Chapter 4: Let's Get Ready to Rumble!

In the living room, the TV blares with the news while Isabella looks through the newspapers. "Again, nothing." she sighs. The teen places the papers down and walk out of her house, enjoying the summer sun on her face. The birds chirp happily in the air, the wind blowing Izzy's hair around. She starts to feel relaxed from all her worries, but it all shatters when she hears yelling. The teen turns toward Phineas's house, where the yelling seems to come from. That's weird. His house is usually friendly quiet.

The front door opens, the volume increasing, and Phineas walks out. He shouts something back and slams the door, then walks away, shoulders slumped and hands in pockets.

Isabella frowns and runs to her friend. "Hey Phineas, something wrong?"

He turns and smiles at his old friend, but she notices some sadness. "Hey Izzy."

"What's wrong?" she asks again.

Losing the smile, the redhead says, "Oh, nothing. Just having a little trouble with my mother."

Now Isabella knows something is wrong. He never says 'mother' unless the two argued about something. "What kind of trouble?"

"My mother doesn't like the dream I plan on accomplishing."

Isabella predicts, "You mean an award winning singer?"

"Something like that."

"What's the style?"

"Rap and Hip Hop."

"Really?" she asks with surprise.

Phineas chuckles. "Really. And I'm pretty good, if I do say so myself."

"I can believe that. So, why does your mom not like it?" Izzy asks.

"She just think it's nothing but full of bad stuff in it. Like swearing, images, that stuff. She should know that not all of rap is bad. It can actually tell people about what's in their soul."

The girl chuckles, making Phineas smile, for a change.

A blue Ferrari park by the two, confusing them, and the door opens. Out comes a man with a white shirt, a Union Jack jacket on top and purple jeans with a familiar messy green hair on the head and blue eyes. "Hey guys."

"Ferb!" Phineas and Isabella yells. The redhead runs to his brother and gives him an embracing hug. He laughs and says, "It's great to see you guys again."

"It's great to see you, too, Ferb!" says Izzy.

"Wow Izzy. You sure changed after all these years."

"Why, thank you."

Phineas asks, "Bro, what are you doing here, anyway? And how did you get this car?"

"Remember the internship I took on the car company?"

"Yeah?"

Grinning, Ferb finishes, "I got a promotion, and that has a lot of dough."

The redhead's jaw drops. "You're kidding!"

"Uh, hello?" Isabella kids. "Best friend over here."

The British-American laughs and hugs her. "You do not know how much I missed you guys. And Izzy, I see you've been working out." He pats on her arm, where her muscles slightly bulge, and she smiles childishly. "So, you wanna ride somewhere?" Ferb asks, twirling his keys.

"Shotgun!" takes Phineas. He jumps onto the passenger seat as Izzy sits behind. The brother hops on the driver seat and starts his car, and drives back on the road. With the radio blasting, the gang decides on what destination to go.

"What about the park?" suggests Phineas.

Ferb disagrees, "Nah. Maybe the wrestling stadium?"

"How about the library?" asks the fireside girl.

They all laugh at the joke, and after they calm down, an idea jumps into Phineas's mind. "I got something. Baseball."

"At Danville's Stadium." continues the brother.

Izzy finishes, "Free of charge for today!"

They clap and makes way to the large stadium, and Isabella forgets all that happened yesterday, glad to be back with her friends.

Ginger walks into her enormous living room and dumps her pack on the couch, then heads to the kitchen. She stops as her eyes find her mother on the floor, unconscious. Her eyes widen with fright and calls, "Mom? Mom!" The feared teen runs to Maria, who starts groaning. Sighing, Ginger helps her up and asks, "Mom, what happened? Why are you on the floor?"

Groggily, the scientist says, "I…I was in my lab…doing-" a flash appears in her mind, showing a maniac laughing. "I don't know."

"Maybe you should take a break from all this experiments."

Jameson the butler and the maid run in, and Ginger says, "I'm sorry, but my mom can't work right now. She's ill."

"Mrs. Quimby, we have troubling news." the maid frantically says. "We hate to say that…Jason is dead."

"What?" Maria breathes.

"I'm afraid so. And your suit and glider is missing."

Maria stares into space in disbelief, not believing what she's hearing. "I don't believe it."

Ginger looks at her mother with concern, and says, "C'mon, mom. We should get you to your bed." She leads the scientist upstairs, and Maria tries to recall what happened yesterday. Soon, the teen lays her mother on the soft bed and walks out, stopping at her maid. "Amy, what happened?"

"This morning, some of your mother's scientists found Jason dead on top of a destroyed shelf. The container's wall was shattered, and we guessed a break in, but, like I said, only the glider and suit was missing."

Ginger sighs. "Alright. I'm going to keep an eye on my mother. Try to make her feel better."

"Yes Miss Quimby." She heads into the kitchen as the teen walks to the TV, still worrying.

"Strike three! You're out!"

The fans groan as the batter walks back to the rest of the team, Phineas, Isabella, and Ferb booing along. They calm down as the next player walks to the batter's box, Phineas says, "If he makes a homerun, our team wins the game!"

"Gee, thank you, Mr. Obvious." Izzy kids, smiling.

Everyone hushes as the pitcher readies his throw. The batter grips the wood tighter, setting his face, foot digging into the sand, face full of confidence. The pitcher furrows his brow, concentrating on the catcher's fatal signs, then raises his arm. After a swing, the ball soars through the air and time seems to slow around the stadium. The crowd leans forward as the baseball flows leisurely closer to the bat, anticipation hanging dangerously in the air. The player bares his teeth and pops his bones, swinging the wood with all his might. Ball and bat connects with a loud 'WHACK', echoing throughout the arena, and the game's sphere arches upward into the air. The outfielders take immediate action and start chasing the ball's shadow on the green grass. The crowd watches silently as the ball fly to the wall. One of catchers aims his glove toward it when the ball flies over a fence, making the catcher crash painfully. The crowd cheers to drum-breaking volume as the batter and others run back to home plate, and Danville's team wins the game. Izzy and Phineas hug in victory, behind him Ferb hides a snicker behind his hand. When the two finally unlatch themselves, they feel slightly embarrassed about the incident, the feeling hanging until they reach the Ferrari. Ferb drives back onto the street while they talk about some plays in the game.

As the Brit-American stop at a traffic light, Phineas asks, "So, Izzy, what are you going to do this summer?"

"Oh, nothing special. Just find a job, help my gran." She whispers, "Try out my cool powers."

"What was that?"

"Nothing." She looks around and sees the wrestling stadium building and hears screaming vibrating off the walls. A sign hangs on the doors, and the teen looks closer, interested.

'Win BIG!

Survive five minutes

Win fifty thousand, that's right

Fifty THOUSAND dollars!'

Isabella continues to stare at the poster, excitement boiling at an idea. She has time to check the date and time before Ferb pulls down the road, heading back to their neighborhood. Soon, the brother parks at his old home and Isabella says, "I'll see you guys later."

"Bye, Izzy." Phineas says.

She climbs out of the car and walks back to her house, and when the brothers' head inside their home, the girl hurries to her room. After locking the door, she covers the window and lies on the bed, thinking of her plan. Okay, I use my powers in the wrestling match and win that fifty k, and give it to my gran. Problem fixed. But how am I going to get there without mom knowing? She will never let me go anywhere near the stadium. I guess I'll just…lie. She bites her lips at the horrible thought, always getting a deep guilt in the pit of her soul just thinking of it. I'll just need to man up on the idea. Of course, I'll need a costume for the competition. But what?

Head full of ideas, the teen grasps her sketchbook and pencil and markers and, using her art badge, starts different designs. Isabella starts with a full body suit, different color schemes, and underlines,

More color

She looks at the mask, then slices half of it off, leaving her eyes and the top of her head covered. Better.

The teen notices the time and places her book on the table, then closes her eyes to dreams of happiness.

The past few days, Isabella practices her skill with her web attacks. First clings to the wall, another one time accidently breaking her framed picture. "Note to shopping list: New frame."

On the tenth time, she finally wraps her target in webs, a soda can, and pulls it into her hand. Smiling at her success, the teen takes a sip of cola when her door knocks. She gasps as Vivan calls, "Isa, are you in there?"

The teen rushes to the door and open a crack, and hastily says, "Yeah, mom. I'm fine."

"Okay, but what are you doing in there?"

"Just…working on some…projects. Why do you ask?"

"Well, I'm just starting to get worried about you. Ever since that fight a couple days ago, you've been excluding into your room."

"I'm fine, mom. There's nothing to worry about."

"Okay." She sighs. The mother walks away and Izzy quickly closes the doors and looks back in her room, which looks like a spider's web. "I need to clean this up."

After putting the strands in the trash, the teen grabs her sketchbook and continues on the costume.

Symbol?

Isabella draws all types of symbols, from an hourglass shape to a full spider body at different angles, but she groans and crumples the paper, completely frustrated. Now I know how Spiderman felt when creating his suit.

Soon, she draws a costume that she likes, but is a little off to her. Besides the symbol. The teen looks back at all her recent failed sketches, but doesn't find the missing element in any of them. Irritated, Izzy slams her head on the wall behind her and a comic falls on her lap from a shelf above. Confused, she looks at the comic and finds that it's a Spiderman graphic novel, then looks back at her black and white sketch. She flips them back and forth, seeing a similarity. "That's what I'm missing."

Isabella adds new details to her costume to make it look less like Spiderman's, but kept the same color. She adds sharpie to the picture and the color on and soon is smiling at her accomplishment. The teen adds the last bit color, and looks at the whole thing to see if she likes it.

The two-piece costume has a red and blue color scheme, the mask covers her entire head and eyes, leaving the nose and mouth uncovered and lets her hair flow down, and the eyes are a curved triangle. The Spiderman symbol lies on the chest, the two front legs stretched toward the shoulders where spikes stretch down her forearms. The two back legs stretch downward to her waist where a row of spikes wrap around it, like a front-opened skirt, the two front running down to her knees. On the back is a red spider mirroring the black in front, and the four stretched legs connect. The whole costume is covered in a web pattern, except for the blue parts, and Isabella grins at her artwork.

The teen checks the day and time, and her face falls disappointedly. "Man, the contest is tomorrow." She rubs her face and looks back at the costume, then decides to start on a simpler version. A tight red shirt with the spider expertly stitched on, blue jeans and regular sneakers. The teen sews a simple red mask with large and triangular eyeholes, still only covering half her head. Izzy puts the whole costume on and checks herself in the mirror, seeing a masked teen wearing a red shirt looking back. She says, "It's not great, but it'll do for now."

She puts the sketchbook and costume in a bed drawer and heads downstairs for dinner.

With the time looming closer, Isabella puts on her costume and a sweatshirt on top, then puts the mask in her pocket. She runs downstairs and calls, "I'll see you later, mom. I'll be at the library."

"Hold up Isa." Vivian says. "I'll drive you there."

"Oh no, I can just take a cab."

"No, no. I insist." She grabs her purse and says, "Let's go."

"Okay, mom." Izzy says, groaning in her head. The two head into the car and Vivian drives into the criminal-stained city. They stay quiet during the travel, watching the road fly by, and soon find themselves at the steps of the library.

"Well, I'll see you later." Izzy says, grasping the handle.

"Wait, Isa." Her mother stops. "We need to talk."

"Do we have to?"

"Yes. Look, I know what you're going through. I was a teen once, believe it or not. I got embarrassed, I got angry. Sometimes I just wanted to lash out on the bullies, too. Now, I'm sure this, Tryton, had what was coming to him,"

He sure did. thinks Izzy.

"But just because you can do it, doesn't mean you should, Isa. With great power comes great responsibility."

"Okay, I get it mom! But my life is not the same as yours. I have different anger issues, and Tryton was a bigger jerk than you think. I have my ways to dealing with my problems. Now, could you please stop babying me?" Isabella suddenly lashes out.

Vivian stays quiet for a while, shocked by her reaction, then admits, "Alright. I understand."

"Thank you." The teen exits the car and starts walking to the library as Vivian drives away. The teen's mind suddenly fills with sadness, and makes a mental note, I should apologize. She was just trying to help. When her mother vanishes from view, Isabella runs the other direction, to the great arena.

Inside, the ultimate champion, Skullcrusher, a man with nothing but muscle on him and wearing a black suit, throws another wrestler over the rope, and he crashes onto a table. The crowd cheers as the crusher pounds his fists in the air as the announcer yells in the mic, "Ladies and gentlemen, Skullcrusher wins again!"

The crowd yells louder.

"That's better! Now that we got that out of the way, we shall start the five-minute fifty-dollar challenge!"

Screams rocket out of the stadium as the crowd is energized to maximum and over for the challenge. Backstage, candidates line up to sign for the contest that most certainly means death. At the front, an employee scans Isabella and says, "I don't think you've got what it takes, short stuff. Next!"

"No no, please, sign me up. I'm sure I can make it." Izzy insists.

Reluctantly, he says, "Okay. You do know that the DMWUS is not responsible for any injury that may and probably will inflict, and you're entering from your own free will?"

"Yes."

"Step over there, ma'am."

Isabella walks over to where the employee pointed as she puts her mask on.

In the ring, a contestant is slammed down by Skullcrusher, and he groans as the man tries to get up. Crusher climbs up a post and then jumps down, crushing the contestant and cracking a few bones. The referee counts down and puts the crusher's arm up, sending a roar into the crowd. The announcer walks to the center, laughing, and says, "Too bad for him. So sorry. Now, it's time for the next victim-I mean, contestant!"

"Thanks. I needed that." Isabella whispers.

"This next one will have to stay in the ring for five minutes for fifty thousand dollars, and all will be giving to-!" he leans toward the screen and asks, "What's your name kid?"

"Uh, Spidergirl?" suggests Izzy.

"Eh, good enough. Now, for the fifty thousand dollars: she's terrifying! She's deadly! The astounding Spidergirl!"

The screen rises up to reveal Isabella, a.k.a. Spidergirl. Everyone boos at her as she walks down the ramp, throwing whatever they have on the seats and making crude jokes. She ducks as a nacho bowl flies over her head. Skullcrusher's girls call out to her, saying cruel jokes, and one of them yells into a microphone, "Yo skinny, I suggest you get to your mommy before Skullcrusher rips all eight limbs off and crush you like a bug!"

Isabella steals the mic and says, "Why don't you just shut up before I through you to Jupiter. And get a shirt on that plump body, Fatty."

Everyone exclaims at her statement, and the teen gives the speechless lady the microphone back. She heads down the ramp and into the ring, where Skullcrusher and the announcer are waiting. He looks at Spidergirl's lean body and shrugs, then walks out. The teen examines the wrestler, noting his strengths and weaknesses.

On the ceiling, four metal cages creak and move down, surrounding the ring. Isabella looks up and says, "Wait, the cage? I didn't sign up for a cage battle."

"Buggy, who cares what you battle in. It's all about the actual battle. And this one, you're going to wish you hadn't walked in!"

The cage clacks as the sides meet, and men at the sides chains them together. The crowd roars and starting cheering, "Kill her! Kill her!"

"Encouraging." She mumbles.

After the men check the cage, the bell rings and the wrestler charges, yelling at the top of his lungs. Izzy turns around and just has enough time to jump, making Skullcrusher crash into the cage wall. He walks back, slightly dazed, and looks up to see the teen sticking on the bars. "Whatcha doing up there!"

"Staying away from you." Isabella answers with confident. "That's a cute suit. Did your mommy give that to you?"

Angered, the wrestler jumps and tries to grab her leg, but she flies off and land at the other end of the ring, quickly turning around. The teen ducks from a punch and grabs another, throwing a punch herself at Skullcrusher's face. Surprised, he backs up, giving Izzy a quick kick on his chest. The wrestler charges again and Isabella shoots out a web strand and pulls, flying over the crazed bull. One of the ladies walks up and hands Skullcrusher a metal chair, yelling, "Beat the bug senseless!"

The teen senses the chair coming toward her, and she ducks underneath, giving the wrestler a good kick in the stomach to make him back up. Isabella turns to get whacked by the metal chair, falling on the ground. The wrestler then beats Spidergirl on the ground, almost knocking her out. But the girl quickly gets up and throws a fist, breaking through the chair and knocking Skullcrusher in the nose, then jumps and twists in the air, giving Skullcrusher a good kick in the face. His face turns to the right suddenly, and he falls down hard on the ring floor with a good bruise on the cheek and blood running down his face.

The arena is silent for the first time in years as everyone stares at the two, but slowly the crowd cheers at Spidergirl. The referee runs up and checks the wrestler, then gets up and shouts a knockout and raises Izzy's hand into the air, giving the crowd a roar of shock and excitement. Isabella grins and pumps both hands in the air, making the crowd cheer even louder.