Spider-Woman made her way towards the fire and as she got closer she could see that it was a very large fire. It was consuming the very small building quickly and although there were fire fighters outside they were struggling to keep it under control. One thing that they feared was the fact that there was someone inside who couldn't get out. She knew instinctively that there was someone inside.
Without wasting any time Spider-Woman leapt through an opening in the building which was quite high up. The entire room that she was in was filled with smoke but she lay down on the ground and began to crawl. There was a pocket of clean air on the ground which allowed her to breathe properly. Her abilities did allow her to hold her breath longer than the average person but she still needed oxygen just like everyone else. The smoke could damage her lungs in ways that she couldn't imagine.
Spider-Woman continued to crawl along on the ground and she was using her spider sense to try and find the missing person. It was warning her of the fire but it was also beginning to pinpoint where the person was. All she did was follow her spider sense until it led her to her target.
Eventually she made her way into a particular room and she saw a young woman who was laying on the ground unconscious. The smoke had knocked her out and it seemed that she couldn't help herself. This was where Spider-Woman had to help her instead, without wasting any time she picked up the young woman and held her breath. Quickly she ran towards a nearby and leapt out.
Not too far away was another building and Spider-Woman was able to attach herself to the building so that she didn't fall to the ground. The woman was still unconscious as Spider-Woman made her way down to the ground safely. She could see that the building was still burning and some of it was even beginning to crumble away. If the woman had still been inside there was no chance of her surviving.
After a few moments Spider-Woman did touch down on the ground with the woman still in two of her arms. She had used the other four to keep herself attached to the side of the building. It seemed like she had found another advantage to having her numerous arms but she still thought that they needed to go.
More or less as soon as she touched down onto the ground she saw two paramedics rushing towards her. They were somewhat off-put by her appearance but their will to help the unconscious woman outweighed her fear of Spider-Woman. There was some soot on the woman's skin and they feared that there was much internal damage.
"Hey there guys," said Spider-Woman. "I was just looking around in that there burning building and I found this person just lying there. So I took it upon myself to bring her out just in case."
"Hand her over Spider-Woman," replied one of the paramedics. His voice didn't sound demanding but instead seemed to be a request more than anything else. Spider-Woman did place the woman on the ground and soon the two paramedics began to examine her. "This woman is in a serious condition, we need to get her to the hospital ASAP."
The two paramedics had brought with them a trolley so they quickly placed the woman on the trolley and took her back to the ambulance. Spider-Woman was just left standing there as everything had happened really quickly. She was glad to see that the woman was safe but she would have liked a thank you from the paramedics.
Before Spider-Woman could move away she felt pain shoot all the way through her body and it took her by surprise. She held onto her sides as the pain continued and it almost brought her to tears. She hadn't felt pain like this before and almost as soon as it had begun it subsided. She began to breathe deeply as she recovered from the experience. It was almost more than she could bear.
The attack had caused to go dizzy for a moment and if this wasn't a warning sign she didn't know what was. She knew that she had to return to Doctor Van Dyne as soon as she could, she felt that she could transform into a human spider at any moment. This terrified her and she didn't want to hurt anyone.
One thing that she did consider was if she would retain her full intelligence if she did transform or would the spider part of her DNA take over. If that did happen she felt that no one would be safe from her. She did turn and climb up a nearby building in order to carry on with her journey.
Within seconds Spider-Woman was on top of the building and she continued on her way to the lab. She felt that every second that passed was another moment wasted before her upcoming transformation.
Suddenly Spider-Woman's spider sense began to tingle and just in the nick of time she was able to leap out of the way of a rocket that was flying right towards her. It seemed to come out of nowhere and it caught her completely by surprise. If not for her spider sense she would not have survived the attack.
Spider-Woman looked in front of her and she could see what seemed to be a man in a green and purple costume which completely covered his body. No part of his skin could be seen and he looked fairly impressive from a normal person's point of view. However to Spider-Gwen she had seen more intimidating foes. She could see that he was holding a weapon that she could only call a bazooka and he also seemed to be well armed. His sudden appearance did somewhat annoy her since it meant that she was wasting more time and she thought that he wouldn't allow her to leave so easily.
"What are you supposed to be?" asked Spider-Woman as this was someone that she had never seen before. "Let me guess are you supposed to be respecting a leprechaun or you just have terrible fashion sense."
"I am the Prowler," replied the Man. His voice was unnaturally deep and it was obvious that he was disguising his voice. "Your reign of terror has lasted too long Spider-Woman. I am here to ensure that no more innocent blood is spilled thanks to you."
"Hey buddy you've got the wrong idea." She held up all of her hands and waved them in an attempt to show that she was innocent. "I know there's a lot of people in the media, especially someone with three initials beginning with the letter J but I'm not the bad guy here. If you think I killed Peter Parker believe me I didn't. Now do you mind just letting me pass because as you can see I'm having a crisis here that's only getting worse if I just stand around."
"Your lies have sealed your fate. No longer will regular people have to fear about your murderous rampage." He pointed the bazooka at her again and was preparing to fire. "May you find peace in the afterlife."
He went to fire the bazooka but Spider-Woman could see that nothing that she said could convince him of her innocence. She decided that she needed to act in order to save herself, she didn't dislike the Prowler for wanting her dead. With how the media was portraying her she too would probably think that she was guilty.
Spider-Woman leapt forwards and landed right in front of the Prowler. Quickly using her two clothed arms she grabbed the bazooka off of him and with her other four arms she began to disarm him of any other weapons that he had. It seemed like she had found another advantage to her additional arms as it took only a couple of seconds for her to take away all of his weapons.
"Ok now that I seem to have all of your firepower I want you to listen to me," said Spider-Woman. "I know that you're misguided but that doesn't give you the excuse to try and blow me up like that. Believe me nothing would make me happier than smacking some sense into you but I just don't have the time. As you can see I'm going through something right now and I don't have time to deal with someone like you."
Before Spider-Woman could finish off what she was saying she felt a sharp pain in her face as the Prowler punched her. She had expected it to be the punch of a normal man but instead it felt superhuman. The suddenness of the punch caused her to drop all the weapons and leap back a few feet. It was obvious that the Prowler was done with her and she knew that she was wasting precious time.
Now more than ever Spider-Woman wished that she had her webbing just so that she could web up Prowler and then go on her way. Unfortunately this wasn't an option for her as she saw that she was going to fight.
"You're not getting away from me that easily menace," said the Prowler as he picked up a rifle that was on the ground. "You've destroyed too many lives already and I'm going to ensure that you won't destroy any more."
"Talk about misguided," replied Spider-Woman. "I admit that you caught me by surprise then but now I suggest that you just step aside. I really don't want to fight you, I just want to go and try to fix myself."
"That's funny because I want to fight you."
With that the Prowler began to fire at Spider-Woman who leapt out of the way in the nick of time. She hid behind some air conditioning units which acted a shield. The Prowler slowly began to walk towards the units and expected to see Spider-Woman there. However when he reached units he could see that she was gone.
When he turned he was met by the strong fist of Spider-Woman. Before he could properly recover from the blow he felt an inhuman about of punches that landed all over his body. Spider-Woman was attacking him with all six of his arms and this allowed her to land more blows than what was normal, even for a boxer. He couldn't defend himself from such an attack and eventually fell to the ground.
For a moment Spider-Woman thought that she had killed him but much to her relief she could see that he was still breathing. The attack had just left him unconscious and he didn't seem to be a threat anymore. Normally she would web him up in order to ensure that she had time to make a decent escape. However this wasn't possible so she just ran as quickly as she could and she just hoped that she would enough time to get back to the lab before her mutation accelerated.
Spider-Woman attached herself to a nearby wall but once again her spider sense began to tingle. She turned and saw another rocket flying towards her, she was able to leap out of the way but she couldn't get far enough away to escape from the explosion. She felt herself get blasted away and she fell to the ground hard. She hadn't been close enough to the blast to kill her but instead it just injured her. It also caused some of her costume to rip away, her mask was still intact but she was definitely hurt from the blast. It took all of her willpower just to stay conscious.
No sooner had she begun to recover she heard the thud of a person who had landed practically right next to her. She turned and saw the Prowler who was still armed, it seemed like he hadn't been as unconscious as she had thought. But despite this she knew that she was in serious trouble.
"You are as foolish as you are a murderess," said the Prowler as he pointed his rifle towards her head. "Do you have any last words before I rid the world of your stain?" At no point did he feel like he was in any danger. In his mind he had won and that nothing could possibly get in his way.
"Yeah I have a few last words. Which I'll mutter in around seventy years' time." She could see that he was too close to her and quickly she kicked his legs away causing him to fall to the ground. As soon as he fell onto the ground she climbed on top of him and instinctively went to web him up. She even used her new arms and much to her surprise webbing did come out of the arms. She began to web up his hands and feet which unfortunately for him made him stuck to the ground. When she was done she stood back up and looked at her hands, the fact that she had just produced webbing naturally was terrifying for her. It was another reminder that she was still mutating. "Just leave me alone alright, I didn't do anything wrong and after this I hope that you realise that."
"I will never stop hunting you until you face justice!" He was enraged but more about the fact that he had failed rather than anything else.
"Then you'll be hunting me for a very long time because I haven't done anything wrong." She looked at him for a moment before she turned away. "That webbing should dissolve in about an hour, I should be long gone by then and for both our sakes I hope that our paths don't cross again."
She then began to climb up one of the nearby buildings in order to make her escape. The Prowler was stuck and no matter how much he struggled he simply couldn't escape. The suit that he was wearing did give him some superhuman strength but the webbing that was keeping him pinned down was very strong. It was stronger than normal webbing and because of this he was stuck.
When Spider-Woman reached the top of the building she extended one of her arms and with some amazement she fired out a web lining. She looked at it for a few moments before she began to swing on it. However her thoughts seemed to be drifting from returning to the lab to just finding a dark place. She didn't know why she was thinking this but it seemed like it was just something that she was forcing herself to do. She changed her direction and headed towards an alleyway.
It only took her a few seconds to arrive there and she began to climb up one of the nearby walls. When she was around half way up she began webbing herself, it seemed that she was in automatic pilot. To her she had no control over her bodily functions and she felt that she was doing something that she needed to do.
Within a minute who body was completely covered by webbing and it seemed to form around her like a cocoon. It was then that the young woman known as Gwen Stacy ceased to exist. Whatever was going to come out of the cocoon wasn't going to be human or a spider. Instead it would be something much worse.
Meanwhile in her lab Doctor Van Dyne was still working on the cure to Spider-Woman's condition. She had made a surprising amount of progress and this was thanks to her own genius level I.Q. It was safe to say that she was one of the most intelligent people on the planet.
One thing that she had discovered was that the cure that she was synthesizing would not only cure Spider-Woman but permanently remove her powers as well. This was something that Doctor Van Dyne didn't want to happen since she knew the good that Spider-Woman would be able to do with her powers. However she was also concerned with the fact that Spider-Woman hadn't returned yet.
She knew full well how powerful the Shocker was as she felted that the webbed heroine should have returned to the lab by now. She feared that she had actually mutated and thus had completely lost herself to her spider size. It became almost clear that she would have to venture out into the city and find the beast before it had a chance to harm anyone. However she felt that it was more important to perfect the cure before venturing out, without it Spider-Woman would forever be a monster.
Doctor Van Dyne couldn't help but feel worried about everything that was happening and she was tempted to ask one of her fellow teammates for help. However she decided against it since they would not be happy with her for interacting with a wanted criminal. If she had to find Spider-Woman she would have to do it by herself.
Elsewhere the Prowler was able to break free of the webbing earlier than he had expected. He slowly got back up to his feet and he was annoyed over the fact that he had a good chance to kill Spider-Woman and he hadn't taken it. He wanted to rectify this mistake as soon as he could as he went on the search for Spider-Woman.
Rather than just relying on luck to find her he used a device that allowed him to track her, it was a small handheld device which had helped him find her in the first place. It was tracking down the small amount of radiation from her body. It was from the spider bite that gave her the abilities that she was well known for. It wasn't high enough to cause anyone harm but it was enough for him to track her.
As the Prowler follow the signal and he could see that Spider-Woman hadn't gone far. In that respect he thought that he was lucky and he didn't waste any time in following the signal. Eventually he saw the cocoon on the wall and this was something that he didn't expect. He knew that Spider-Woman was inside and he pointed his bazooka towards it and he was preparing to fire.
This time the Prowler wanted to make sure that Spider-Woman wouldn't get away. He was about to pull the trigger when he heard a cracking noise, he could see that the cocoon was cracking and rather than firing his curiosity got the better of him. It continued to crack and within seconds it completely burst open.
Much to the Prowler's horror he could see that it was Spider-Woman but she had completely mutated into a spider hybrid. All of her body was covered with long brown hairs and her head had expanded much like a spider's. She had six eyes and what seemed to be claws on her hands and feet. Her costume was in tatters but it still remained on her body just about.
"What the hell is that?" asked the Prowler with much surprise in his voice. He raised his bazooka to fire but the now monstrous Spider-Woman knocked it out of his hand and darted towards him.
Spider-Woman was much faster than she had been before but the side of her that made her human was gone. Instead her mind was completely like that of a spider and all that was on her mind was hunting for food. The Prowler to her was like a fly who had gotten stuck in her web.
It was taking off of his training just to keep away from Spider-Woman but he was finding it more difficult than he had anticipated. Before his main focus was on ridding the world of Spider-Woman but right now his only concern was actually surviving the battle. His whole plan had completely turned upside down within seconds and he couldn't help but feel some amount of fear.
The growl that Spider-Woman made was like nothing that he had ever heard before. It sounded like something that would come out of a nightmare and a nightmare was exactly what this situation was to both of them. If Spider-Woman was still sound of mind she would be disgusted by what she was doing but she couldn't help herself. She was completely helpless to stop herself.
The Prowler did have one weapons that he could use to help himself. Out of his pocket he took out a small device and held it right in front of the monstrous Spider-Woman. Before she could knock it away the device emitted a blinding light that stunned her for the moment. She couldn't see and she began to roar in annoyance as she tried to regain her vision. For the Prowler this was the opportunity that he had been waiting for but rather than trying to kill her he decided to retreat out of sheer panic.
The Prowler didn't even bother to pick up his weapons and instead just ran. It was only now that he realised that he was over his head and how much he had been a fool. Spider-Woman had told him to leave her alone and it was only now that he realised that he should have heeded her warning.
Within seconds the Prowler had distanced himself enough from Spider-Woman to make him believe that he had gotten away from her. He gave a huge sigh of relief but now he knew that the situation had become a whole lot more dangerous. Spider-Woman had now become a monster and was more dangerous than ever. Whatever happened to her he wanted no part of it as he treated to safety.
Spider-Woman did eventually recover from her temporary blindness and she couldn't see where the Prowler had gone. Her vision had completely changed thanks to her additional eyes and rather than pursuing the Prowler she decided to let him go. Instead she climbed up the building and began to look for a decent place to build her own lair. She was also tired from her transformation and she wished to rest before she did what came naturally, finding prey and then feeding upon them.
At one point Spider-Woman did see herself in a reflection but she didn't recognise what had happened to her. Instead she just ignored it and carried on, she eventually found an old building that had been condemned. She began to cover the various rooms with webbing and she also created several tripwires that would alert her to any intruders or possible prey. Her webbing was stronger than before and when she was done the inside of the building looked like something out of a nightmare.
In the largest room at the centre of the building was a huge web which was connected to all the other webbing in the building. This was where Spider-Woman was located and she rested herself on the web. To her this was the ideal place to be so that she could detect anyone approaching. She did lie down on the web and began drift off to sleep for the first time in almost two days.
Hours passed and in her lab Doctor Van Dyne had finally finished the cure. She had been able to develop a cure that would reverse Spider-Woman's mutation but also allow her to keep her powers. This was a welcome relief for her but she figured that by now Spider-Woman had fully mutated. She knew that it was up to her to find the fallen superheroine and bring her the cure that she needed.
Doctor Van Dyne shrank herself and insect like wings grew out from her back. At this state she was known as the superheroine Wasp flew out of her lab and began to long search for Spider-Woman. At her current size she wouldn't be detected easily by anyone but she knew that she had a very difficult task. She had to find a single person in one of the largest cities in the world. To say that her task was enormous seemed to be an understatement. She was going to have to rely on luck more than anything else to find Spider-Woman.
Once or twice Wasp did consider increasing her size and continuing her search as Giant-Woman but she didn't want to cause panic since she knew that people were normally a little antsy around her when she grew larger than her normal size. That was why she did it only when she felt that she really needed to.
While continuing her search Wasp did find something that was of some interest to her. She discovered webbing on the side of the building and in the alley below there was some clothing that had been ripped apart. Almost instantly she recognised the torn clothing as part of Spider-Woman's costume. This was definitely the first part of what seemed to be a decisive clue but it also filled her with dread. A part of her had hoped that Spider-Woman hadn't mutated but now she could see that this wasn't the case. Her hopes had been dashed in almost an instant but it didn't change her mission. She still needed to find Spider-Woman as quickly as possible.
One thing that Wasp knew was that Spider-Woman likely hadn't gotten far so she began to search the immediate area. She could fly surprisingly fast for someone of her size but the search was taking longer than she would have liked. She hated that she hadn't found Spider-Woman yet due to the severity of the situation.
"Come on if I were a giant spider where would I hide?" asked Wasp to herself out loud. Her search so far had not been successful and she thought that the longer that she took the less likely the cure would help Spider-Woman.
Wasp was mainly looking down and not really watching where she was going. She eventually found herself stuck in something sticky and the impact did catch her by surprise. She tried to break herself free without increasing her size but discovered that the material was stronger than she had expected.
It was only when Wasp looked at the material that she was stuck in did she realise that it was in fact webbing. She didn't know whether to be glad of this or absolutely terrified of it. It meant that she was one gigantic step closer to finding Spider-Woman but she also knew what would likely happen now. She knew enough about spiders to know how their webbing worked.
All of Wasp's movements were being picked up by Spider-Woman by the thin lines of webbing. It had been enough to wake her out of her slumber but now she was more hungry than she was tired. Slowly she brought herself around and began to climb along her webbing with eerie precision. All she could think about was the meal that was coming and it seemed like nothing would stop her.
She could feel her prey struggling in the webbing and this only seemed to add to her hunger. The side that made Gwen Stacy human was completely gone, only that of a beast remained and she was acting upon nature rather than out of spite. Eventually she could see the tiny woman in the webbing and although she was disappointed that it wasn't anything larger it was still enough for her to be a snack.
Wasp turned her head and saw Spider-Woman approaching her along the web and she couldn't help but feel some amount of terror. Spider-Woman was more monstrous than she could have imagined and she truly looked like something that had come out of a horror film. She watched as Spider-Woman crawled closer and closer to her. She could hear the monstrous growling coming from the beast and the saliva that was dripping from her mouth. Wasp continued to struggle but she still couldn't break herself free.
"Spider-Woman if you can hear me stop this madness right now," said Wasp in the hope that she would somehow get through to Gwen Stacy. Unfortunately her pleas seemed to be falling on deaf ears as Spider-Woman continued to move in closer. "I didn't want to do this but you've left me no choice."
Wasp began to concentrate and her body began to grow rapidly. In an instant she broke free of the webbing and the webbing began to tear. Spider-Woman began to fall but safely touch down on the ground. She looked up and much to the creature's surprise she saw that Doctor Van Dyne was no longer the Wasp and instead had transformed herself into Giant-Woman. The colossal superheroine easily stood sixty feet in height. Now it seemed that the tables had turned on the now seemingly tiny Spider-Woman.