There was a tense few moments of absolute silence in the warehouse as Spider-Woman knew that she had been found out. The last thing she had wanted to do was face off the half a dozen heavily armed thugs head on. Unfortunately this didn't seem to be an option anymore as she found herself on the wrong end of half dozen automatic weapons that could fire several rounds a second.
"What the hell is that?" asked one of the thugs in complete surprise. None of them could completely tell what they were seeing but from where she was they also couldn't fully tell her size.
"That's Spider-Woman!" shouted another one of the thugs. He then pointed his gun up at her. "Light her up!"
With that command the thugs began to fire at Spider-Woman and the first thing that she did was drip down to the ground. She was able to evade the bullets that came her way but when she struck the ground she stood up to her full height and this scared the thugs more than she could imagine. When she had been on the ceiling they couldn't tell her size but now that she was on the ground only a few short metres away they could see her true height. It was enough for one of the thugs to drop his weapon and run for his life.
Unfortunately for Spider-Woman the others were not so easily deterred but at least the odds had tipped slightly in her favour. Unfortunately she was still heavily outnumbered and outgunned. Another problem she had to contend with was the fact that there were some low hanging equipment in the ware house that she would most likely hit if she began to jump around to dodge the bullets.
Before the thugs could fire again Spider-Woman took full advantage of the few moments of surprise that she had and used her infamous webbing to pull two of the guns away from a couple of the thugs. If she could have pulled all the guns away at once it would have more or less finished the fight there and then. But unfortunately she still had three guns to deal with but once again things had tipped into her favour. The two unarmed thugs decided to flee rather than take their chances.
The three thugs who had their guns remaining began to fire at Spider-Woman and quickly she shot a web line up to the ceiling and pulled herself up just before they began to fire. In a matter of moments she was able to swing towards them and quickly she kicked two of them so hard that they were completely taken off her feet and fell unconscious on the ground. She had taken her increased size into account so she didn't strike them hard enough to kill them or cause them serious injury. Long ago she had vowed never to kill and this was her way of keeping this promise.
Now there was only one thug left with his gun. Spider-Woman stood very close to him and she turned towards him. He still wanted to fire but the confidence that he had once had now completely disappeared. Where he had five others to back him up now he only had himself. His hand was beginning to shake as he was extremely nervous about the giant Spider-Woman standing before him. Almost instantly he dropped his gun and wanted to run but instead he raised his hands up into the air as a sign that he was surrendering. She couldn't believe what she was seeing as she could see tears rolling down his face.
"P-please don't kill me," said the Thug as he became a jabbering wreck. "I have a family, please spare me."
"Do you know how many families are destroyed by what you're dealing," replied Spider-Woman as she pointed towards the ground where the case full of powder had fallen. "When you're selling this stuff do you even consider what it might be doing to the loved ones of an addict. To watch someone they care about become dependent on a substance to the point that it harms those around them. If I was a ruthless person I would strike you down where you stood and make sure that you never got up." She took another couple of steps closer towards the thug and he was absolutely terrified of her. "But you're lucky I'm not that kind of person. Believe me there would be a lot of people who would love nothing more than to put you down right now but then I would be no better than you."
Spider-Woman then kicked the thug so hard that he fell to the ground unconscious. Her kick had impacted his chin and the thug didn't stand a chance, once again Spider-Woman could have kicked him with enough force to take his head off but she had purposely held back so that she didn't become what J. Jonah Jameson claimed that she was.
Now that the three thugs were down Spider-Woman used her webbing to make them stay on the ground until the police showed up. She didn't want to call them just yet however, if the warehouses became swarming with cops before she had finished her search for the Van Dyne Particles then her task would become almost impossible. She knew that three of the thugs had escaped and there were literally hundreds of hiding places that they could had hid. She knew that for now she didn't have a chance of finding all three of them but she remembered their faces and would resume her search for them as soon as she shrank back to normal. For her it couldn't come any sooner.
The last thing that Spider-Woman had to do before she left was to check her phone. It had stopped ringing when the fighting had begun but as she took it out of her costume she still couldn't get over how small it was now in comparison to her. Her fingers were still too big to properly operate it but she could still use it in its basic terms. She looked at the screen and saw that Mary Jane Watson had called her again. Unfortunately for Spider-Woman she didn't have time to see what her friend wanted and instead had to carry on her search for the Van Dyne Particles if she wanted any chance of returning to her normal size. She had fun being a giant but now she was more than ready to be normal again.
Spider-Woman quietly left the warehouse and continued to look into the other warehouses. With each one she looked through she felt that her chances of finding the Van Dyne Particles were diminishing. Despite this she tried not to give into despair and tried to carry on as best as she could. She did wish that she had some kind of partner to help her out with the search but she felt that allowing someone to patrol with her was too dangerous. She felt like this was something that she needed to do herself.
After what had felt like forever Spider-Woman did eventually come across another warehouse that seemed to be of interest. Rather than going in the front or side entrances she would find another access point much like she had with the other warehouses. She didn't want to attract any unwanted attention so alternate access points were essential. The only problem that she had was that it was a tight squeeze but thankfully she could manoeuvre her body so that she could squeeze through. It was something that she could thank her old gymnastics teacher.
Inside this particular warehouse Spider-Woman could see that there seemed to be nothing in there except an abnormally large piece of wood. Out of everything she found this to be odd and her spider sense was beginning to tingle. Whenever this happened it either meant that there was danger or she was on the right path to what she was trying to find. It did mean that she wouldn't have difficulty finding her keys and in this case it was helping her find the Van Dyne Particles. Her body had absorbed a small portion of it so it knew what it was like so the Spider sense could identify it.
One thing that she was confused with was the fact that besides the large piece of wood there was nothing else there at all. She found it odd that someone would own a warehouse purely to store a single piece of abnormally large wood. It was definitely enough to arouse her suspicions but her spider sense was the icing on the cake. She figured that there was more happening here than she could see and she had to use all of her intelligence to figure out what it was.
Gently Spider-Woman climbed down to the ground and one thing that she noticed was that that the ground beneath her was hollow. Her added weight had created extra vibrations that her body was able to pick up and it helped her tell that the ground beneath her was hollow. She knew that this was too unusual to be a mere coincidence and was definitely worthy of been looked into.
One thing she knew as well is that if there was anyone below ground they would know that she was there. Her heavy footsteps would be easily heard below ground and as she walked around she even purposely stomped her feet a little so that she was more likely to be heard. She did this for a few moments before shooting a web onto the ceiling and then crawling up it.
This wasn't just a random act however. Spider-Woman knew that by making herself known if there were anyone below ground they would most likely come and investigate. She felt that it was her best chance of finding out what was happening in the warehouse and for now all she could was play the waiting game. It was something that she was used to doing when she was waiting for a criminal to show up.
She only had to wait for a few minutes until she saw a relatively small hole opened up in the ground beneath her. Spider-Woman stayed very still at the top of the ceiling and looked down. She couldn't believe what she was seeing as the hole opened up and she saw the flight of stairs that went down. She could also hear someone walking up them and rather than acting immediately she decided to wait.
Moments later the Rita DeMara's hired muscle came up into view. For the moment he hadn't noticed Spider-Woman clinging from the ceiling. He and Rita had heard Spider-Woman's entry and he had been commanded to go up and investigate. For the moment he couldn't see anything amiss.
Spider-Woman saw that he was carrying a gun and if she were still her normal size he would have been much taller and more muscular than her. She would have still had the strength advantage but now if they were to face each other there would be little doubt who would come out the victor.
Rather than dropping down and attacking the hired muscle Spider-Woman decided to use a more subtle mean of attack. She once again used her webbing to shoot down a line that attached itself to the hired muscle. As soon as it had attached she pulled him up and before he could properly react to what was happening he had travelled up to Spider-Woman's level and he was met by a strong punch. It knocked him out instantly and rather than dropping him on the ground Spider-Woman used her webbing to cocoon him and then dangle him from the ceiling. She made sure that he was only a few feet off the ground so when the webbing did wear off he wouldn't fall and suffer any serious injuries.
With the hired muscle out for the count Spider-Woman once again gently lowered herself to the ground but rather than walking around she decided to crawl as if she were clinging to the wall or ceiling. This was so the amount of nose she made was at a minimum, she didn't want anyone to know what had just happened. She didn't even make any of her one line jokes that she would normally throw when she took down a thug. Right now all that was in her mind was stealth.
Spider-Woman quietly made her way towards the hole in the ground that had opened when the hired muscle had come to the surface. Before making her way down the stairs she took a look at them and concentrated on her spider sense. It was tingling slightly but she could tell that it didn't mean that she was in any real danger at that moment. It was pointing her down the stairs anyway and where the Van Dyne Particles were being held. It definitely felt stronger than it had before and she knew that she was on the right track. She just hoped that she didn't run into any more trouble.
Squeezing her body through the passage that led down underground Spider-Woman couldn't help but feel claustrophobic as she went down the relatively small flight of stairs. It was the first time in a good long while that she had felt so cramped and she began to think that the walls around her closing in on her. She did keep her cool however and kept going but she was very cautious. No matter what she did she knew that there were likely to be more armed people in the underground bunker and she definitely had no room for move around. Even if she were her normal size dodging bullets in such a confined space would be extremely difficult.
She didn't realise that the only person waiting in the bunker for her was Rita DeMara. She had sat in silence awaiting the return of her hired muscle but he seemed to be taking his time and she was beginning to become anxious. She knew that it shouldn't have taken him very long to find out what the disturbance was upstairs. One thing that she did take some comfort in was that there had been no gunfire. It did somewhat put her mind at ease but she still waited for him to return.
Much to her surprise rather seeing her hired muscle returning she saw Spider-Woman crawling towards her. At first Rita wasn't sure to make out what she was seeing but she instantly stood up as she saw the enlarged heroine coming her way. The route to where Rita was had been straight in front while the lab and other various rooms were more to the side. On Rita's desk was a syringe which held her version of Van Dyne Particles in a liquid form. She had created this so that she could boast that she had created it in both liquid and gas form. There was a canister of her own Van Dyne Particles located in her lab but she was keeping them to one side for now.
"W-what are you?" asked Rita in disbelief. She was almost dumbstruck by the sight of a sixteen and a half foot woman crawling her way. She just couldn't wrap her head around what she was seeing.
"Oh come on isn't the costume a dead giveaway?" replied Spider-Woman. Her spider sense was telling her that they were the only two people in the bunker so she didn't have to worry about an ambush. She gave a small sigh and decided that violence wasn't the best way to handle this situation. She thought that simply talking to Rita would be enough. "Ok since you don't know me I'm Spider-Woman and I'm not here to hurt you. I only came because you've stolen something that doesn't belong to you." She didn't have any real evidence as of yet but with everything that she knew she could put two and two together. "As you can see I've been exposed to Van Dyne Particles."
"DeMara Particles." Rita intentionally interrupted Spider-Woman since hearing the words Van Dyne Particles always made her angry. "They're DeMara Particles, that turncoat stole my work and made it her own." This wasn't true however but in Rita's world these events had transpired.
"Ok then whatever you want to call them." Spider-Woman was being careful. Despite the fact that her size made her stronger it also made her incapable in such a small space and she didn't want matters to escalate. "I need you to return what you have stolen and then I can find a way to shrink back down to my normal size. Now please tell me what your name is since we're all friends here."
"I am Doctor Rita DeMara the true mastermind behind size manipulation physics. You may have heard of me."
"Yeah sure I have." In truth she had never heard of her, despite this lie Rita was able to pick up on this.
"I know you haven't really heard of me, that's because Doctor Janet Van Dyne or as most people would call her Wasp or Giant-Woman stole my work. I put everything I had into my work only for that turncoat to steal it and take all of the glory. She knows that I was the one who came up with the theories. It was me who taught her everything she knew about size manipulation and she repaid me by stabbing me in the back."
"Maybe when all this is over with you can prove to Doctor Van Dyne that you're better." Already she could tell that Rita was not in the right state of mind. Rather than provoking her into doing something that could lead to even more trouble she decided to more or less agree with her just in case. "Now let's back up to the surface so that we can talk all of this out and I'll even tell the cops to be lenient."
"No, no one is taking my prize away from me." She quickly picked up the syringe off the table. "I have worked too hard for everything to fall apart now. I thought that I could show Doctor Van Dyne that I'm superior. But I know that a demonstration speaks louder than any word." She already knew that with Spider-Woman there that the jig was more or less up. Despite what many people believed Rita knew that she was a heroine who had saved the lives of many people in the city. Spider-Woman wouldn't allow her to leave without the stolen Van Dyne Particles and she could only see one way out.
"Rita I need you to put down the syringe." Regardless of its contents she knew that whatever was in there would not improve the situation at all but instead make things a whole lot worse.
"From the start I knew that it was going to have to come to this. If not you then one of Janet's so called superhero friends. Just know that I didn't intend to hurt anyone, all I wanted was to prove that I was better than Doctor Van Dyne but now you've left me with no other choice." With that she stuck the syringe in her arm and Spider-Woman tried to fire a line of webbing to stop her but in the confines of the bunker she couldn't move around as freely as she normally could. By the time she had been able to fire a line of webbing Rita had already injected the contents of the syringe into her body.
Almost instantly Rita could feel a sense of overwhelming power overtake her body and it was like nothing any other human being had felt before. The so called DeMara Particles that were now entering her body was going to work at an almost impossible rate, it was changing her on a cellular level which normal people couldn't even comprehend.
Rita herself had already begun to keel over and after the sense of power she began to feel pain now along with it. She began to scream out and Spider-Woman even reached over to her to try and help but she began to see Rita's body begin to bulge beneath her clothing. It was then that Spider-Woman knew what was happening and immediately began to back away. Unfortunately she had no room to turn herself around so she had to literally crawl backwards and she already knew that she was in big trouble.
Since Spider-Woman didn't have to worry about being subtle her trip back up to the surface didn't take too long but all the way she could hear Rita's screams. She wanted nothing more than to help but she knew that right now there was nothing that she could do and she needed to get out before what she feared happened.
Almost as soon as Spider-Woman reached the surface she stood up and saw the ground not too far away from her begin to crack. She could even hear the cracking sounds as well, at first they were relatively quiet but as the seconds went by the cracking sound grew louder as the cracks also grew. She could almost hear what sounded like an inhuman groaning sound and she didn't need to be a genius to know what was making the sound.
Spider-Woman knew what was going to happen very soon and she wanted to flee from the warehouse but she could see the unconscious body of Rita's hired muscle still suspended from the ceiling. She knew that if she were to leave him he would likely die so she quickly unattached him from the web line and ran out of the warehouse with him flung over her shoulder. She could barely feel his weight but rather than using the normal door Spider-Woman quickly opened one of the main doors enough for her to get out. Before she left she turned around for a moment and she could see the top of Rita's head begin to rise from the bunker below through a hole that her growing body was creating. Instead of watching with awe Spider-Woman instead chose to get the hired muscle to a safe distance before the warehouse could crash all around them.
It was funny in Spider-Woman's mind. Just a few minutes ago this man would have more than happily killed him on a simple command from Rita and here she was saving him. She knew that many people would have just left him to his fate but she wasn't like that. She had already vowed that no one would die because of her and she intended to keep that promise until the day she died.
Even as Spider-Woman made her way away from the warehouse she could still hear the loud cracking sound as concrete was being shattered only a short distance away from where she was. She could also still hear Rita groaning and it was only a matter of time before the woman came into view.
It was only when she was one hundred metres away from the warehouse did she think that the hired muscle was safe. Rather than lying him on the ground she webbed him on a nearby wall so that he couldn't cause her any problems.
It was only when she heard a loud crashing sound did Spider-Woman take look behind her. Much to her dismay she saw Rita once again but the once petite woman was now close to fifty feet tall and had created a huge hole in the side of her warehouse so that she could escape. She was still slightly shorter than the warehouse itself but the most striking thing was that she was wearing a one piece black suit along with a pair of boots. Spider-Woman didn't realise that Rita had planned on injecting herself if she were cornered and because of this she had created a costume that was designed to change size with her. This was so that she wasn't walking around stark naked but even though she was clothed she was still a towering figure above Spider-Woman.
Rita began to look around taking her new perspective. Like Spider-Woman before her the growth spurt had made her somewhat become disorientated. She also had dust over her body thanks to the fact that she had broken her way through the concrete ground. She had also demonstrated great strength simply by the fact that she had burst a hole in the side of her own warehouse. There was no doubt that she was trying to find Spider-Woman as well who for the moment was hidden behind a building.
"SPIDER-WOMAN WHERE ARE YOU!" shouted Rita in a voice that could be likely be heard all across the city. "YOU MADE ME DO THIS AND NOW I AM MORE THAN POWERFUL ENOUGH TO CRUSH YOU LIKE THE BUG THAT YOU ARE!"
For the moment Spider-Woman decided to remain hidden, her hear was beginning to race and she was considering her options. Even though Rita was three times her size it was still likely that she had the strength advantage. Her enhanced strength had only increased along with her size and she had even considered herself one of the strongest superheroes around. She also still had speed on her side and with her other abilities she thought that taking Rita might actually be possible despite the size disadvantage.
There was one idea that Spider-Woman did have in mind, she thought that if Rita really wanted her then she would have to chase her. She thought that someone moving at that size might tire out easily. Spider-Woman herself remembered how tired she felt after her growth spurt and how she considered her superhuman abilities giving her extra energy. Since Rita had been a regular person before her growth spurt she thought that Rita would tire very quickly. It was worth a shot and with Rita giving into fatigue it would be a lot quicker to defeat and it would minimalize her injuries.
Quickly Spider-Woman purposely came into Rita's direct line of vision. It only took moments for the even larger woman to notice her prey. Under her mask Spider-Woman had a somewhat evil grin on her face as she prepared to put her plan into action. She even waved her arms a little just to be sure that Rita would spot her.
"Hey tall lady I'm down here!" shouted Spider-Woman so that she could be heard clearly by the much larger woman. "If you really want me you're going to have to catch me! That is of course if you're not chicken."
This only enraged Rita who quickly moved towards Spider-Woman. The heroine herself couldn't believe how easy it had been to provoke Rita into chasing her. What neither women truly realised was that the so called DeMara Particles had decreased Rita's intelligence. She wasn't quite the brilliant scientist that she had been before and now her intelligence was below average. She hadn't even noticed that she had lost some of her own brainpower but at that moment she was fixated on catching Spider-Woman.
With Rita trying to chase her Spider-Woman quickly used her webbing to swing away causing the even larger woman to have to run after her. The plan seemed to be working like a charm as Rita was fixated on her rather than trying to cause any destruction or harm anyone else.
Although Spider-Woman had confidence in her plan she didn't want to admit that she was actually moving faster than she was comfortable with. Rita was right behind her and if she slowed down at any point she would be caught and then she would have a real fight on her hands. She was travelling so fast that her hood blew down and she didn't have an opportunity to put it back up. Thankfully the mask that she wore covered all of her head so her hair was still hidden. For now the media had no idea who Spider-Woman but if they discovered that she had blonde hair it would narrow down their list of suspects.
For several minutes Rita chased Spider-Woman through the streets of New York and many civilians were amazed to see a fifty foot woman run straight passed them chasing a woman who herself was considered a giant. Already it was attracting a lot of media attention as a news copter was filming everything. They didn't know that Spider-Woman was choosing her route carefully so that there was minimal chance of innocent bystanders being hurt. She knew which streets were the quietest and since it was late the streets were not as busy as if it were midday.
As the chase continued Rita could feel herself becoming more and more tired. Before her growth spurt she had never been known as a long distance runner and she was close to collapsing herself. She wanted to stop running and take a rest but something inside her mind was pushing her on. For the moment she had even forgotten about her vendetta against Doctor Janet Van Dyne and was completely fixated on destroying Spider-Woman. Her rage had increased with her size and she was beginning to suffer from a form of memory loss. These were all things attributed to the alterations she had made to the original Van Dyne Particles.
Rita's fatigue had been noticed by Spider-Woman who could hear her beginning to pant. She did want to end this chase as soon as possible so with ease Spider-Woman turned herself around within moments swung right into Rita's gut delivering a powerful kick that winded the giant woman. Rita dropped to her knees as she gasped for air and she couldn't believe that Spider-Woman had moved that fast.
With Rita on her knees Spider-Woman moved to the next phase of her plan. She began to use her webbing to attach lines onto Rita and then to attach them onto nearby buildings. She was working extremely fast since she didn't know how long she had before Rita recovered enough to cause her more problems. In only a matter of seconds Spider-Woman had attached more than two dozen web lines onto Rita and then attached the other ends to buildings around them. The webbing's strength had increased as Spider-Woman had following her increase in size and combined with Rita's fatigue she found herself unable to break free. She was stuck with her arms spread out and down on her knees. She was powerless but to see Spider-Woman confidently walk up to her. It seemed that the even larger woman had been defeated by someone who wasn't even one third of her size.
"I guess this wraps things up," said Spider-Woman knowing full well that her joke was terrible but it was all to rub salt in Rita's wounds. "Now I think there's a certain Avenger who would like a chat with you."
Rita tried with all of her might to break free but she was too tired. She couldn't believe that she had been defeated in this manner but she felt something almost snap inside of her. She could feel the same rush that she had felt only a few short minutes earlier when she had injected herself with her own DeMara Particles. She could feel her heart racing and the same bulging feeling take over her once again.