Chapter Twenty-Two

I went up to my room that night and paced, back and forth, flattening the carpet in a small track leading from my bed to my desk. The temperature outside had risen, and dark clouds were roiling above. It looked like there might even be a thunderstorm.

I had to do something. If I stayed in her one more minute I was sure I was going to explode with tension. I looked at the clock. 11:29. Harry was going to leave for the rig soon, in armor and on his glider. To try and rescue Doc from Black Widow.

I clenched my hands together and sat down. The argument that had followed Harry's news had not been pretty. In fact, I couldn't remember a single fight having ever been worse than that one. We had both stomped away, furious. The day had gone downhill from there.

Mom had picked me up in the car after school. She had left work early just to make sure I went straight home. Neither of us had said a word.

My whole life was falling apart in front of me. My own mother didn't trust me, my family was starting to break, Harry had a little over a day until Hobgoblin resurfaced, and Black Widow had kidnapped Doc.

It was December twenty-third.

Oh, yeah. God bless us, everyone.

Harry had told me that his glider was in his basement. Right. How could that be true? Harry's penthouse was full of people all the time. They even had a butler. There was no way he could have possibly hidden the glider there all this time without being discovered.

I sat up.

The basement of his house?

In a flash of insight, I remembered. Hobgoblin had first shown himself on Halloween, in that alley a few blocks from my house. But why had he been in Queens, miles from his house in Manhattan? He hadn't known who I was at the time. What reason would he have had for being in Queens?

I stood up and began pacing again. There wasn't anything that I knew of in Queens that he could have been after. In fact, he had probably seen me chasing off those thugs and flown down. But he must have been flying over Queens.

Could it be because his glider was hidden in Queens?

"That's it!" I gasped. Of course! Harry said his glider was hidden in the basement of his house. But had he said which one?

Could he have been talking about his old house?

I dashed across my room and wrenched my blinds open. There it was, just next door, Harry's old, small house, where he and his aunt had lived for seven years. I squinted at the darkened back yard. Two thick, gray basement doors slanted slightly into a concrete setting beside the back door.

A wild, half-baked idea was beginning to form in my head. I knew where Harry's glider was hidden. Could I, maybe...?

I switched off my desk lamp, throwing my room into darkness. I pulled my sweatshirt over my head and kicked off my shoes. The Spider-Girl costume was underneath.

"Mayday, I think you've really lost it this time," I muttered. What was I thinking? I wasn't Spider-Girl anymore. Harry had made more sense than I had today. I was just a normal girl. A kid. How could I do anything against Black Widow? Harry might have armor and weapons, but he didn't have any experience. And the treatment was wearing off fast.

What would Dad have done?

I took a deep breath and picked up my mask. I made my way to the door and creaked it open slightly. Silence. I stepped tentatively into the hall, shutting the door behind me. Mom's room was across the hall. I could see her asleep, with her back to me.

"I'll come back," I whispered, my voice cracking. "Please don't worry about me. I have to go."

Swallowing hard, I closed her door softly.

"Mayday? What the heck are you do-"

Benny! He stood there, in a past of light, squinting at me blearily. Then his eyes flew open and his jaw dropped. I was standing there in my costume, in plain view, holding my mask!

Benny's goldfish expression suddenly broke into a wide grin. "Yes! I knew it! I knew it! I—mmmpph!"

I clapped my hand over his mouth. "Benny! Look, listen to me! Shhhh! Be quiet!"

Benny nodded, and I pulled my hand away. He grinned at me, eyes shining. "Oh man, this is so cool! I knew you were acting weird, you know, disappearing and coming home all beat up and stuff! It's you! You're Spider- Girl!"

"Shhh!" I hissed. "Benny, I'm sorry, I'll explain it to you later. I've got to go, right now. I've got to-"

"Let me go too! Please! Please! I wanna see what happens? Are you going to go beat up Hobgoblin or somebody? I know karate! I can help! Can you show me how you do that web thing?"

I smiled. "I bet you could, but this is way too dangerous, Benny. I've got to go! I just haven't really figured out how...Benny, can I use your window?" There was a tree just outside it that I could use...

Benny crossed his arms. "I want to go too."

"Benny!" I groaned. "Don't take this the wrong way-"

"I am so old enough!" Benny whispered so loudly that I flinched. "I'm small! I can run around and provide distraction!"

"Benny, please," I pleaded. Benny had a penchant for incredible stubborness, and it was coming out now. "Benny, Black Widow has kidnapped someone. I don't know why, but it's very dangerous for him right now. If something goes wrong, he might get killed. Do you understand me? I have to do this on my own."

Benny looked so crushed that I immediately felt guilty. Silently he nodded, keeping his eyes on the floor. "You can use my window. Go ahead."

I knelt down and hugged him tightly. "Thanks, Benny. I owe you one."

I tiptoed down the hall to Benny's room and made my way around the piles of comic books and action figures. A thick pecan tree grew just outside Benny's window, within easy reach. As I slid it open, Benny said, "It'll work out. I mean, wow, you're Spider-Girl, Mayday! And that web thing is really cool. You'll kick Black Widow's butt."

I grinned lopsidedly back at him trying to hide my own anxiety. He didn't know. He thought that I still had my powers. "Sure I will, Benny. See you later."

I tumbled down the tree at an alarming rate, landing none too gracefully at the bottom. Rubbing my elbow, I shivered in the cold and pulled myself over the chain link fence into Harry's back yard. All of the neighboring houses were dark.

It was cold and damp. Thunder rumbled in the distance. I kicked through the overgrown grass to the basement doors. Unlocked, and pitch black.

The steps were slippery under my feet, but I remembered to reach up and pull the chain for the lights.

In the middle of a dusty basement, piled with cardboard boxes and old rusty bicycles, was the Hobgoblin glider. Green and orange, built like a gigantic, swept-back bat, gleaming dully in the light.

I had to be out of my mind. Was I seriously considering getting to that rig...on that?

I edged closer. The glider only lay there, still. I hesitated, then raised one foot and stepped aboard.

Hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! Shwick! Shwick!

"Yah!"

The glider had suddenlly growled to life, and twin clamps had snapped over my feet, pinning them to the surface of the glider. I started breathing again. Now, how was I supposed to get this thing to get off the ground?

The glider rose upwards.

I threw out my arms for balance. What was that? I hadn't told it to do anything, I hadn't even moved! Now how did I get it to go down?

The glider dropped a foot.

I blinked. If I wanted it to move left...

The glider slid smoothly to the left.

My face cracked into a huge grin, in part from stress, and partially from sheer amazement. This glider was controlled mentally! All you had to do was envision it moving, and-

The glider sped upwards downwards, left, right, and even twirled in midair as I stood aboard. I could do it!

"All right, then here it goes," I mumured, pulling the mask down over my head. This was it. I tensed, about to envision gliding slowly out through the open doors, when a shadow blocked my way.

Harry stood silhouetted in the door, gaping at me. "Mayday! What the...what are you doing?"

"I'm just borrowing it!"

"Mayday! Mayday! Hey, no...!"

I swooped over his head and into the sky, fumbling a bit but finally pointing northeast, towards the ocean.

"Mayday! No!" Harry shouted, sprinting outside. Taking one final look back, I shot off over Queens.

The ocean sped below me, churning furiously. The winter wind was salty and frigid. Thunder rumbled ominously in the distance, but I could only concentrate on keeping my course due northeast. Worries and what-ifs kept racing haphazardly through my head. What if I missed the rig? What if they saw me? What would happen? What if-

Stop it! I ordered myself. I had to pay attention to where I was going, not worry about what would happen if I messed this up too. After all, I was just a girl on a glider. No powers, no nothing.

Lighting lit up the sky directly over my head. I yelped and dropped about twenty feet, trembling. Not only did I have to think about Black Widow, now I had to worry about getting hit by lightning!

A high wave splashed against the bottom of the glider. The storm was getting closer every minute, and there was still no sign of the drilling rig...

Wait!

I halted the glider and hovered, peering unsteadily into the night. There was something out there in the ocean, something huge...

I began to glide slowly forward, my apprehension rising. It was a building, made of steel and concrete, standing in the ocean on giant concrete pillars. The whole look of the place reminded me of a power plant. But no light shone from the rig.

Well, I was here, but now what?

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

Something richocheted off the left wing of the glider, rocking it wildly. I threw out my arms to balance. What was that?

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM!

Someone was shooting at me!

I jerked out of the way, whirling the glider around as another rapid- fire burst rattled the air around me, coming from the rig. In another flash of lightning, I saw what caused it. Two swiveling guns, almost like something from an old World War Two battleship, were trained directly on me. I dropped straight down to the waves as a hail of bullets blew past over my head.

"Okay, then let's see if who's faster!" I yelled. I crouched down and shouted mentally, Go!

The glider blasted forwards, dodging in and out between the waves almost as if it had a mind of tis own. Bullets splashed the water in a trail just behind me, their sound drowned out by the approaching thunder.

I pulled up sharply just in front of a pillar and held my breath. The gunshots stopped abruptly, and I looked up. It had worked! The guns must have tracked movement, but if I was right next to something else, they couldn't distinguish me from the building!

Very slowly, I let the glider rise, keeping an arm's length from the concrete support pillar. The stone rushed past me, and I stopped just when I saw the corrugated steel of some kind of docking platform. I peered over the edge. No one.

I swallowed nervously. This whole place had to be a maze of halls and walkways. Who knew where Black Widow was hiding in here?

"Hey, Reynolds!"

I dropped back down below the platform just as a man stepped onto the platform from a door I hadn't noticed, pushing an empty trolley. But he was dressed in some kind of suit, almost like the kind that scientists wore, when they were working with deadly chemicals or diseases. It looked something like a space suit made out of cloth, with a mirrored face guard. I couldn't make out any of his features.

"Reynolds!" the man shouted over the wind, turning back towards the door. "Get out here and help me!"

Another man, dressed in the same kind of biohazard suit rushed out and helped the first man tie the trolley to the grated steel floor of the platform. Then they hurried back inside.

I waited a moment, then steered the glider upwards to a landing on the deserted platform. Freezing raindrops began to fall. Thinking quickly, I clambered off the glider and dragged to over the the trolley, sliding it underneath it and out of the rain. If I was lucky, no one else would come outside in this weather and find it.

Peering around cautiously, I flattened myself against the outer wall and made my way towards the door. It was maybe fifteen feet high and at least twice as wide, made for maybe heavy machinery. The entire rig felt powered. I could hear the throbbing of some kind of machinery from below. I grabbed the edge of the door and looked in.

I saw a huge, wide hallway, its floor covered with cables and tubing. The thrumming of the machines was even louder in here. The entire hallway was shadowed, barely lit. I could see two figures turn a corner and disappear from view, the same two workers I had just seen. What were these people doing here?

I edged inside, creeping forward, ready to flatten against the wall at any sign of movement. I missed my spider sense more than ever.

My foot slid into a pool of light from a half-open door. I froze, listening, but I didn'thear anything. I looked inside, blinking owlishly under my mask. This room was much smaller in proportion to the hallway, brightly lit, and lined with what looked like clothing lockers. The bright colors of my costume made me feel obvious, garish. How could I go wandering around this place in my costume? There was nowhere for me to hide!

Unless...

I went to the nearest locker and unlatched it. The door swung open, revealing a complete biohazard suit, made for a man or a very tall woman. A metal nameplate was pinned to it, reading NAISH. I opened the next locker. REILLY. FRIEDMANN. SANDROUNI. MASON.

I stopped. MASON was the smallest suit I had seen yet, made for someone about my heighth.

Could I...?

"I'm just 'borrowing' everything tonight," I muttered. Making my decision, I pulled the suit off the hook and unzipped it, stepping into the boots and pulling it on over my costume. If I was lucky, no one would be able to see my mask through the face plate. I zipped up the front, flipped the helmet over my head, and froze.

Underneath the suit was a gun.

"Hey, Mason. Back early?"

I whirled around. "Huh? Oh...yes," I blurted out, pitching my voice a tone lower. A man was standing behind me, dressed in a biohazard suit and flipping through a laminated clipboard. I could barely make out his features through the mirror-like face shield. He jerked his thumb over his shoulder irritably.

"Good. You're wanted. The package has been delivered, and you're on guard duty. D-Six. He's about to be questioned."

"Guard duty. D-Six. Right," I repeated stupidly. Package? Was he talking about Doc?

The man paged through his clipboard again, then raised his head. "What the hell are you waiting for, Mason? Get your weapon! Two is about to debrief him! Get down there!"

I nodded quickly, snatched the gun and hurried out of the room and into the hall. It was nearly empty now. The throb of the machinery was almost deafening, and the gun felt like a dead wight in my hands. I stared at it, and past it at the suit I had snatched. A wave of disgust swept through me, but I kept my grip and forced myself to walk forward at a steady pace. If I was ever going to get Doc out of here, I was going to have to play along.

As I passed a door marked D-4, I started to shiver. This drilling platform was massive, with at least a hundred people working on it. What did this have to do with Black Widow? Why had she brought Doc to this place? Another chill passed through me. Such a huge place, and so many people.

What was she planning?

My footsteps echoed as I reached D-6. The grille doors were folded to the side of the threshhold. Inside there was blackness.

"Mason?"

I jumped. The voice came from inside the darkness. Making a decision, I said nasally, "Yes?"

"Don't stand there gaping, come in."

I stepped inside tentatively, tightening my grip on the cold metal to steady my hands. I blinked rapidly, but I could see nothing.

"It's about time," the voice snapped. It was a woman's voice, and strangely familiar. It wasn't Black Widow, the voice wasn't nearly high enough. But I was sure I had heard it before, somewhere...

"Hiller is inside. He is tense, very agitated. I will be questioning him. You will stand directly behind his chair. When you enter, I want your weapon in plain sight. He may make an attempt to escape. Do not harm him under any circumstances. Is that clear?"

"Yes ma'am." I tried my best to sound like a Nantucketer.

"Good," the voice muttered. I heard footsteps against the floor, and the sound of another grille sliding back. "Follow me."

I followed, feeling sweat starting to bead on my forehead. Doc was in the other room. What did this woman want with him?

A light clicked on suddenly and I jumped out of pure tension. As my eyes adjusted, I saw that the woman was standing with her back to me, her hand gripping the chain of a single light bulb dangling from the sloping ceiling. I could only see her back, and that she had a long black braid and was wearing a lab coat.

Doc was sitting in the center of the room, in a simple wooden chair. He was leaning over, his elbows on his knees, his head in his hands. His glasses were gone, and he looked more disheveled than I had ever seen him.

"Dr. Robert Hiller?"

The woman stepped aside, and jerked her head at me without turning around. Slowly, I stepped into view. Doc looked up quickly, his eyes flickering between the woman's face and mine. He couldn't have seen either of us clearly without his glasses, but the look of rage that he shot at the woman made me shiver. I forced myself to walk around behind Doc and turn around to face his back.

"What do you want?" Doc growled.

"Your help, that's all," the woman said pleasantly. She was still standing in the shadows, only an indistinct silhouette.

Doc snorted. "Oh, yeah. Aggravated kidnapping really wins a man's support."

The woman continued, in that smooth tone, "Eight years ago you were working at the OsCorp bioengineering labs, weren't you?"

Doc didn't respond.

"You were, Dr. Hiller. You're just too ashamed to admit it."

"Do you have a point?" Doc snapped.

"I do," the woman said, a little less pleasantly. "What you were developing was a chemical agent that was to be sold to the United States military."

Doc didn't make a sound as the woman continued. "Let's run through the statistics, shall we? A mutagenic steroid designed to increase strength, endurance, and sensory capacities. There are some unfortunate side effects...side effects that created our mutual aquaintance Hobgoblin."

Doc spoke my thought aloud. "Mutual?"

"You see, what I need is a little assitance from you, Doctor. All of the data concerning this formula has mysteriously vanished from all of Quest Aerospace's files. So has the concrete product."

Doc said nothing.

The woman crossed her arms. "I'll make this quick, Dr. Hiller. You are the only person alive capable of reproducing the chemical formula for this performance enhancer of yours. You will provide the empirical formula, and the bugs will be worked out separately."

"What twisted, deranged fool are you working for?" Doc said.

"What?"

Doc lifted his head. "You have to have a superior. Who are you working for? It can't be that spider monster. No, I think that she's only in charge of the dirty work."

The woman's became very cold. "Spider monster, did you say?"

"You heard me."

"Would you have any objection to my temporarily diverging from the topic at hand to tell you a little story, Doctor?"

"Do I have a choice?"

The woman took a step forward into the light, and I saw her features clearly for the first time. My brain ground to a halt.

It was Ms. Garcia.

Ms. Garcia folded her hands behind her back, staring directly at Doc, her face inhumanly cold. Casually, as if asking the time of day, she said, "Have you ever studied Hinduism, Dr. Hiller?"

"No."

"I have. Facinating subject. However, there is one particular concept I'd like to discuss in particular. It's called karma. People who practice Hinduism believe that what you do in life will eventually affect you. Good will have good. He who does evil shall reap evil." She began to walk to the left of us, to the opposite railing.

"There is no such thing as karma, did you know that? Everything in the universe is governed by chance. Luck. Whatever you want to call it. I know this. I think I'll tell you how I do."

The woman paused, gripping the railing. "Twenty years ago I was a student at Columbia, in New York City. I was studying medicine. I had stars in my eyes, plans for a great future." Self-mocking bitterness crept into her voice. "Oh, yes, I was going to travel the world. I was going to find cures for horrible diseases. I was going to help save lives in countries where there was no help for the sick and the dying. There was so much I planned to do. I was going to make a difference in this world, for the better."

She turned around to face Doc. He ignored her, starting doggedly ahead.

"The pet project of the department at the time was a collection of fifteen genetically altered spiders. Their natural abilities had been greatly enhanced. We were studying them for their venom, actually, to fabricate an antitoxin."

I could feel that once-familiar rush of adrenaline trickling through my veins. All I felt was dread.

"Then, when I was handling the spiders, I was bitten. Through plastic gloves." Ms. Garcia raised the palm of her right hand and studied it in the light. "You can still see the scar."

She stepped away from the railing, back towards us, coming to a stop three feet in front of Doc, staring him in the face with frightening intensity. "I became very, very sick. I went home. I fell asleep. And when I woke up..."

My teeth clamped down on my tongue and I tasted blood in my mouth just as two sets of arms exploded from Ms. Garcia's sides, tearing her lab coat to shreds. Doc gasped and shoved the chair backwards. My eyes were wide, my breath was ragged.

Ms. Garcia stood up straight, taller than before, somehow elongating before my eyes. Black scales spread up from her collar and down her arms, covering her skin in a hard, segemented exoskeleton. She raised six spindly arms just as gigantic, velociraptor claws unsheathed from her fingertips. Her eyes enlarged suddenly with a sickening pop, pupils expanding until her eyes were entirely black. Two hollow, massive fangs curved down out of her mouth.

In a lightning movement, Black Widow clamped a fist around Doc's throat and heaved him over her head, lifting him three feet off the floor.

"I woke up like this!"

I gripped the gun so hard I thought my fingers would break. Sweat streamed down my face in rivers. Black Widow was standing five feet away from me, snarling. She let go of Doc, dropping him back into his chair. "Another Gregor Samsa, aren't I?"

"You," Doc wheezed. "It was you. All along."

Black Widow ignored his words. "I stayed locked in my dorm room. I didn't eat or sleep. All I did was scream and cry and rage about what had happened to me. I was twenty-five years old, just starting medical school, my whole life ahead of me. What had I done to deserve this?"

I listened, mesmerized with horror. Her voice steadied. "It can be controlled. I learned that later. I can choose to look human, the way I used to be. But it takes terrible concentration. This...this creature is my true form now.

"Can you even imagine what it's like to live this way, Dr. Hiller?" Black Widow hissed, leaning forward. "I tried to make the best of it, after a few months. Heh. In fact, my dreams changed. I was half-spider now, but maybe I could still do some good in this world. I had vague, wild ideas of maybe being a sort of rescuer. I could climb into burning buildings and such." She laughed, "I was going to be a superhero.

"And then, one day, I ended up watching the news. And do you know what I saw? A man in a costume, fighting crime in the city. He could climb walls, and shoot web lines from the inside of his wrists. He was very strong. And he had the precognition.

"I knew then. I hadn't been the only one bitten. This man had gained his abilities from the same genetically altered group of spiders.

"I changed to my true form and followed him one night. He was someone like me. I saw him enter a balcony of an apartment in Manhattan, where he removed his mask."

Her voice rose, trembling. "I recognized him. I had seen him months before. He was a high school student who had visited Columbia. And he looked like a normal human being.

"I went home. I had decided that he must have found a way to keep a human appearance while maintainging his spider-powers. But it was then that I realized.

"He had been bitten by one of the spiders. In the spider's venom was its transfer RNA. It injected itself into his genome and gave him the spider-abilities, but left him a normal human appearance. Do you see, Doctor? Do you understand?

"It was chance that did this to me. It was pure, random chance that turned Parker into Spider-Man and me into this monstrosity. Only luck saved him from becoming a freak. Both of us had an equal chance of becoming monsters, but he was spared. By sheer luck of the draw."

Black Widow took a deep breath. "That is why karma isn't real, Doctor. No one gets what they really deserve. What had I ever done to deserve this?"

Doc found his voice. "He disappeared years ago. And you had something to do with that, didn't you?"

I tensed.

Black Widow smiled, as warmly as a crocodile. "I didn't give in to my jealousy, Dr. Hiller. I tried to forget what I had seen. I tried to live as normally as I could under my circumstances. I even went back to school. And that was the beginning of the end.

"You see, I fell in love.

"He was another student, a few years older than me. Double major, in both medicine and business. He was young, and ambitious, too. He had dreams of starting his own corporation. We were happy, in love, though I had never told him my secret. Then, he started to change.

"We drifted apart. He was distant, absorbed in his work. His temper changed. Sometimes I wasn't sure if I was really talking to him, the real Norman, anymore. For two years."

"Norman?" Doc gasped. "You...you can't mean..."

"You know exactly who I mean, Doctor. Norman Osborn."

I strangled a gasp. Black Widow's gaze flickered to me for an instant, then back to Doc.

"It went this way, Dr. Hiller. I could tolerate Spider-Man. I let him go about his business. I never bothered him. But then, he destroyed my entire world."

Black Widow leaned forward and whispered, her face contorting, "He murdered the man I loved."

It was all I could do to keep myself from reeling backwards in shock. It was all falling together, piece by piece, before my very eyes. Everything!

"I mourned. I was almost suicidal. I knew that Norman had become the Green Goblin, and that's why he had changed. But it didn't matter. I couldn't help him, but I could avenge him.

"I bided my time. I waited. I knew who he was, even though it had been years since I had last seen him on the balcony. He had married, bought a house in Queens. He had two children, a girl and a boy. Worked as a photographer. Went about his life like a normal human being. But I watched. I waited. And one night, when he went out..."

"You killed him!" Doc whispered. His face had a sick, grayish undertone.

Black Widow threw back her head and laughed, a sound that instilled more fear in me than any Goblin cackle. This laugh wasn't insane. It was full of a cruel, calculated, triumphant malevolence that went on and on.

"I have never killed anyone in my life, Dr. Hiller, believe it or not," Black Widow chuckled. "No, he deserved far worse than death. But I let him live. However, I wounded him." Black Widow lifted a hand. Her glaws glittered in the light, razor-sharp. "These are venemous, you know. With rather interesting properties. I was able to test those proerties again, recently. I wounded Spider-Man badly. He dragged himself away, to an alley, where he collapsed. I watched, the whole time. And when he woke up, I knew my venom had worked. My revenge was complete. Because Spider-Man was nol longer Spider-Man, nor was he Peter Parker. He had no powers, no memory, nothing."

No memory.

I had a sudden flashback to my own awakening, bandaged and aching in that hospital over a week ago. The doctor had been telling Mom about the effects of Black Widow's venom. Weakness, fatigue...and memory loss.

My mind whirled. The only reason it hadn't happened to me was because Harry had gotten me to the hospital in time. I had only lost my powers, not my memory, but Dad...

"Let this be a lesson to you, Doctor. This is what happens to those who cross me. Now it's time for us to make a little agreement. I want the formula for OsCorp's performance enhancer. You will give me the formula for the performance enhancer. Do you understand?"

Doc seemed shaken, horrified, but he mananged the courage to sneer. "Go ahead and kill me, you monster. You think I'm afraid of you? Go ahead. Do your worst!"

Black Widow smiled. "You have no idea what I'm capable of, Dr. Hiller. You have no idea what my worst can be. I won't kill you, but I can make your every waking moment such hell that you'll beg for death once I'm through with you."

She straightened and looked at me. "I'm going to give the good doctor some time to consider, Mason. Watch him. I will seal the door. If he tries anything, shoot to wound."

Black Widow turned and walked away, back into the shadows. I heard the door slide shut behind her, and then the second door.

Silence.

I let out my breath in a whoosh. My face was wet, but I couldn't tell whether it was sweat or tears.

My dad...

"I think she's got her standard villainess dialogue down pretty well, but her acting is awful. What does she think we're in, a comic book?" I said.

Doc twisted around to stare up at me. His jaw dropped.

I forced a grin under my helmet. "You didn't think Harry and I were going to abandon you, did you?"

"Sp-Sp-Spider-Girl? Is that you? How...how did you...Harry!" Doc leaped up to tower over me. "His time's almost up! Where is he? They took the antidote! I was working on it when-"

"We'll get it back, don't worry. But we've got to get you out of here first." I held up the gun. "Do you know how to use that?"

Doc stared at it. "I can't use that. I'm a doctor. It would violate all of my—"

"Lives are on the line here. If you want to save them, then help me!" I shoved the gun into his hands without waiting for a reply and spun around, scanning the room. How was I supposed to get him out of here? Black Widow could be prowling anywhere around this rig! How could I just march him out of there? Sooner or later my bluff would run out, and it would be all over. And I didn't have my powers!

I clenched my teeth. I had to stop whining and forget about my powers. I didn't have them, and that was it. I couldn't waste time worrying about them, I had to get us out of here!

"Look, Doc, I came on Harry's glider. I'm going to have to-"

Swish! Clang! Swish! Clang!

"She's coming back!" Doc gasped.

"Give me the gun and sit down!" I ordered. He handed it to me without hesitation and sat back down inthe chair.

Swish! Clang! Swish! Clang! The second door slid to the side, and a man stepped into the light. He was dressed inthe same biohazard suit as the other workers, and opaque face mask. He cradled a gun in his arms.

"Mason? Your shift's over."

I think, that after all that had happened to me, since the day I got sick in gym class, I will remember those words most of all. Not the words, but the voice that spoke them. The voice that I had not heard for so long, the voice that I last remembered speaking to me, five years ago. The voice that had said, "I'll be back in a little while. See you later, Mayday."

"Mason? You okay?" the man said, sounding concerned.

"What...what are you doing here?" I choked out.

The man took a step backwards. "You're not Mason."

Doc was glancing between us, confused. The man shifted his grip on his gun, his voice hardening. "Look, you've got about ten seconds to tell me who you are and what you're doing here before I call my superiors. Talk!"

Somehow, I managed to say. "I...I'm Mayday. It's me, Daddy."