Along Came a Spyder

"Well its about time somebody came down and took care of this menace," Chief of Police Smith sighed as he showed Roadblock and Cover Girl into his office. "If only I'd known there was an agency that deals with these things I'd have called weeks ago."

"So what can you tell me about the case?" Roadblock decided it was best to press on for now.

"Two weeks ago we got a tip that there was some suspicious activity in the area," Smith told him. "Now for quite a while we've had some mutant sightings in the town but we haven't been able to confirm them. The officers got a tip that someone on Mulberry St. may have been harboring a mutant. At the exact same time they pulled onto the street a call came into dispatch requesting an ambulance from the very house suspected. The former resident was a Mrs. Ida Walker. We had some code violation problems with her before. You know the type, lonely old broad with about a dozen or so cats in the place? Well it turns out she was starting a new kind of collection."

"She was harboring the mutant?" Roadblock asked.

"Got it in one," Smith told him. "More like feeding it scraps. Officers arrived before the ambulance and found the mutant over the old woman lying on the floor. They tried to apprehend the suspect, but the mutant escaped. We've been hunting it nearly non stop since then along with a few other concerned citizens."

"By 'other concerned citizens' are we talking about the FOH?" Cover Girl asked, unable to keep the bitterness out of her voice.

"No," Smith looked at her. "Just regular folks who are trying to protect their families. In case you haven't noticed this isn't exactly LA lady. All we have around here is desert, desert and more desert. There's only about ten thousand people in this city if you can call it that. And half of them are probably illegal immigrants. And our mayor just got indited on fraud charges. As you can see organization isn't exactly our strong suit."

"What do you know about this mutant?" Roadblock asked.

"Not much," Smith shook his head. "Before the incident there have been some sightings around town. Grey skin, able to stick to walls, apparently female we're not sure."

"Did she kill the old woman?" Cover Girl asked.

"Technically we don't think so," He told her. "Autopsy confirmed it was a heart attack. Lady was in her eighties, ate a lot of junk food so it wasn't much of a shock."

"Then why didn't you make it known that the mutant had nothing to do with her death?" Cover Girl asked.

"Hey for all we know that thing scared her or something. You know maybe triggered the whole thing?" Smith looked at her. "Besides we don't need a wild mutant running around here causing trouble. We have enough problems with the normal criminals lady!"

"You said so yourself that she didn't kill the old woman," Roadblock pointed out.

"So? She's a thief, caused property damaged and has been terrorizing this community for some time. I'd call that criminal. Hey if you army types want that mutant, you are more than welcome to it that's all I can say."

"Her," Cover Girl glared at him. "This isn't some alligator from the sewers. It's probably a child."

"Oh yeah?" An officer walked in. "Lady that 'child' just took out two of our guys with some kind of weird webbing. She's like some two legged electrical spider!"

"When was this?" Roadblock asked.

"By the warehouse district not even twenty minutes ago," He told her.

"We'd better roll out," Roadblock told Cover Girl. "Call the others."

************************************************************************

"This is where the last sighting was," Lance looked around the area. The Misfits were searching for the mutant. Roadblock was able to convince the police to give them to blockade the streets surrounding and allow the Misfits to work.

"I found something," Xi remarked. He pointed to a strand of some kind of glowing webbing. "I think it may have some electric residue. I would not touch it."

"Great a spider girl that shoots out electric webs," Pietro remarked. "That's handy."

"The tracks are faint but they lead to that warehouse," Xi pointed.

"Let's take this easy," Althea said. "We don't want to frighten her. I'll go in with Toad and Arcade. The rest of you cover the exits in case she gets by us. Don't come in after us unless you hear from me on the communicator. Got it?"

"Got it," Arcade nodded.

Althea, Arcade and Todd went inside the warehouse. It was filled with odd webbing. "Try not to touch them," Althea said. "They could still be electric."

"I don't think so," Arcade took out a scanner and analyzed them. "It seems they loose their electric charge after a period of time. These webs have been here a while so I'm not sure how long the charge lasts."

"Oh that's lovely. Hello?" Todd called out. "Hello! Anybody here?"

"Over there," Arcade pointed using his night vision goggles. "She's hiding over there on the wall."

"Oh thanks a lot pal!" Someone crawled down from the shadows and confronted them. She was wearing a gray sweatshirt with jeans and a gray backpack. The hood covered her face.

"It's just a little kid," Todd remarked.

"Don't call me that!" The child removed the gray hood to reveal an angry pair of gray eyes. Strands of very dark gray peppered with light gray hair cascaded behind her. Her skin was gray as well. Everything about the girl was gray but her attitude. "What's a matter? Never seen a mutant before?"

"Every day when I look in the mirror," Todd joked. He shot his tongue out and caught an errant fly. "Sorry about that, needed a snack."

Her eyes were wide with wonder for a second, then recovered. The gray skinned mutant looked at them defiantly. "The name's Spyder, with a Y! Are you looking for a fight?"

"Why? Do you want to fight?" Althea cocked her eyebrow.

"I can take you!" She sniffed angrily.

"Really?" Althea put her hands on her hips.

"You won't take me without a fight!" Spyder snapped.

"Take you where?" Althea asked. "Just where do you think we were gonna take you? Jail?"

"I know you're with those army guys so don't play dumb with me!" Spyder snapped. "You're not going to dissect me!"

"We weren't planning on dissecting you in the first place," Arcade said. "We just wanna talk."

"Liar!" Spyder shot out here electric webbing at him. Todd barely dragged Arcade out of the way. But it did hit his scanner.

"Oh man and I just got all the bugs out of it," Arcade grumbled as he looked at the ruined contraption on the ground.

"You're not taking me anywhere without a fight!" Spyder growled.

"Okay," Althea folded her arms. "You're on. But let's make this interesting shall we? Just you and me. If I win, you come with me without a fuss. But if you win, we'll go and leave you alone. And just to make it really interesting, I won't use my powers but you can use yours. Think you can handle it?"

Spyder looked back and forth. "No powers? Okay…You got a deal. Just let me put my backpack down."

"Al there's no water around here," Todd whispered.

"So? She don't know what my powers are," Althea winked. "Okay kid let's go! Come on, let's see what a shrimp like you got!"

"Call me a shrimp will ya?" Spyder lunged at her shooting the webbing. Althea dodged it easily. Spyder then tried to kick her but she blocked it.

"So you've had some martial arts training," Althea observed as she easily blocked Spyder's punches and kicks. "Not bad for a newbie."

"NEWBIE! I've been doing martial arts since I was seven!" Spyder screamed as she shot out some more webs. Althea did a backflip and dodged them easily.

"Damnit! Hold still!" Spyder snapped.

"I thought I was being still," Althea grinned as she easily dodged the webs. "You really should work on your aim kid."

"SHUT UP!" Spyder screamed as she rushed towards Althea.

"You're pretty sloppy kid," Althea told her.

"SHUT UP YOU WITCH AND FIGHT ME!" Spyder screamed.

"Well if you insist," Althea speeded up and punched Spyder in the gut. The girl let out a gasp and doubled over. Then Althea gave her a light tap on the back of the head and she went out like a light. "Well that was a fun minute and…" She checked her watch. "Twenty five seconds. Arcade, get her backpack. Toad you carry her."

"You didn't hurt her did ya?" Arcade asked as he got her backpack.

"Nah, just gave her a tap," Althea waved. "Only thing I really hurt was her pride. She'll come around in a few seconds. Besides I wasn't in any real danger. Look how thin she is. I could tell she was too weak to throw a decent punch as soon as she started. And like I said, her aim with those webs of hers is way off."

"She really don't look so good," Todd remarked as he carried her.

"Ooohhh," Spyder groaned as she woke up. "What happened?"

"What do you think?" Todd looked at her.

"Here," Althea gave her a drink of water from her canteen. "Come on now. You may be a tough kid but not even you can fight well on an empty stomach, or dehydrated."

Spyder reluctantly took the drink. "I lost didn't I?"

"Yeah but if you really want to die of hunger in a rat infested place like this…" Althea waved her arm around. Spyder lowered her eyes. "Didn't think so. Look kid I don't blame you for trying to show how tough you are. It's a tough world and it's hard enough to survive on your own. But let's face facts, right now you need help. So who better to help you than fellow mutants?"

"I know we're kind of a weird group, running with humans and all," Todd remarked. "And I know you probably hate 'em but…"

"I do not hate humans!" Spyder snapped. "Well not all of 'em anyway. I mean that lady, Mrs. Walker. She was real nice to me. Gave me food and…" Her eyes widened. "Look! I didn't kill her! You gotta believe me!"

"We know," Todd said. "And so do the cops. She had a heart attack. Natural causes. You just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"So they just decided to hunt me because I'm a mutant huh?" Spyder grumbled.

"Got it in one," Althea sighed. "But like you probably have figured out, not all of 'em are like that. Our humans are good people. Hey my Dad's human and he's pretty cool. And that red headed kid over here, he's human but he's one of us as well."

"Name's Arcade," He waved. "I'm very good with computers."

"We just wanna help you kid," Todd said. "I promise we'll tell you everything as soon as we get some food in ya. So what do you say?"

Spyder looked at the two of them. "Well…I am kind of hungry," She admitted.

"Come on kid," Althea waved. "Toad help her will ya?"

"I can do it myself," Spyder grumbled as Todd carried her outside. She managed to break out of his grasp but then fell face down on the ground.

"This is the evil terror that's been plaguing this town?" Pietro mocked as he stood over her. "Oh I am so scared."

"Shut up Whitey…" Spyder struggled to get up.

"That's Quicksilver," Todd told her. "Ignore him. We do."

"I got her," Lance took Spyder in his arms.

"I can walk myself…" Spyder grumbled.

"No you can't," Lance told her. "You just rest now kiddo. The name's Avalanche by the way."

"Avalanche?" She looked at him.

"Let's just say to don't want to make him mad," Todd pointed out.

"Geeze she's practically skin and bones!" Pietro remarked.

"Why don't you say it a little louder?" Arcade snapped. "I don't think they heard you down the block!"

"I'm fine…" Spyder grumbled. "I'm…." She then passed out.

"I told you she didn't look so good!" Todd remarked.

"We'd better get her to Lifeline pronto," Althea nodded.