Peter made it back home and already saw the others were working on how to find the Dollmaker.
"So he knows these people wears skin cream and abducts them based off of that?" Anya asks as she searched through where the stuff is being sold.
"Remind me that I need to get a refund on mine when I take it back after this is all over." MJ commented.
"There are three other stores, minus the one near MJ's." Miles commented as he looked over what the computer came up with. "But their surveillance has no evidence to support he was ever there."
"So we stake them out." Peter told them as he looked to Miles. "We both take one store, keep an eye for anyone buying it."
"Wait, seriously?" Miles asked in shock.
"I'm gonna need help to catch this guy." Peter stated with a shrug. "I'm not willing to let anyone else die."
Miles looked scared and then towards the manikin next to Peter's that held his suit. He then remembers what his father told him before he died: A hero is someone who doesn't give up.
"Alright...let's do this." Miles agreed.
What they didn't know about is that team Arrow is currently working on a plan to catch the guy as well by staking out all of the stores while Felicity bought the skin cream.
"You're gonna reimburse me for these, right?" Felicity asks as she strolled down the street. "I saved my receipts."
"Go to the rendezvous point." Oliver told her from the roof while Diggle and Lance stayed close behind.
"Just for the record, I'm not a huge fan of dangling helpless girls in front of psychopaths like meat." Lance stated.
"She volunteered." Oliver said.
"Well, she must really believe in you." Lance stated back.
"So did your daughter." Oliver reminded him, thinking of the ambush that took place a few days ago.
"She suffered a loss." Lance explains, not knowing Oliver already knows it. "Grief's got a way of shifting a person's belief. But then you know all about that. You've lost people, too."
"Why would you say that?" Oliver asked, confused why he would assume that.
"Why else would you be doing this? My youngest she died. Less than a month afterwards, I ended up catching the Dollmaker case. I think in some level, with each girl I was trying to save. And just like her, I couldn't. He killed eight girls Sara's age before I caught him."
"Someone's coming." Felicity interrupted their conversation, causing them to look and see someone walking across from her. "Okay, I'm going to admit to being seriously wigged out right now."
They watched it happen, but saw he was walking into a bar that Felicity was passing and saw it was a false alarm.
"All right, next time I offer to be bait for a serial killer, please turn me down." Felicity begged of them and kept walking. They watched as she made it to the rendezvous point and nothing happened. "Oh, thank god."
"Where is he?" Oliver asked, happy Felicity's okay, but now worried where Mathis is.
Anya and MJ were walking each other home, a little nervous about walking alone knowing there's a psycho on the loose.
"You know, I used to think this city was strange, and I didn't know why. And now, I kinda wish my dad moved us to Gotham." Anya confessed to MJ. "But now with Peter and Miles, I'm a little less afraid. Oh don't get me wrong, I'm still terrified, but I at least know that there are people looking over us."
"Yeah, I felt the same when I was paralyzed." MJ admitted. "Peter was always there for me and I was always there for him when Spider-Man needed me."
Anya then made it to her apartment complex and faced MJ. "Well, I'll see you tomorrow."
"See ya." MJ said and strolled down the street.
Taking the streets, MJ noticed the streets were ominously empty and made her wish she had Peter's powers for moments like this.
She was looking behind her for a blink second, she didn't notice the ominous figure standing there and let out a scream as the figure grabbed her.
"Don't fight it. I don't want to damage your beautiful skin." Mathis whispered as he placed a knife to her neck.
MJ just continued to scream and fight him off to no avail as she screamed as loud as she could.
Down the street, George Stacy was on his way into his home when he heard the scream down the street. Quickly racing down, he pulled out his radio to call it in. "Charlie Oxford 12 to Central," He called in when he made it only to see MJ getting dragged down the alley, "we have a code 99, possible 207 in progress, immediate backup requested!"
MJ was fighting off her attacker the best she could when something was placed over her face, knocking her out. When George finally reached the alleyway, he saw that there was nobody nearby and feels somethings wrong.
Peter was running up to the courthouse for his mother's hearing, with everything going on he almost forgot about it if it weren't for MJ reminding him.
Speaking of which, she hasn't shown up yet, and she promised she'd be here. Peter was just calling her for the tenth time in the past ten minutes and wonders what's happened.
"Hi, you've reached MJ, MJ to my friends, Mary Jane to my enemies. You know what to do at the beep."
Peter couldn't help but chuckle at that messenger and waited for the beep. "MJ, it's me again. Please call me back, I'm starting to get worried."
"Peter!" Oliver called, causing Peter to see his brothers here. "Hey, you okay?"
"Yeah, it's just...MJ promised to be here and was wondering where she was." Peter sighed and saw it was almost time. "Guess she's not showing."
"Well, come on. Mom's case's about to start. I'm sure your friend's got a reason to not be here." Oliver assured him as they walked in.
Once they reached the courtroom, they greeted their mother who was happy to see they made it and saw Thea and Walter were both already there and seated.
"Docket ending 4-5-8-7, State versus Queen."
"All right, I'll hear motions, ladies first." The judge tells them and gestures to Moria's representatives.
"Your Honor, we'd like to be heard again on the issue of bail." Moria's representative started. "Mrs. Queen has languished internet Iron Heights prison for five months-"
"And in those five months' did the 512 people she's charged with killing miraculously return from the dead?" The judge asks. "If not, I'm a little unclear on how the passage of time is relevant."
"Might I remind the court; the defendant is presumed innocent?" Her representative asks.
"No need. I went to law school. It's where I learned that bail once denied, cannot be set in the absence of change of circumstance. Mr. Donner, what do you have for me?" He asks the Prosecutor.
"Your Honor, the state has no pre-trial motions to make at this time." Donner said as he took a stand. "But we would like to serve notice to the defense pursuant to rule of criminal procedure 15."
"Your Honor, I would like to conference with the district attorney." Her defendant asks as she stands back up.
"There's really no need, nor any obligation." Donner stated calmly.
"What about professional courtesy?" Defendant asks. "I would like to have a conversation with you before you seek the death penalty."
That erupted the room into mutters, but for the Queen siblings, all of their hearts stopped for a second at hearing that notion.
"Your client aided and abetted an act of mass murder." Donner stated. "5-3 conversations wouldn't convince me that Moria Queen shouldn't be the 504th fatality."
Peter started to shake at this as Thea began to try and comfort her brother while Oliver did the same to their mother.
Peter was later back in the mansion and was punching a punching bag but did it a little too hard and sends it flying across the room.
"You think that Walter's gonna become suspicious on all of these broken sandbags?" Miles asked as he was watching Peter release his anger on the equipment.
"Nah, I just say we shouldn't buy them from the same place. Faulty equipment." Peter stated as he finally calmed down when he suddenly realized he broke the last of the bags. "Oh..."
"Yeah." Miles stated as he walked over to him. "Sorry about everything going on with your mom."
"She was a victim." Peter stated as he dropped onto a bench in the room. "She was told to either do what Malcom said or he would kill me...kill Thea...kill Walter! And all they care about is the body count of a dead man."
"Yeah, maybe if the Arrow captured Malcom, they'd focus all of its hate on him." Miles guessed and Peter looked confused.
"Who's the Arrow?" Peter asks.
"You know, Arrow. The vigilante." Miles explained. "I thought it sounded like a cooler nickname than...hey, where's MJ?"
"I've been wondering about that for a while now." Peter agreed just as his phone went off across the room. "Speak of the devil." He shrugged as he went over, expecting it to be MJ, but was surprised to see it wasn't her but her mother. "Uh-oh. Ms. Watson." Peter greeted her, thinking she has some information on what happened to MJ.
Boy was he wrong.
"Peter, did MJ stay over last night?" Madeline Watson asks into the phone.
"Uh...no, she went home with our friend Anya last night." Peter said and he turned to Miles, making a gesture for him to call Anya.
"She hasn't been home all night, and I'm getting worried." Madeline tells Peter and he could hear the fear in her voice.
"Ms. Watson, I promise, she's probably all right." Peter promised her just as Anya came racing in, stopping the two of them.
"MJ was abducted!" Anya cried to the two of them, out of breath. She dropped her hands to her knees and tried to catch her breath, making them think she raced to the house. "Your home...is...so far away!"
Kristine Sutherland as Madeline Watson