it was, so that his male ego wouldn't take too much damage, MJ could hear how a car drove up along the sidewalk on the other side of the Parker's house. Then then heard how a familiar voice thanked the driver for the ride and how a car door slammed. MJ started to walk around the house to check out iif it was who she think it was, to which Peter asked where she were going.

As MJ rounded the corner of the house, she saw a girl her age with long blonde hair. Mary Jane gave out a high-pitched scream, and the girl gave out an equally high scream when she noticed MJ. They then ran up to each other and gave each other a hug, still screaming of joy. Peter, with his fingers in his ears, remarked; "It's cute when dolphins says hi."

"Oh my god Liz! It's so good to see you." MJ said to the blonde girl.

"You too, MJ. It's been way to long." Liz Allan said back to her best friend.

"I know I said you could come by any day, but I didn't expect you to show up today already."

"Happy surprise! Hi Peter."

"Hi Liz. You look, well, good."

"Thank you."

Kenny and Kitty now came up to them to see what was going on.

"Holy crap. Liz?" Kenny said in happy surprise.

"Kong!" Liz chirped and gave the big guy a hug. "Have you lost weight?"

"No, just exchanged the fat for some muscles."

Then Liz noticed Kitty standing next to Kong, and the atmosphere got pretty awkward fast. "Oh... um, hi."

"Yeah... hi." Kitty greeted back.

"You, er... You look good. Uh, Bobby and the others told me to say hi from them."

"Oh, thanks. Tell them I said hi back."

"So, um, how's the hell that is high school treating you?"

"It's got bad days and it's got good days." Kitty said with a shrug. "How's the life of the X-men doing for you?"

"Good, but I kinda miss the real school, believe it or not." Liz said, and her mouth grow a tiny little smile.

"Really? I would change Midtown High for beating the snot out of The Brotherhood any day."

"Yeah, that is a funny part."

The conversation seemed to have ease the tension that was hanging in the air, it looked like Liz wanted to say that she was sorry for treating Kitty the way she did, but she was too proud (or embarrassed) to actually say it. Kitty seemed fine with it, as long as she was sorry.

"So, I would love to stay here and catch up on things..." Peter told the rest of the gang while looking at his watch. "But I have to go to the Bugle in less then an hour."

"We can go with you. Liz and I are gonna paint the town red. Or something." MJ said with a happy tone. "You guys wanna come along?"

"Thanks but we gotta go and finish the book report." Kitty pointed out.

"So we have to catch up with you guys later." Kenny told.

"Okay then," Peter said. "let's go before we miss the bus."

As the three of them picked up their backpacks, and Kenny and Kitty left, Liz leaned in towards MJ and said;

"Seems like Kitty and Kong gets along pretty well."

"Oh you don't even know half of it." MJ smirked.


Mary Jane and Liz took the bus downtown along with Peter, and then the three of them split up as Pete rushed off towards The Daily Bugle. The two gal pals walked around and catched up on everything they had missed and checked out all the stores they used to go to before. They also talked alot about both their new lifes as superheroes.

"So you're really gonna go with the name Jackpot?" Liz asked.

"Yeah, what's so funny about that?" MJ wondered.

"Nothin'. I just don't understand where you got it from."

"It's kind of a thing between just me and Peter."

"Okay, but is there really any idea when you two are the only ones getting it?" Liz asked again.

"Like your name is so special."

"Hey. Firestar is a cool name."

"Yeah maybe, but Jackpot is cool too, and simple. Peter says he likes it."

Liz thought about something for a second and then said; "You know, I always knew Peter was a nice guy. But I didn't realize how cool he really was before the whole catching-on-fire-thing."

"Oh really? Cool enough to try making out with?" MJ said with a sly expression on her face.

"Oh come on! I told you a hundred times I'm sorry about that. I was drunk, and he did turn me down, MJ."

"Relax, Liz. I forgave you a long time ago, it's ancient history by-- Did you hear that?" the red-headed girl suddenly reacted.

"Hear what?"

"Shhh!"

They had stopped outside a display window. MJ stepped closer to it and put her face close to the glass so she could see into the store without the sun reflecting into her eyes. She watched throught the window for a short moment and then went "Oh crap, duck!"

She grabbed on to Liz and pulled her to the side just as the window shattered from the inside. What seemed like a huge dust cloud, mixed with thousand of dollar bills flied out of the store, passed the two girls and moved down the street in great speed, scaring off people that it swirled pass them like a small desert tornado.

"What the heck was that thing?!" Liz asked as she dusted of some sand and broken glass from her clothes.

"It's trouble, I'll tell you that." MJ answered. She always listen carefully to Peter's stories about the crazy things he had fought in his days, and MJ was pretty sure what this was. "Come on! We gotta go find somewhere were we can change."

"Oh yeah! Allan and Watson, rushing off to save the day!"