A/N: I own nothing.

Chapter 5: Blood Night prt 2

The silence in the living room made the blond sitting in the chair rather uncomfortable. Perenna was still upstairs and he felt like he was being sized up by a man he'd known since he was a kid. Then again, that was probably why he was being treated like this. He'd known them for so long that they wanted to make sure he wouldn't be a 'typical male.'

"We've known you since you were a child, Eddie, now why the sudden interest in Perenna?" Uncle Ben asked with an unreadable expression.

Sudden interest? Clearly it wasn't just Perenna that hadn't noticed his attraction. "Uh, she'd my friend, and, uh, I just thought that we could go out." He replied nervously.

There was a thud upstairs before Perenna came running down in a regular pair of jeans and a tight long-sleeved shirt. She had let her hair down and a headband kept the bangs parted from the rest of her hair, the two locks of hair framing her face.

"You look h…" Eddie saw the look on Uncle Ben's face and revised his statement. "Uh, very nice."

"Thank you." Perenna replied smiling. She saw how her friend was starting to wither under her uncle's gaze and decided to rescue him. "Uh, let's go, Eddie." She said pulling her friend to the door and looked back. "Be back by curfew!" she called and shut the door. "Sorry about that, bro."

"It's okay, your uncle's just worried for you." Eddie replied. "And I really don't blame him."

Perenna blushed. "You do know that compliments aren't necessary, right?"

"I know, but I just wanted to." The blond replied seriously. "And, this is supposed to be a real date, isn't it?"

"Yes, I know it is, probably the only date I'm going to have for a while." Perenna groused. "And since the mishap at school earlier I don't think anyone will come within three feet of me."

"What happened earlier?" The blond asked furrowing his brow.

"You didn't hear?" Perenna drawled. "I apparently broke Flash's arm."

"You did?" Eddie questioned, and his expression darkened. "What did he do to you?"

"He was gonna beat me up; Harry stepped in and I broke Flash's arm. It was an accident as I never meant to, just trying to get him to leave me alone." Perenna answered grouchily, then she brushed off her grim attitude. "Let's stop with this subject and just enjoy our date, alright?"

Deciding to do just that to avoid the awkwardness of the subject on how Perenna would have been able to break the bully's arm, the blond drove down the street and they arrived at the movie theater and while Eddie had gone to get the tickets, Perenna had gotten in line at the concession stand.

The line trailed on and after she'd gotten their food, and walked into the movie that they were seeing. It was a movie from a trailer she'd seen on the television for the Captain America movie. She's seen the other re-enactments reviewed on the internet shows she liked watching and hoped this re-enactment was better received than those were, as before she'd never even knew there had been other movies.

She'd also wanted to see this movie as the Captain was her childhood idol, what she aspired to be-only, female.

Perenna had seen how the Fantastic Four had a movie were made of them, though she'd never seen the movie. That was because a bunch of Doombots had stolen the film after it had been in the theatre only for a few months. That didn't stop other copies from being shown though, and even then she didn't want to risk seeing the movie.

She idly wondered what would happen when the sequel came out into theatres though.

"What did you think of the movie?" Perenna asked as she finished up her popcorn on the drive back to her house.

"It was good, I heard you talking about wanting to see it so I got the tickets for it." Eddie replied.

"Aw, how sweet." Perenna cooed. "If you'd asked me out when we were younger I would have totally said yes." She said and looked dreamily out the window.

She missed the way Eddie's hands tightened on the steering wheel. "Just glad you had a great time."

Perenna looked back at him with a smile before she saw her house approaching and patted her friend on the shoulder. "Thanks for taking me out tonight."

"Just so long as you don't hit me when we 'break up' on Monday." Eddie replied.

Perenna grinned back at him after closing the door. "I make no promises." She said cheekily and unlocked the door to her home. After a quick talk with her aunt and uncle about the nice time she had, she went upstairs and was about to close the curtains on her window when she saw a certain redhead sitting at a desk, and she could hear faint words coming from her room. "Hey, MJ."

The redhead looked up startled before she opened the window. "Hi Perry. But MJ, seriously?"

Perenna opened her own window and leaned on the pane. "What, it's cute isn't it?"

MJ copied the gesture. "I suppose so."

"Look, I know it's sudden and all, what with you just moving in, but would you like to hang out tomorrow?" Perenna asked blushing and she saw the redhead raise a brow; making her feel the need to elaborate. "It's just that I'm already going to hang out with someone and thought we could make our duo a trio."

MJ placed a hand to her chin thoughtfully. "Hmm, sounds like fun; if you see me sitting outside at…"

"1 pm." Perenna supplied.

"…1 pm then you'll know I can go with you." Mary Jane finished.

"Great." Perenna murmured and then asked bashfully, "What are you doing know?"

"I'm just watching episodes of the Nostalgia Chick." MJ replied shrugging.

Perenna's brows knitted together. "What's that?"

The next day, Perenna came down stairs in her winter coat and found her aunt and uncle looking worriedly at a letter, causing her to look at the clock to make sure it was 1. It was. "Is something wrong?"

"Perenna, do you know why we're getting a hospital bill charged to us for 1 thousand dollars from the Thompsons?" Uncle Ben asked sternly.

Perenna just knew what she'd done the previous day had come back to bite her. "Well, you see; I kinda broke Flash's arm-but he started it!"

"Well from the looks of this bill you certainly finished it." Uncle Ben remarked. "Perenna, what have I always taught you?"

Perenna reframed from sighing. She'd heard the saying all her life, and while she'd always appreciate the value it had, it got a bit tedious at times. "With great power comes great responsibility. But he really did start it by trying to beat me up. Harry stopped him and I accidently broke Flash's arm, I didn't mean to do it, I just wanted him to leave me alone."

"Perenna, beating others up is not the way to solve anything; there are other ways to handle a problem." Uncle Ben said wisely.

Perenna lowered her eyes. "I know, Uncle Ben." She said in a more subdued manner. "But can I still go out?"

"You can, but don't think we're not going to have a talk about this later." Aunt May said sternly.

"I understand." Perenna said softly and headed outside.

"Why the long face, Perry?"

Perenna blinked and looked over to see MJ sitting on the steps of her aunt's house. "I don't know what you're talking about." She said managing to make her face a little less morose.

"Alright then." Mary Jane shrugged and stood up, straightening her coat in the process. "Let's go pick up our third member." The duo headed to the bus stop and after a ride to the school, MJ looked at the building in confusion. "She lives at the school?"

Perenna couldn't stop the chuckle that escaped her. "No, we didn't know where the other lived, so I told her to meet me here….there she is. Serenity!"

The auburn-haired girl looked over at them, jumping a bit before relaxing. She wore a tan winter coat and her hair was all bunched up into the hat on her head, but a few locks fell through the bottom. "Hi." She said shyly and looked over at the redhead. "Hello, I'm Serenity."

"Mary Jane." The redhead said.

"Where are we going to now?" Perenna questioned to herself.

MJ answered though. "We could go to the theatre, no, I know! Let's go to the mall!" She said pulling both Serenity and Perenna along with her back to the bus stop. "I haven't been to the mall for weeks."

Serenity's face flushed as she was dragged along like a child with an overexcited sibling or parent, while Perenna blushed because she still found the redhead attractive. After another trip on the bus, they arrived at one of the New York department malls.

They agreed to head over to the food court first and as they passed the bulletin board, Perenna saw the words '3 thousand grand prize' for the amateur female wrestling league tournament. She saw the date was today and thought 'Well that's convenient' and looked for where it was being held, the crazy thought of entering the tournament going through her head.

"Hey, Perenna? You alright?"

Perenna looked away from the poster and down at the 13 year old. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Serenity looked at her dubiously. "If you're sure…"

Perenna gently moved the younger girl along to the table MJ was seated at. "Really, I'm fine."

'I can't believe I'm gonna do this.' Perenna thought shouldering her pack and headed back downstairs.

She had come home not barely two hours ago and hauled herself up in her room to put together a costume to fight in, stopping several times because of how stupid the idea of her wrestling sounded before she blocked the doubtful thoughts out with the fact if she could win enough money to pay for the hospital bill. She'd seen prizes for second and third prize, and she only had to push herself enough to win either of those.

"I'm going to the Downtown library." She announced.

"Wait a minute." Aunt May called just as Perenna was about to head out the door. "We still have to have a talk." She added sternly.

"Can we have it in the car? Or tomorrow perhaps?" Perenna tried.

"Nice try, we'll have it in the car." Aunt May replied and picked up her keys. "Well, go on then."

"You know I was kidding, right? You don't have to drive me-" Perenna tried to protest.

"I do and will take you to the library." Aunt May said. Perenna gave up trying to change her aunt's mind and got into the car. "Now, I know how hard it is to be a teenage girl, you go through things boys don't even feel comfortable talking about, I know I did." She started off. "Was there really no other option than to…break this boy's arm? Like tell a teacher, or you're principal maybe?"

"It was an accident; I thought I already said that?" Perenna retorted and saw her Aunt give her a look. "Sorry, it's just that…he really did deserve to get a taste of his own medicine." She said darkly.

"You know what they saw about revenge, Perenna." Aunt May warned her.

"I know." Perenna replied and the drive down town was ridden in silence.

When Aunt May stopped her niece from getting out, she said, "You know you can always talk with me if you have something on your mind, right?"

'I've gained spider powers and I'm here to fight in a wrestling tournament.' Perenna thought, but instead just repeated her, "I know" and got out of the car.

"I'll be back at 10 pm, okay?" Aunt May asked.

"Alright." Perenna replied and watched the car drive away before going across the street and into the underground building to enter a wide expanse frilled with female wrestlers wearing flashy costumes. She found a room on the side to change in filled with other costumes on racks. She pulled out the black shirt with the spider logo she'd stitched onto the front and suddenly felt stupid again.

"You're not really gonna fight in that, are ya?" A female southern accent questioned.

On default, Perenna blushed even before she turned around to look at a woman wearing a pink and white leotard designed in a western style, a white 10 gallon hat, long frilled white leather gloves, long pink cowboy boots, a pink domino mask, and had a rope at her hip.

Perenna looked down at the black piece of clothing she was going to change into. "What's wrong with this?"

The woman shook her head. "Nah, you can't go out there wearing that. People will wonder if the sponsors are cheating by lettin' a man in." she said derisively. "What you need is something a lot bright and less bland."

"And where am I going to get a new costume so quickly?" Perenna questioned sarcastically.

The woman spread out her arms. "Look around, honey; there everywhere. Why do think there are so many costumes here?"

Perenna looked at the racks of bright and flashy outfits and had to wonder. "Why are you helping me? Are you one of the competitors?" she asked suspiciously.

The woman smirked at her. "I'm just that nice of a person, honey." She said and turned to the costume line beside her. "Now what's your name?"

"Pe-"

The woman held up her hand. "Not interested in you real name, I meant your stage name. Mine's Cowgirl."

"I can see that." Perenna retorted and figured she should pick a name that themed of what she was going to represent. "I'm Spider-Girl."

"Not woman?" Cowgirl asked in amusement and Perenna shook her head. "Alright then." She added and turned her attention back to the costumes, tossing them aside until she pulled out a red and blue spandex costume with a black spider on the center of the chest, and red and blue patterns being separated on it by the black web lines coming from the spider symbol and the same black web lines going down the sleeves, one being red and the other blue. "Here, go try this on."

Perenna warily took the costume and went over to the changing booth in the corner. Hastily changing out of her street clothes, she put the outfit on, and admired herself in the mirror. She did have to admit she looked good. The shoulders were bare, and the 'boots' were detailed to look like she was wearing ballet slippers as well.

She looked at the gloves for a moment, thinking something was wrong with them, before tearing the finger parts off at the middle, and then put the gloves on, letting the fingers show in case she needed to use her webbing. She put the red mask lined with the same black web lines as the sleeves, chest and neck, being little more than a wide strip of fabric that went around her head and covered her eyes.

She was surprised to find she could see through the white eye lenses just fine and she gathered up her clothes and put them into her pack. She walked out the booth to find that Cowgirl was still in the room. "Uh, this doesn't make me look stupid, does it?" she asked bashfully.

The woman whistled. "Not at all." She replied walking over. "Though there's something wrong…wait, I know what it is." She said and pulled Perenna's ponytail out of its rubber band and the brown locks of hair hit her bare shoulders. "There, much better."

Perenna flattened her hair down and put her pack over her shoulder. "Thanks." She said before going to register and afterwards she stood out in the backstage but still out of view as she watched the other matches commence.

She noticed that most of the wrestlers were part of a group called the 'Grapplers' and when it was finally her turn the opponent she was facing was also a Grappler called 'Screaming Mimi.' As she walked down the runway to the ring, she made note that despite the strange pink hair dye job her opponent had, not to underestimate her.

Both wrestlers stood off to each side and waited for the bell to ding. And when it did, Mimi let out a sonic scream that made Spider-Girl clutch her ears. When she was disoriented, the pink-haired woman tackled her to the floor and pinned her down.

"You should have stayed home and left this to the big girls." Mimi smirked.

Spider-Girl scowled and head-butted the woman, causing her to flinch back and she was able to knock the woman off her. "Now who should have stayed home?" she snarked.

Screaming Mimi opened her mouth again to let loose another sonic scream, but Spider-Girl held out her hand and webbing shot from her fingertips to shut Mimi's mouth. She followed up with a roundhouse kick that sent the woman colliding into the ring side and Spider-Girl pinned the woman to the arena floor as the bell rung again and she was declared the winner.

As Spider-Girl got off the woman she felt like it had been a little too easy to win, the ringing from the sonic screams still sounding in her head notwithstanding.

Spider-Girl watched the other matches, and periodically she had one of her own matches, those she'd won, but during the last one, her webbing had been used against her. That action had made her think that the other wrestlers were starting to take her more seriously and stop underestimating her.

She had mixed reactions to this. One the one hand, she was being taken more seriously than just being seen as some amateur who had been allowed to enter as a joke; on the other hand, this also meant that any upcoming matches she had would also be taken seriously and her opponent wouldn't be unwilling to hurt her to keep her down.

She watched as the combatants were whittled down to only a few, just enough to advance to the final rounds, with her being one of them, the one to knock out the opponent in this current match would have made it an even three, with the winner of the match facing her.

Spider-Girl winced as the woman with the axes brought down the handle of one axe onto her opponent's head and they dropped to the ground, unconscious, but alive. She grimaced and felt the first waves of nerves come up, especially as she walked down the runway.

Once the bell dinged, the other woman by the name of Battleaxe tried to, well, axe her and Spider-Girl dodged before webbing the woman's feet to the ground and the woman fell flat on her face. She tried to disarm the woman, but the woman grabbed her foot and tripped her up, before cutting the webbing off and climbed into onto the ring corner and tried to body slammed the girl, but she lifted up her legs and sent Battleaxe over her and into the other side of the ring.

"You little bitch!" Battleaxe snarled and threw one of her axes at the girl.

Spider-Girl moved and the axe was embedded into the arena floor, then she kicked the older woman in the jaw before smashing the woman into the floor, out cold. Her shoulders heaved as she breathed heavily and the announcer announced that she was going onto the final round to fight Titania. She made her way over to the ring side to have a quick rest as the medical personal lifted Battleaxe out of the ring on a stretcher and retrieved her axes as well.

There was a brief moment of the ropes of the ringside before Spider-Girl looked up to see that a tall woman had entered the ring. She felt nerves set in again and felt the need to run away as the woman looked at her in contempt, but when hadn't she gotten that look?

"You should quit while your ahead and take the second place money. There's no shame in that." The woman said after a moment. "You've proven that you're good, now go home."

Spider-Girl shook her head. "I can't, second place doesn't have enough of the money I need."

Titania actually looked at her in pity for a second before her face hardened. "Then so be it." She said as the bell rung and immediately tried to tackle the smaller girl, only for Spider-Girl to deftly move out of the way and tried to web the woman, though Titania turned around and grabbed the web, throwing the girl into the arena floor.

Hard.

Spider-Girl felt her body aching and felt herself get picked up roughly and only to get tossed into the floor again. She rolled over onto her back to see Titania try and body slam her, so her continued to roll and got back to her feet. The older woman though tripped her up again and pinned her down.

She tried to get up, but because of her aches and smaller stature, she couldn't move the woman off her and helplessly resigned to the fact the referee counting down to 10.

"Winner! Titaniaaa!"

Spider-Girl let her head hit the floor as the woman got off of her and held her arms up in triumph.

Perenna was still wearing her costume when she went to collect her money, bitterly taking the 500 dollars and heading out of the office, passing a bleach blond man on the way out. She headed to the room where she'd left her pack in and it just happened to be where the exit was.

She heard the door opening to the office she'd come out of and saw the blond man and ran out carrying a sack and another man came running out that had given her the money. "Stop that man!"

Perenna ignored the man and walked into the costume room, thinking that it wasn't her problem. Also because she was bitter and feeling snubbed. She grabbed her pack and took out her clothing, and was about to go over to the changing room when she saw Cowgirl in the room again and applying makeup over a developing bruise on her cheek.

"Where do I put this after I change out of it?" she asked and the woman looked over at her briefly.

"No one's gonna notice it's gone, just take it." Cowgirl said.

Perenna stared at the woman for a second. "Ya sure? I don't want any trouble…"

"No trouble, I know the sponsor and she doesn't care if a few of the wrestlers take the costumes." Cowgirl replied. "It just means that there'll be more people interested in wrestling, that's all."

Perenna stared down at the costume and nodded. "Uh, sure then." She replied and put her street clothes on over it, deciding to change out of her costume at home. "Uh, thanks for your help."

"No problem." Cowgirl replied offhandedly. "Though don't feel bad about losing to Titania, it's probably better that you didn't win; wouldn't want to see your guts being cleaned off the ring floor if you did beat her."

Perenna looked over at the woman and thought better of retorting in her usual quips as Cowgirl had been rather helpful. "Good to know." She said and filed it away for future reference. She left the room and took off her mask, opting to keep her hair down and put the mask in her pants pocket.

She walked out of the building and headed over to the place she was supposed to meet her aunt. She headed down the street to where the library was and saw an ambulance pass by her, a knot starting to form in her stomach as she saw it turn the corner. She started sprinting down the street and when she ran around the corner, she saw a group of people standing in a circle and her heart clenched.

She pushed her way through the group of people and her breath hitched as soon as she saw who-two who's-was on the ground. "No, no, no, no. Aunt May, Uncle Ben." She exclaimed and dropped to the ground and she felt her eyes beginning to blur. "What happened?" she questioned and was about to try and see if they were still alive when the policeman near her pulled her away, even though she tried to fight out of his grip.

"Carjacker, they were shot." The man said.

"Sir, we got a lock on the carjacker. Heading North." Another police officer said.

Perenna pulled away from the officer as she quickly wiped at her eyes and taking one last look at her guardian's bodies, she took off toward an alley. She shed her clothing to reveal the blue and red costume underneath and pulled on her mask, jumping onto the wall and climbing over it, shooting her webbing and headed in the northern direction.

She was a little wobbly when trying to swing from building to people, but after a few tries she managed to keep her 'balance' so to speak. She found the police chasing her uncle's Oldsmobile so she thought that her aunt and uncle had taken her uncle's car. She followed the Oldsmobile even as the police lost it for a bit and after the car drove into an abandoned warehouse.

The man got out of the car and ran into the warehouse, Spider-Girl swinging in silently on the upper level. She crept around to find him and used her spider sense to avoid the shots he took at her shadow. She moved around him and got the drop on him when she knocked the gun out of his hand.

He whirled around and Spider-Girl punched the man in the face, knocking him back against the window, causing it to rattle. Spider-Girl heard the sirens outside and grabbed a hold of him, lifting him off the ground. She would have questioned this, but her in her rage she could care less and started punching him in the face. "You killed them!" she snarled and shoved him through the window, though kept the grip she had on his shirt.

"Please, please! Don't kill me, just give me a chance!" The man pleaded and in the light of the spotlight that passed over them, the face she saw almost made her drop the guy.

"It's you." Spider-Girl whispered to herself as she looked at the man's features and hair fitting the man she'd let run out of the wrestling arena because she'd been a selfish, vindictive, bitch. Her guardians, her second parents, were most likely dead because she'd been bitter about placing second in a wrestling tournament she'd lied to her aunt about.

This was all her fault.

Spider-Girl's grip tightened on the man's shirt. "You're going to get what you deserve." She said darkly before webbing him up and letting him hang in a cocoon on the side of the wall. "But it won't be from me." She said turning away from the window and deftly leaving the warehouse as the police arrived.

Spider-Girl sat on the roof of a nearby building and pulled her knees on up to her chest and cried. 'This is all my fault.'