After returning home, Gwen Stacy got a stern lecture from her father about getting detention on the first day of school. But as soon as she explained how she was just caught in the middle and falsely blamed, he let her off with a warning. Gwen then went to her room and got a video call on her phone. She answered and smiled at how it was her red-headed friend from New York.
"Hey, Gwen."
"Hey, MJ. How's New York been doing?"
"It's fine, but it's not the same without you here. I hope you don't mind, but the band and I are thinking about looking for another drummer. I hope that's okay."
"Go ahead. I understand completely."
"Thanks, Gwen. You're the best. So how's your first day at Metropolis? Did you see Superman yet?"
"Not yet." Gwen said rolling back her eyes. "But I did come across some… interesting people."
"Like who?"
"Oh, boy. Where do I begin. Well, let's do a headcount. First there's this little timid girl who's afraid of her own shadow. Then, there's this other girl who's into environmentalist stuff. This buff girl with breathtaking anger management issues. A pretty girl who's very into style. A tall, perfect-like girl who tends to get dramatic. And most of all, a smart girl who tends to get excited and talk a lot. They all invited me to do something with them, but I kinda turned them down."
"Why? They sound fun."
"I came to Metropolis to live normally. And these girls, they're abnormal. The last thing I need is some excitement in my life. Especially after…" Gwen stopped herself and frowned.
MJ noticed her friend's expression and shared it. "You miss him. I do too. Everyone at school is still grieving. That's why the Mary Janes are going to be playing a song dedicated to him."
Gwen gave a soft smile. "That's sweet. Can't wait to hear it. Well, I gotta hit the hay. Bye, MJ."
"Bye, Gwen. Have fun with your new friends." She hung up leaving Gwen to lay back into her bed.
Suddenly, Gwen's phone gave a notification sound. She checked and saw a news reel showing up on her phone. She pressed the video thumbnail and viewed the footage.
The video showed the front of the Lexcorp building where Lex Luthor waved to the press conference of reporters. He then motioned everyone to stop asking questions so he could speak.
"My fellow citizens of Metropolis. As you know, Lexcorp continues to pioneer the future of the city. And tonight, one of our proud employees is going to showcase his latest invention, one that he has been perfecting for the past four years. So without further ado, I'd like to introduce you to Dr. Otto Octavius."
Lex moved aside and let a chubby man in a white lab coat and a pair of glasses take the floor. He laughed nervously before clearing his throat.
"Thank you, Mr. Luthor. And thank you, Metropolis, for finally giving me this chance. It's what I've wanted my entire life. And so, I, Dr. Otto Octavius, have successfully crafted my proudest invention. Behold."
Suddenly, four metallic limbs shot from his back. They were a mix of silver and black and the ends each had three fingers with lights at the center. They seemed to resemble four metal octopus arms. The citizens stared in amazement seeing them.
"Impressive, aren't they?" Dr. Octavius asked. "This is the evolution of laboratory work. With these arms, you will be able to multitask more efficiently and keep a safe distance while manually adjusting the more dangerous experiments. Productivity will be done four times as fast."
Lex Luthor casually clapped his hands. "Well, that's certainly using your head, or at least your new tentacle arms. Forget Dr. Octavius. You should be called Dr. Octopus."
Suddenly, the whole press conference burst out into laughter. Dr. Octavius gasped in utter shock as everyone laughed at his general direction. He turned to Lex Luthor, who himself gave a small chuckle.
"Mr. Luthor…"
"Don't worry about it. We kid because we love. Thank you for your demonstration. We look forward to its production… Dr. Octopus."
The crowd laughed again. This time, the laughter gave a small grimace of anger coming from the doctor.
The video ended and Gwen placed it at her nightstand.
"Guess a lot of things will be changing." Gwen said. She then gave a small chuckle. "Dr. Octopus. That is a good one."
A few days later, Gwen decided to go to the movies and watch the latest Just Before Dusk film. She's not the biggest fan, but she did enjoy the works of one of the actors. Then, the time came in the movie for the kiss scene.
"Caitlyn! You will be mine, Catilyn. Forever." Gwen awaited the kiss scene when…
"Beware, Caitlyn! Aiden attacks!"
Gwen turned her gaze at the familiar Greek accent belonging to the tall teenage girl who leaped out of her seat with her sword in her hand. Gwen watched in astonishment seeing Diana tear apart the movie screen.
Everyone was forced out of the theater. Gwen followed Diana who was accompanied by Babs, Kara, Jessica, Karen, and Zee. Gwen headed over toward them.
"What was that?" Gwen asked loudly.
"Gwen." Babs said surprisingly. "What are you doing here?"
"Well, I WAS enjoying my first movie since moving to Metropolis, when suddenly, Braveheart over there turned the movie screen into confetti."
"My apologies, Gwen Stacy." Diana said. "My new friends are just trying to teach me the ways of a normal teenager, but this proves to be much more complicated than I expected."
"We tried giving her different clothes." Zee said. "Everyone clashed over different ideas until I decided to use my magic to fight the right look for her. By the way, her civilian name now is Diana Prince."
"I then tried to introduce Diana to pop culture." Babs said. "But for some reason, she's not as enthused about the latest Batman comic as I thought she'd be."
"She also has a hard time with expressions." Jessica said. "We taught her how to say 'I'd kill for a burrito', but instead, she went all warrior princess and scared the burrito vendor."
"And don't even get me started on what happened at the spa." Zee said.
"Tonight was our latest try." Kara said. "But as it turns out, her tries at understanding our world is just as good as our hero training."
"And that's bad too?" Gwen asked.
"I'm afraid so." Diana said. "Kara is reckless, Zee's showmanship slows her down, Jessica wouldn't harm an enemy, Karen keeps running away, and Barbara keeps losing focus."
"Wow. Guess this is harder than you all thought, isn't it?"
"No! I am not giving up on this team." Babs said. "There's got to be some place t oloosen up an uptight warrior princess."
Gwen rubbed the back of her head until an idea came into her head. "Hold it. What about the carnival? It's where everyone likes to be."
"Carnival?" Diana asked. "What is that?"
"Oh, boy!" Babs cheered. "Wait until you see?"
The seven girls made their way quickly over to the pier where an amusement park was built. They headed from one arcade game or theme park ride to another. Gwen joined the other six and began having fun. She shared in their laughter and fun over the games they had been playing and the rides they rode on.
Once everyone was done with the carnival, Zee, Jessica, Kara, and Karen escorted Diana, Babs, and Gwen over to a parlor called Sweet Justice.
"Ladies, after a night like tonight, there's only one thing that can cement this friendship." Zee said. "Frosting!"
"So we're going to an ice cream parlor called Sweet Justice?" Gwen asked.
"Trust me. You do not want to miss this." Kara said.
The three followed the other four into the parlor and to the counter where they met up with a fast-moving, fast-talking teenage boy named Barry Allen.
"Hey, guys. So, what's the haps? What's popping? What's the latest? Can I get you something sweet? Sure hope so, 'cause that's what we have. It's sort of our specialty."
Gwen playfully nudged her elbow to Babs' side. "Looks like this guy's going for your title of world's fastest chatterbox."
"Hmm." Barry said seeing Gwen, Babs, and Diana. "Well, you three are new. I know that Kara, Jess, Karen, and Zee want their usuals. But you three…"
"I'll handle this." Zee said. "Babs will take the candy cake triple tower with the sprinkles, Gwen will have the ultra-deluxe sundae supreme, and Diana will have the death by chocolate." She already knew that Diana was preparing to grab her sword. "Figure of speech, Diana."
"You got it." Barry said before getting to work. Quick as a flash, he came back with everyone's orders.
"Wow. That was fast." Gwen said taking her sundae.
"That's Barry for you." Jessica said.
Everyone took their orders and headed to a corner booth for them all to sit. While everyone was already eating on their desserts, Diana was carefully observing her chocolate. After some consideration, she took her first bite and was instantly hooked.
"Never have I tasted such wonderment! I must have more of this magical concoction! Sisters, this food is more delectable than ambrosia! This place more perfect than Elysium! I declare that we must celebrate our every future victory her and thus!"
Gwen chuckled. "Glad you girls are having a good time."
"Hey, we wouldn't have gotten here without you." Zee said. "Good call with the carnival."
"You know, you could hang out with us more often." Babs said. "We could go shopping. Go dancing. Fight crime."
Gwen stopped eating her sundae and frowned. "No, Babs. I'm fine with all the other stuff, but I don't want to fight crime."
"Why not?" Diana asked. "You have hero potential. And you've never given us a reason why you don't want to join us in fighting evil."
Gwen slouched back glumly. "Look, girls, the reason I…" Something suddenly got her attention. In her head, a strong vibration rang like a hundred bells. She turned to the door with concern in her eyes.
"Gwen, what's wrong?" Jessica asked.
"Something's not right." Gwen said.
' "Hey, what are you doing?" asked the store owner who was at the front door. "We turned down the offer. Get out of here, please. We said we wouldn't sell. Barry, call our lawyer."
Just then, a small team of robots rolled into the store. They didn't have arms or legs, but they had a green, V-shaped visor and rode on wheels.
"Attention, citizens, this business or dwelling has been categorized for immediate destruction. By order of the city of Metropolis, you must vacate before structure removal begins. You have 30 seconds to comply."
Suddenly, every citizen began screaming. They hopped from their seats and headed out through the front door. Only a few customers, including the girls, remained all confused.
"What should we do?" Kara asked.
"What can we do?" Zee said. "They're city robots."
"You have fifteen seconds to comply."
"Please, girls," one of the store owners said, "Let's go. Nothing we say is gonna stop them."
"But the city can't tear this place down without your permission." Jessica said. "This doesn't make any sense."
"Is this a law we must obey?" Diana asked. "Or should we fight?"
"I… I don't know." Gwen said. "I have no idea what's going on!"
"Let's get out of here!" Karen said. "We're not ready for a fight!"
"Two… One. This completes your warning. Demolition will now begin."
The robots shifted their dome-like heads upwards pulling out all kinds of destructive tools. More robots burst through the walls joining them in destroying the entire parlor.
Diana noticed a little kid too hooked on his VR goggles to notice the danger around him. He didn't even see the robot that was about to run him over. Out of heroic instinct, Diana quickly changed into her armor and tackled the robot smashing it to the ground.
"Diana…" Gwen said.
"It matters not if these villains are protected by man's law. Our mission is to protect the innocent. And that is what we must do. Come, sisters. This is our time. Now, let us earn more chocolate."
Another robot was about to run over the store owners, but instead, Kara lifted it up and threw it over in her Supergirl costume. While that happened, Gwen secured the store owners and used her agility skills to lead them out of the demolition site. Meanwhile, the other girls (in their costumes) used their powers on the robots they confronted.
At first, everything was working out fine. But then, the girls started tripping over each other. While Zatanna was applauding herself, Supergirl threw a robot toward a table that had goggle-wearing teens on it. Green Lantern made a trampoline to save them, but it sent the robot flying to a support beam which made more debris fall from the ceiling. Bumblebee was instructed to short-circuit the robots, but she was too scared, so she ran away from them. Batgirl was about to save a group of teens, but one pebble falling on her head made her panic and toss a lot of her own batarangs behind her. Diana held her own, but one of Zatanna's magic blasts misfired hitting the amazon and Supergirl at the same time.
At that point, the entire parlor was about to collapse on its own and everyone knew it.
"Everyone out! It's coming down!" Green Lantern called out.
The team grabbed all the remaining customers and barely made it out of the building in one piece. When they stood back up, they saw only the remains of their favorite ice cream shop crumbled to the ground. Meanwhile, all the other robots peacefully left the area.
Diana smacked Supergirl in the head. "Insubordination! Why did you not await my orders? You are reckless!"
"Well, excuse me, princess," Supergirl said, "In case you didn't notice, I was the only one in there actually fighting!"
"I was fighting." Bumblebee said.
"You were cringing." Zatanna said.
"If you want to yell at someone, yell at greeny there." Supergirl argued pointing at Green Lantern. "One flick of that ring, and she could've taken all of them out."
"Oh, like Zatanna took out you and Wonder Woman?" Green Lantern asked. "Or was her showboating a better strategy?"
"What about Gwen?" Zatanna asked. "She saw the attack coming, didn't she? If she was part of the team…
"But I'm not!" Gwen argued. "What don't you people get about that?"
"Wait, you guys!" Batgirl called out. "It's okay. We can fix this. A city would never demolish a private business. And demo-bots would never endanger the public. They were rigged… by Lex Luthor!" She held up a blue, circular logo with a green L on it, the same as the Lexcorp logo.
"Lex Luthor?" Green Lantern asked unconvinced.
"The wealthiest and most powerful man in all of Metropolis?" Zatanna asked.
"Batgirl, this doesn't make any sense." Gwen said. "Why would Lex Luthor tear down Sweet Justice?"
Batgirl became uncertain. "Uh… I don't know."
"Face it." Karen said putting her Bumblebee suit back in her bag. "We were never meant to be heroes. Especially me." She walked away.
"Well, I for one concur with Karen." Zee said changing back into her casual clothes. "I never wanted to do this in the first place." She marched away.
"I knew this stupid ring would only lead to violence and destruction." Jessica said removing her ring and leaving.
"Like I said," Kara said beginning to walk away as well, "Trying to be a hero is for chumps."
All that were left were Batgirl, Diana, and Gwen. Suddenly, a heavy fog suddenly rolled in. Babs and Gwen saw the scared look on Diana's face followed by a surrender of sadness.
"Diana, what's wrong?" Gwen asked.
"Barbara Gordon, Gwen Stacy, meet my mother, Queen Hippolyta." Diana made way for a much taller woman in golden armor, cape, and crown. She was accompanied by several other amazons.
"Dude!" Babs gasped. "Your mom looks like a final boss!"
"No kidding." Gwen said. "Guess there's a surplus of milk on Themyscira."
The queen turned to Diana with complete disappointment. "Disguising yourself as a warrior, entering the tournament of Athena and Aphrodite against the wishes of your queen, leaving Themyscira without my permission."
"No permission?" Gwen asked. "But… Diana told us it was her destiny to save the world of Man."
"This insolent child has no such destiny." Hippolyta said. "She has brought shame upon her people." She grabbed Diana by her ear and dragged her toward the amazons' boat. "Come, Diana. It is time to return home and accept your punishment. You are in for the grounding of your immortal life, young lady."
"Diana…" Batgirl whimpered. She then turned to see Gwen beginning to walk away sadly. "Wait, Gwen! We gotta get the team back together!"
"Babs, there is no team." Gwen said. "Nobody was in sync with each other, so it was all doomed to fail anyway."
"Don't say that, Gwen. We just need more practice, that's all."
"Face facts. None of ever really wanted to do this."
"Not true! Diana snuck out of her home island to save us! She wanted to be a hero. And you may not want to believe it, but so do you."
"Babs, let it go. What good would I do?"
"Are you kidding me? You helped save those kids. You gave Diana a teen experience that didn't backfire on us. Not to mention, you could sense danger coming a mile away. There's a whole bunch you can do with your powers."
"Babs, that's enough. This is none of your business." Gwen grinded her teeth getting tired.
"No, Gwen! I could tell you wanted to be a hero, but something's holding you back! And frankly, I think that's irresponsible!"
"Babs, drop it! Please!"
"Why, Gwen? You've got powers! You've got a good conscience! You've got good judgement! You're basically a hero already!"
"Babs…"
"So why are you holding yourself back? Why are you avoiding this life of crime-fighting? Why don't you want to be a hero?!"
Suddenly, Gwen's mind snapped and she gave a very loud answer angrily. She replied, "BECAUSE THE LAST TIME I WAS A HERO, I KILLED MY FRIEND!" Gwen gasped realizing what she said and saw how horrified Babs was. "I… I gotta go."
"Gwen, wait!" Babs cried out. But her words fell on deaf ears. Gwen ran and disappeared into the streets of the city at night leaving Babs all alone. "Killed… What?"
After getting a drive home from her dad and having a call with her friend, Harleen Quinzel, Babs couldn't help but think about everything that happened. The robots attacking. Her friends leaving. And Gwen admitting to being a killer. Babs decided to look more into that on her cell phone.
"Let's see. Gwen's from New York, right?"
Babs did research into heroes killing civilians. As much as she hated to see her friend as a murderer, she had to look more into it and figure it out for herself. Then, she found an article from the Daily Bugle that left her full of shock and horror.
"Spider-Woman: Murderer!"
Babs read the article aloud "'After months of having to deal with the mysterious Spider-Woman playing vigilante, she has finally revealed her true colors. One night, at a high school dance, witnesses saw Spider-Woman standing above the beaten corpse of student, Peter Parker. With his body a mangled mess and blood on the web-head's knuckles, there is no doubt that Spider-Woman murdered Peter Parker in cold blood. Head of the investigation is Captain George Stacy, who's daughter, Gwen, was associated with the unfortunate victim. At this moment, Spider-Woman is no longer seen as a reckless vigilante, and instead, as the greatest villain in all of New York.'" Babs put her phone down with her mouth wide open. She couldn't believe what she had read. She frowned sympathetically. "Spider-Woman? Could Gwen actually be… Oh, Gwen. What happened?"
Author's Note: Ooh, boy. I didn't think I would get this dark in a child-friendly setting as DC Super Hero Girls, but it's not Spider-Gwen without the loss of Peter Parker. Also, what did you think of my introduction of Dr. Otto Octavius? Next chapter, Gwen tells her story and helps Barbara Gordon with something. Any and all comments are welcome.