I wish I could have given Mom and TQ more time to do their calculations for the Venom Lite (I can come up with a good name for that, but not for Jen and her Special Friend? What is up with me today?), I really do…but watching Miss Bonkers relieve a dude of his cranium kinda put a rush order on it. Cuz, you know, where there's one decapitation there's…several?

I don't know, I kinda have other things on my mind right now.

Anyway, I was off and swinging in less than an hour with an emergency batch of the Venom Lite in a handy little dispenser pouch for when I needed it- because if my previous fights with Jen Nikos were any indication, I would be definitely needing it at some point. I was vaguely aware of all the people on the streets reacting as I swung by, but I was too focused on getting to Jennifer to pick up on what was actually being said. Besides, it probably wasn't anything too flattering given the recent handiwork of the Jalien (UGH, I actively hate that one!).

My mom's warning kept playing in my mind as swung through the city: "Miss Khan and I did everything we could to make this compound more stable than the original Venom, but…Lindsay, you're still going to be the first person to ever be subjected to the effects of this. There shouldn't be any unwanted mutations, but that's all I can promise without further testing."

I'm not too crazy about using this stuff either, Mom, but right now I don't really have another choice.

"You should be close now," TQ said in my ear, "be ready for anything, Lindsay."

Wow, was that actual concern in your voice, TQ? Keep it up and I might start thinking you like me or something.~

"Roger that," I responded before turning my attention to my surroundings. My Spider-Sense was still pretty much useless in detecting Jenbiote (Did I already try that one? …let's just say I did and discard it.) so I had to rely on my natural five senses to locate her. …wait, I don't want to taste her, that's just gross! …and touch really isn't that applicable while I'm in the air, so that rules that out. And I don't even want to try imagining what a Grimmbiote actually smells li-

OK, SUDDENLY FALLING! For real, this starting to become a disturbingly common trend lately, and I for one need to have a talk with my agent about-

And suddenly felt something yank me into a nearby building, knocking the wind out of my lungs for a moment before a Jennifer shaped object decided to crash into me, sending us both further into the building (and dealing thousand in property damage in the process, none of it my fault FTR!).

"Found you!~" she said, her mask peeling back to reveal her wickedly grinning face, "Just like a pest to fly into the spider's nest.~"

WEB! Spiders make webs, not nests!

So help me, I might not be able to hold myself back for this fight…!

"Well, know you, I was in the neighborhood anyway…," I said, straining a little bit as my face was getting shoved into the remains of someone's desk, "figured I'd stop and say hi, have some tea…convince you to not murderize me?"

I was tossed back out into the street, landing on my back.

Don't worry, someone's minivan broke my fall.

Ow…

I was just getting back on my feet when The Jenilator (too positive. Why is this so hard?) jumped down after me, her "mask" up again, causing a small crater in the pavement where she landed.

Meep!

"Come to surrender to us?" She- …they(?) asked. "We're glad you finally realize that you're no match for us."

"Erg," I grunted, "…I dunno who told you that…but reports have been greatly exaggerated…" I attempted to pry myself off the "soccer bus". "Actually-" I think I may have bruised a rib during the fall. "-how about you surrender to me, give back the girl, and get the H E double hockey sticks off our planet?"

Hey, at least I tried.

Then…they chuckled. Apart from my mom after I accidentally broke an old art project Barbara made, that was the scariest thing I'd ever heard in my life!

"Silly girl," she/they said, "we are no longer Jennifer or Venomous. We have become something greater than either could be on their own! We…are Jenom!"

…

Oh. My. Gawd…WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT? Oh right, because I'm a Science kid and forgot the most important principles of creative writing: "Keep it simple, stupid!"! Can we just, like, say I came up with that one and forget about all those other names?

Sadly I wasn't able to lament my lapse in creativity for long, now titled "Jenom" drew a fist back, clearly ready to punch my face in and conveniently forget to stop punching. "Farewell, little insect…~"

Omg, spiders aren't-! …you know what? Not the time. I quickly shrunk down to avoid the punch before immediately returning to normal size, giving Jenom (so much easier to throw in conversation, to boot!) an uppercut to the chin, zipping out of her reach just before her/its fist further racked up that poor family's insurance claim.

Unfortunately, I didn't get very far due to the Grimmbiote webbing yanking me back to the ground.

For real, if I don't need a chiropractor after all this is over, I'll be legitimately surprised.

"Why resist?" Jenom said, swinging me around and bashing me into more cars. "Just give up already; you know I'm better than you in every way, so why prolong the inevitable?" Crash, crash, crash! "Just disappear and stop stealing what's mine!"

Ok, this may be the potential concussion talking, but I'm pretty sure the Grimmbiote didn't have a crush on Miles Arc.

Also, that lamppost was getting really close all of a sud-

WHAM!

Oh…that's why…

Well…I wasn't planning on breaking out the Venom Lite this early, but I don't like my chances of surviving if things keep playing out like this.

Fortunately, Jenom decided to gloat a bit more. "You had all this power at your fingertips, yet you never tried to take advantage of it! Instead, you hid it away and tried to take things you didn't deserve, like a filthy little cockroach…"

Can't imagine what Jen's grades in Entomology looked like if these are the analogies she's making.

"And then you had the gall to humiliate me and think there wouldn't be consequences…"

Jenom kept pontificating, seemingly more interested in saying her piece than finishing off, during which time I managed to sneakily roll a bit of my sleeve up and slap the Venom Lite patch onto bare skin. (It would kinda defeat the purpose if my suit got all the V Lite and I didn't.) There was a little sting as microscopic needles pumped the Venom Lite into my bloodstream, beginning to circulate it through the rest of my body.

…huh, weird, I thought it would take effect sooner; apart from the initial contact I didn't really feel anyt- HANG ON, THERE IT GOES!

…Am I supposed to be losing consciousness? Neither Mom nor TQ ever said.

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

Well…that was unexpected. The insect had just…collapsed limply onto the ground, right in the middle of her big speech, too!

Oh well, "adapt and overcome" as the saying went. Jenom stepped closer and raised her foot, ready to end the bane of her mouth existence once and for all. She was really going to enjoy squishing the little spider under her boot-

Only for Spider-Girl's hand to shoot up at the last minute and grab her foot, preventing her head from getting stomped into the pavement.

Wut?

That wasn't supposed to happen!

And the concerning part was that she was effortlessly able to to match Jenom's strength, no matter how forcefully she pressed down. She drew her foot back and attempted a kick, only for Spider-Girl to leap up and stick to the wall before the kick hit. She then tried to yank Spider-Girl towards her, only for the annoying insect to dodge to the side at the last second.

For the first time in its existence, the Grimmbiote part of Jenom felt apprehensive.

Then Spider-Girl lowered herself to the ground and began lurching towards Jenom.

The Jen Nikos part of them was starting to agree with the sentiment.

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

It felt like I was just suddenly suspended in nothing. No ground under my feet, nothing I was hanging from, not even the feeling of being submerged in water (which I was minorly thankful for), just a whole big bunch of nothing.

Other than that, I was still somehow able to move around easily enough, even if I didn't seem to be using my legs to do so. I dunno, man, it was weird. …but also not at the same time?

Look, this is the first time anything like this has happened to me, cut me some slack!

Another weird thing about this place is that there didn't seem to be any colors or shapes, even on me, despite still being able to tell what the general shape of my body looked like.

Suddenly, I felt a sharp, biting pain on my arm where the infamous spider bite happened, and when I looked down at it there was actually a spider there. I couldn't tell for sure, but I think it met my gaze and I think it wanted me to follow it.

…aight. I mean, what else am I gonna do in this weird nothing space, jumping jacks?

I nodded and it leaped off my arm and onto…something and started heading off. Keeping up with it wasn't a problem, but it still felt odd to move around without actually using my body for locomotion.

After some amount of time I could start to perceive something off in the distance, something that felt intrinsically familiar to me. As I got closer I could eventually tell that it was a network of spider webs, seemingly arranged with no rhyme or reason, one web clipping into another, smaller web, which also connected to a string of webs…you get the idea. (I know there's an art term that probably describes what this looks like, but I can't remember it right now.)

"Well well well, it's been a while," a voice came from both nowhere and everywhere, "not gonna lie, I was getting a bit lonely waiting here all these years; the least you could have done was give me some apps to play around with."

No matter which way I looked I couldn't find the source of the voice. It seemed really familiar, too, like the name was just on the edge of my memory…

"Who's there?" I call out. "Not to put pressure on you or anything, but I'd feel more comfortable talking with someone I can actually see, you know?"

"Fair enough, I guess."

It took a minute for the owner of the voice to come into view, but once they did…it was like looking in the mirror; another me leaped over to the web I was currently perched on, only this version had the colors on their suit reversed. (Side note, this is the first bit of actual color I've seen in this place.) You know, black on red instead of red on black?

…it makes sense, shut up.

"This better?" she asked, lounging against the webbing, "I'd say I'm surprised by the decor…but let's be honest, you'd just be surprising yourself at that point."

Ugh…I hate it when they get cryptic…

"Then How about we get some introductions? I'm Spider-Girl-" I pointed to myself, then at my doppelgänger. "-and you are…?"

"Who do you think I am?~"

UGH!

"Look, I was kinda in the middle of beating the snot out of my classmate who went and got herself attached to an alien parasite, I'm not in the mood for games."

My copy chuckled. "Alright, if that's how you want it…" They then pulled off their mask and…I nearly lost it. I was expecting another me in a black hoodie, or even an alien with spider-like features, or just…something, I dunno!

I certainly wasn't expecting the face of my dead sister to be under the mask.

"This better?"

Error 404: Brain not found. Rebooting in 3…2…1…

"…Barb?" I squeaked out.

"In the flesh!~" she responded with her signature cheeky grin. "…kind of. It's a bit complicated."

"I thought I- You- …what are you doing here?"

"Oh, just hanging around."

…yeah, it's definitely her, alright.

"No, I meant…I saw them lower the casket…"

"Oh, that! Well…" She let herself hang on her knees, her long, golden hair hanging loose. (I guess there's gravity here…?) "This is your mind space, and I'm the image your brain your brain decided to use to walk you through that stuff you just injected yourself with."

"Yeah, about that, actually…" I took off my own mask. "I'm not just laying limp on the ground right now, am I? Cuz not doing that was kinda the whole reason why I popped the Venom Lite."

"Heh, that's cute," she remarked, suddenly back in a reclining position, "especially considering what got you into this mess in the first place."

My Mom is a geneticist at OzCorp, and she's the one who created the spider that bit me. As in, she grew the hairy little bugger in a lab. Even so, neither she nor I know how I do all the crazy things I do.

"You enjoyed the free sample, so you had to come back for more, right?"

"What? Of course not! If anything, Jenom's the thrill junkie here! The only reason I used the Venom Lite is because I wouldn't be able to stop her from causing more damage-"

"Blah blah blah, 'I'm the hero of this story', right? Spare me; you're not really so different from Jennifer, you get a huge thrill from lording your powers over the common person as she does."

I blinked in confusion. "…you do remember how frazzled I was when I accidentally stood out in gym, right? Me and Jen are as far apart as…two far things."

Wow, what was that, me?

"Oh, Jenom just landed a lucky hit on you, knocked your brain around a bit. You should probably start fighting back if you don't want to end up dead like you were saying before."

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

"WHY! WON'T! YOU! STAY! STILL!" Jenom shrieked, wildly swinging at an animate but now silent Spider-Girl. She'd managed to knock the annoying girl into a nearby wall, but that had been the only time she'd actually connected a blow. This had been going on for about five minutes now, with no sign of the status quo changing one way or the other.

Spider-Girl also hadn't bothered to return any of the blows sent her way.

Jenom yanked a car (ignoring the people next to it who now ran away screaming) towards the hero, only for her to once again dodge out of the way.

"Why don't you fight back?" she demanded, charging forward, "Are you hoping to wear us out? We're Jenom now; we've transcended both our normal limits, so we can do this as long as it-"

A sudden right hook interrupted Jenom's monologue.

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

"There you go!" Barb cheered, "That's more like it; no one's gonna unalive you today, Lindsay!

"But I don't even know what I did!" I protested. For real, I was completely unaware of anything going on outside this weird mind space; for all I know, Jenom and my body could have started square dancing in the middle of the street.

Not that I think Jen would ever resort to square dancing unless there was a chance she could show me up in the process. For real, she really needs to get a different hobby one of these day-

"Hey, focus!" Barb snapped, yanking my attention back to the present. "You wanna know how to beat this chick or what?"

Uh, yeah!

"Alright, fair enough. …I don't suppose you could explain how all this-" I gestured to everywhere. "-works?"

"Hey, I'm just a figment of your imagination; I'm only as knowledgeable as you are."

"…but didn't you say my mind made you to help me here?"

Barb shrugged. "It was probably involuntary. But enough about me, let's focus on Jen Nikos and how you want to punch her smug face in."

"I mean…I do want to do that…"

"That's the spirit! Keep thinking like that; your body is acting on instinct right now, which means if you want to rip her throat out, then…?"

I squinted at the image of my late sister. "…you're really trying to push for violence here."

"What can I say?" she shrugged again, "Humans are flawed, violent creatures."

Some more than others…

"And you gotta embrace that part of you, the part that just wants to rip and tear and just put a permanent end to everything that tries to get in your way!"

"…you know, talking things out is a highly overrated method of solving problems. I'm surprised more people don't do it."

"If you really believed that, you wouldn't be in this predicament in the first place."

"Hey, I was perfectly willing to let this go; don't blame me for someone else's fragile ego!"

"I'm not blaming you for anything; you're blaming yourself for being too weak to give this conflict a decisive end. Incidentally, you're really kicking her ass right now."

Gawd, I wish I could actually see what was happening in the real world right now! Better yet, I wish I was actually in control of my body right now so I could try talking with- …talking to Jenom. I don't know if this qualifies as an out-of-body experience, but it's really starting to lose its novelty now.

…also, was it just me, or was Barb looking more…hunched over than before?

And did her suit always look that slick and shiny?

"Gotta say, I'm actually impressed. Never knew you had so much pent up rage inside you, color me impressed.~"

Geez, does this Not Bard ever think of anything else?

"Ooh, hey! I wonder how powerful you'd get if you took another dose of this stuff? You'd probably give Kuro Yuri a run for her money."

Ok, excuse you; her name is Edgy McEdgepants, thank you very much!

"Think about it; once you're done with this bitch, you could go and take care of the rest of the filth prowling the city! Pincerman, The Bull- wait, better idea! You could finally get the courage to get it on with Miles Arc…~ C'mon, don't tell me you don't occasionally look at his butt when you think no one's paying attention.~"

Whoa there, brain, I thought we agreed not to go down that rabbit hole!

Although…now that you mention it, I do feel a bit more sure of myself… I hate to say it, but Not Barb is starting to make some good points here…

I mean, Miles was obviously into me, so why not take advantage of that? Especially since I'd be done pummeling Jenom into the ground before too long-

Whoa! Where'd that come from?

"If you want something, just take it," Not Barb continued, her voice sounding slimy and distorted now. "It's like I said, you and her aren't so different from each other as you think…except you're better than her now, obviously.~"

I was about to respond when I suddenly felt something wet and viscous drip onto my shoulder, Which was all kinds of gross and probably made my hair do that thing that happens in anime sometimes. I hesitantly looked down at my shoulder and saw what the stuff was: it was black, oily, yet somehow organic at the same time.

Just like a certain alien bane of my existence…

"Why hold back?" The Thing That Looked Like Barb persisted, "Aren't you tired of holding back…don't you just wanna go apeshit sometimes?"

I mean…I'd be lying if I said some days weren't more frustrating than others…

"You've totally got that bitch on the ropes," she continued, "just one decisive blow and all your problems with Jennifer Nikos will just go away forever…!~"

Yeah, but I still don't know what's happening outside my body. Hypothetically, I'd at least want to-

"Then how about paying that Nyon bitch a visit and shut her up for good?~"

…ok, that was legitimately tempting.

No, focus! Don't let this…whatever-it-is confuse you, Linds! You need to regain control and deal with Jenom, the right way!

I've never literally punched my inner demons before, so this'll be a novel experience.

"Hey, uh…Not Barb!" I called. (Not my best work, eh…) "I've got a question for you."

The whatever-it-was that looked like my late sister did that creepy horror movie crawl, you know the one, to reach me. "Finally decided to stop holding back?"

"Something like that…" Without warning I swung a right hook directly at this thing's borrowed face, clipping it right on its chin. It reeled back for a moment, only to recover a second later and send a death glare in my direction.

The fact that it was now missing part of its lower jaw added extra creepy points to the effect.

"I'm not gonna lose control," I said, taking another swing at Not Barb, "If I do, then I'd be stooping to Jen's level, and in case you didn't get the memo, I won't stoop down to my opponents' levels." I stared the thing directly in its borrowed set of lavender eyes, then grabbed its head and gave it a knee to what what left of its chin. "If going 'apeshit' and hurting people is the only way I can get this level of power, then I don't want it!"

The thing hissed at me, a weird, wet, inhuman sounding hiss at that. If this is what my mind can conjure up, then maybe I should go into making horror movies? Or get therapy?

Eh, thoughts for later. Got a weird goo thing to tell off right now. …and also Jenom.

"Do you even understand what you're giving up?" it asked.

"Actually? …yeah, I do." I webbed it by the sides of its head, then yanked it downward; my foot was patiently waiting for it. "And four out of five doctors will warn you about the side effects of taking Venom Lite, including but not limited to…"

I didn't actually pay attention to what I was saying at that point, I was mostly just running my mouth off so whatever this was didn't have a chance to get a word in edgewise, all the while calmly and politely putting the everloving smackdown on this distortion of my late sister. Which potentially (I have no way to actually confirm this or not) caused it to shrivel up until there was nothing left after oh so many punches.

Then it was just me. Alone.

…what was step 2 again?

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

I suddenly found myself back on the city street where Jenom had tossed me on, albeit somewhat further up the road than before. There was a path of ruined cars and messed-up storefronts leading up from the alley we'd started in right to where I was. And on the ground in front of me was very groggy-looking Jen Nikos, her Grimmbiote mask looking like it was struggling to actually stay on her face.

At first, I thought that whatever had happened when I was in that weird mindscape place might have somehow unalived her, but then I noticed her chest slowly rising and falling, so she hadn't gone to meet her maker just yet. (I breathed a mental sigh of relief at that.)

I also noticed all the civilians starting to pop out from where they were hiding.

Come on, Lindsay; say something so these people don't think you're some crazy vigilante murderer!

"…she's still breathing," I called out, "I don't know if anyone's called the cops yet, but if not, then someone should get on that! Also, I'm gonna need a fire extinguisher in a minute or two."

I was obviously going to freeze the Grimmbiote so it didn't cause any more trouble once I separated it from Jennifer…once I figured out how to actually separate it from Jennifer. Alright, Linds, what do we know about these things? They're creepy, kooky, mysterious, and spooky…and once they find a host, they don't like to give it up for anything. You know, except for a freak blizzard or a Skrillex concert. Cuz they don't like loud noises or extreme cold- …oh.

Oh…!

Ok, so, this ain't the prettiest solution, but for a spur of the moment brain blast it was actually pretty clever if I do say so myself. One of the stores on our side of the road was a pawn shop with some guitars and amps in the front window. Thankfully (sort of) the window had been smashed open, so all I really had to do was reach in and flip a few switches, quickly plug in a nearby microphone, then hold it up to the woofer.

I'm gonna be hella surprised if I don't get tinnitus from this, but it's worth the risk.

An ear-piercing squeal birth from the amp, almost immediately causing the Grimmbiote to look like a "Science" from those old cartoons as it tried to rip itself from Jennifer. For her part, Jenny was trying to block the sound by covering her ears, not that it really did much good.

I quickly webbed the mic in place and enacted the second part of my plan; there was a fire extinguisher further inside the building, so I yoinked it over and rushed back over to the soon-to-be separate Grimmbiote and Jen Nikos.

Come on, you're almost there…!

Once it fully separated itself from Jen I hit with the extinguisher. Not literally hit it, but pointed the nozzle in its direction and shot the supercooled chemicals at it. It didn't take too long to fully freeze the dang thing, but there was a harrowing moment where it tried to get back to its previous host before it became a Grimmcicle.

And then, finally, it was done. Not permanently just yet, but the alien goo was frozen and Jen looked too tired to do anything at the moment, so I'm gonna count this as a win for me.

"I think we all just need to chill out for a moment," I said, tossing the now spent extinguisher off to the side.

…the pun was unintentional, I swear.

Anywho, all that's left is to call TQ and have her come pick the Grimmbiote up and why am I suddenly falling? It's not nappy time just yet!

Welp, apparently my body had different ideas than my mind did, cuz before I knew it I'd collapsed onto the ground between the Grimmcicle and Jenny Girl, slowly losing consciousness. And just when I was reaching for TQ's communicator, too! I guess I'll catch you guys up later once my involuntary nap is done. However…

To borrow one of Arryn's weeb terms, why do I feel like someone was being incredibly Tsundere to me right before I fully lost consciousness?

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

Ok, so, a lot of things happened once I woke back up, so I'll try to sum things up as best I can.

For starters, apparently Edgy McEdgepants (who some of you might know as Kuro Yuri) showed up just as I was fainting and thankfully called up TQ, who came and gathered both me and the Grimmcicle up, bringing us back to her lair. Jenny Cray-Cray was left with the cops since she was basically just a normal girl again.

Speaking of Tiger Queen's lair, mom apparently had some strong words for TQ when I was brought back unconscious, and even more than that once I attempted to explain what I went through after taking the Venom Lite. I guess she used someone her own mumbo-jumbo powers to help make it more stable, and that accidentally sent me on a vision quest in the middle of the fight. …or something, there was too much magic in the explanation for me to fully understand it. Sufficed to say, any potential further uses of Venom Lite were postponed until some more research was done on TQ's contribution to it.

As for Jen Nikos and her funky friend, well…one of them technically got off better than the other from this experience. Spoilers, it wasn't the Grimmbiote; that thing was vaporized as soon as we could get in contact with Dr. Polendina and Taylor, since her lasers (ray guns? I never could figure out the semantics of that) had a proven track record of completely eradicating these things. I eventually learned that Jen was sent to a psych ward so they could properly diagnose her mental state post-separation. Again that Yang girl came to mind. Man, I hope she's doing OK; she was having a pretty rough go of things when that first wave of Grimmbiotes attacked. I hope she's still in control of her Grimmbiote. She looked like she was, but…

Anyway, story for another time. Back to summarizing.

On the non-superhero side of thing, there was an announcement at school that Miss Nikos would no longer be attending, that our thoughts and prayers were with her for her recovery, yada yada, you all know what those announcements are like.

"It's a shame she let that power get to her head," Miles mused come lunchtime; he, Arryn, and Kara were all sharing a table with me as we munched on lunch. "…honestly? I didn't even realize she existed before all this went down."

I wanted to ask "how the H E double hockey sticks could you not?", but that didn't seem appropriate at this time. (Also, I was one to talk about that.)

"I suppose it is," Kara agreed, "though, frankly, I'm more curious as to how and where she found one of those alien Grimmbiotes in the first place. I was under the impression that they'd all been wiped out already."

"Yeah, same." I took a bite of my nachos, chewing thoughtfully. "…didn't Spider-Girl help with that?"

Yes, I'm tooting my own horn right now, shut up! I earned this!

Arryn nodded. "That's what I remember happening." She then wrapped an arm around Kara's shoulder, tugging her a bit closer.

Disgusting PDA, I know. Just let them have their fun.

I let out a sigh. "I can't believe it's already over," I admitted. "I mean, I know Spider-Girl took care of her- non-lethally! I dunno, I guess this just seemed like it was gonna go on longer."

"…you're not happy that you can go back to just being a normal girl instead of a secret gymnastics prodigy?" Kara asked, thankfully giving Miles a direction to think that didn't lead to "Me = Spider-Girl".

"I mean yeah, I am…it's just kinda sad that Jen had to go through all this to get to this point."

My [gay] best friends nodded in understanding.

"Yeah, I get that," Miles said, "Although, it was still pretty cool seeing you leap down from the top of the climbing rope."

I formed an irresistible attraction with the table (thankfully missing my nachos). "I thought we agreed that was just an accident?"

"…a cool-looking accident?"

I gave him a Look™️, which he thankfully picked up on.

"Alright, point taken. No more accidental coolness."

"Thanks."

After that the conversation turned toward school stuff and our resident monochromatic power couple (Hmm, what would their couple name be, anyway? "Karryn"?- Nope! Ew, forget that one!) though my mind was still clutching onto Jen and how she was doing.

"I'm one of the foremost generic experts in the city," my mom said when seeing me off to school yesterday, "I'd honestly be more surprised if I wasn't asked to weigh in on your friend's condition."

"She's not my- …never mind. But no, I get that…but do you really need to stay on-site for the next week?"

"I'm afraid so, sweetie. In any case, I've spoken with Mrs. Belladonna and she's said that you're always welcome to impose on them for dinner. There's also some cash in an envelope if you need to order something in, and there's still plenty of leftovers in the fridge-"

"Ok, ok, I get it! I'm still gonna miss you, Mom."

"I'll miss you too, Sweetie."

"Hug time?"

"Hug time.~"

During the last time she called to check in on me she said that Jen was apparently still out of it, moaning about feeling empty inside even though she was physically fine by all indications.

I don't know if I'll ever understand why she thought letting a Grimmbiote bond with her was a good idea…

Suddenly my cell phone rang, snapping me from my bout of ennui. I quickly dug it out of my pocket; TQ made an app so I wouldn't need to carry one of her communicator units on me in my civvies, and I'd just gotten a message saying that someone in a domino mask and mismatched spandex making a scene in the middle of the local mall.

As much as I don't want to skip school, some good old fashion crime-fighting would probably help take my mind off of things better than sitting through physics class would.

"Uh…guys?" After tucking my phone away again I leaned forward and grabbed my stomach, making a show of groaning. "I don't think my nachos are agreeing with me…!"

This was standard practice if I needed to make myself scarce during the day. (Also because Miles was sitting right there.)

"Uh…you want one of us to walk you to the nurse?" Kara "offered".

"No, I'm good! …I think I can make it if I hurry…!" I hopped to my feet and made a beeline for the cafeteria door, making my way through the hallways until I reached the nurse's office. Once inside I made sure the nurse was occupied with his usual crossword puzzle before slipping on my suit (thank you magic techno watch!) and sneaking out the window, swinging off to the scene of whatever crime was happening.

Duty calls, after all.

fin.

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

Hoo boy, that took a while to get out, didn't it?

Honestly? I got a bunch of other ideas all competing for my attention, so I had to address this one by one. Fortunately, all that is taken care of now, so have a lengthy chapter to sink your teeth into.

Not sure what my next upload will be, either another Spider-Ruby tale or the conclusion of Out in the Open (my newest HuniePop fic). Dunno till I know.

But if you don't want to miss the upload, Follow and Favorite. If you want to share your thoughts on the conclusion of this story arc, leave a Review. And as always, stay safe and be Excellent to each other.