Chapter 4: How could this happen?

"Try to touch him again, Prowler," Spider-Woman growled shoving Gwen hard into the wall.

Gwen looked Spider-Woman up and down in confusion. Before the realization of what had happened sank in. She was the Prowler. Gwen Stacy was the Prowler. She was a criminal. She was a villain. She attacked Rio Morales… oh God, she hurt Rio.

"I know I can be intimidating, but I never seen a villain have a panic attack at me," Spider Woman quipped, placing a hand on her cocked hip.

'I cannot be this annoyingly full of myself…' Gwen noted to herself, as she felt an unfamiliar anger start to bubble inside her. "GET AWAY FROM ME!" She screamed, flexing her hands into claws and took a swing at Spider-Woman.

She roared like an animal as she kept swinging at Spider-Woman, 'what are you doing, Gwen?' she asked herself as she felt like she was running on auto pilot.

She manage to get Spider-Woman against the wall, but was kicked away from her. In pure rage, she turned and started to pounce at the new attacker, but when she saw Spider-Man, when she saw Miles, facing her down, she froze.

"Miles…" her body again moved on instinct and reached for a compartment on her belt, pulled a smoke pellet and threw it at her feet. While the two Spiders were blinded she bailed.

"You're not getting away!" Spider-Man called after her, but Spider-Woman grabbed his hand.

"Miles, your mom!" Spider-Man stopped and glanced back to her. They shared a nod, and took to the air, swinging back toward his apartment.

Gwen hid on a rooftop not far from Miles' apartment and removed her helmet, breathing heavily. She looked over the edge and saw Miles out of his costume with his dad, she was relieved that Rio was not covered in a sheet when she was being loaded into the ambulance. "Don't die… please don't die…" She whispered a prayer as the ambulance pulled away with lights on.

"How did this happen? Why did this happen? I don't understand…" Gwen spoke to herself as she stared at the still blood-stained claws. "We were supposed to be together… we were supposed to be happy…"

'You can't keep taking shortcuts, Gwen,' for some reason, she thought of a time years earlier when Peter had caught her cheating on a particularly difficult test. 'It's more rewarding and worthwhile if you put your all into it. I know you can do it. I believe in you.'

"Little late there, Pete…" She grumbled to herself as she sat back against the wall.

She knew she couldn't sit there forever, but she had no idea where to go or what to do. She looked over her gear and noticed a GPS tracker. 'could be something…' she said as she replaced her helmet and followed it to a motorcycle. It was a slick high-speed type with the same purple black and green color scheme as her armor. She mounted the bike and saw that it had its own GPS system installed. She pulled up the menu and found a button for 'HOME' and clicked it. "It's a start…" She said to herself as she kick started the bike and let the directions guide her to what she assumed was 'her home'.

The sound of machines and monitors filled the ICU hospital room. Miles sat at the bedside, clinging to his mother's hand, willing her to recover.

"Why is this happening?" Miles asked, rubbing the back of his mother's hand with his thumb.

He glanced back for a moment before turning back to his mother. "If you say Canon Event, so help me…"

"I won't, Miles…" Spider-Woman said walking up behind him. "I'm here for you, like I always promised." She said wrapping her arms around his shoulders.

"We have to find Prowler…" Miles said, not taking his eyes off his mother.

"And we will," she replied, "I've already made the call, Peter's bringing in the gang tomorrow to start the search." She removed her mask and kissed his cheek. "You need to go home and rest. It's what your mother would want, Miles."

"I know… it's just… I'm worried…" Miles shook his head.

"There's nothing more you can do here… come home and we can recharge, and we'll start the hunt tomorrow, ok?" Spider-Woman ran her gloved fingers through his hair. "You'll beat her, just like you beat the Spot and everyone else we faced."

"Right, just like I beat the Spot… I beat the … how did I …" He was confused a moment but Spider-Woman stilled her hand on his scalp.

"You beat him, that's all that matters…" She whispered in his ear.

"I beat him… that's all that matters…" Miles repeated almost numbly, "Yeah… you're right… I need to be rested to find her…" he said getting up.

"Wait, I'm coming with you," Spider-Woman said, following behind, "Your dad's at the station, and you shouldn't be alone."

Gwen drove the bike along the GPS trail to what appeared to be an old warehouse. The gate detected the bike, and opened and revealed a small tunnel. She whistled to herself as she saw the set up that was under the streets. She parked the bike and dismounted and looked around. It was open air for the most part.

A small armory and weapons storage was by the parking spot for the bike, a computer network with several monitors that showed what was going on throughout the city through hacked cameras, a small gym, and what could best be described as a studio apartment, a kitchenette, open shower, restroom, king size bed, and a living room with a large screen TV.

"Mine and Dad's place could fit inside this thing…" She said walking around, before turning to the armory, and began to remove the outfit. The blood on the gauntlets still made her visibly ill so she cleaned them quickly and replaced the suit and armor on the holding rack, leaving her only in her underwear, which was a lot skimpier then she ever dared before. But she had to admit it was a lot more comfortable than she expected.

Even though she was out of the armor she still felt that she had blood on her hands, so she made her way to the bathroom, turning on the TV as she went for background noise. She turned on the water as hot as it could go in the sink and began scrubbing her hands.

"Rio Morales, wife of NYPD Captain Jefferson Davis, was attacked and severely injured tonight by criminal assassin known as the Prowler," the news anchor informed causing Gwen to freeze. "While the motive of this attack remains unclear, Mrs. Morales remains in critical condition in an undisclosed hospital…"

"She's alive…" Gwen said to herself as she looked up into her reflection. "Thank God she's alive…"

She began washing her face. "What have you gotten yourself into…" She asked herself. She exited the bathroom and let herself fall onto the bed. "This wasn't what she agreed to in that so called contract. But then again it was… Miles was alive. He's alive! His dad's safe… his mom was still hanging in there… "no thanks to you…" She cursed herself. Or was it her fault. She was so confused. She hadn't felt this lost and confused since the day Peter died in her arms.

"I'm not a villain… I don't even know how to be a villain…" She sat up in bed, trying very hard not to cry as she looked around the strange 'lair'.

Maybe she could talk to Miles, maybe they could figure out a way to… fix this. "God, Gwen, haven't you fixed this enough?!" She asked herself. "And like Miles will actually talk to the villain who tried to kill his mom!" She kicked her bare feet to the floor and sat up, "And now you're talking to yourself like a crazy person. Pull it together, Gwen. There's got to be a way to … unfix this."

"I can go in normal clothes, no hero … uh, villain gear. That's it, and we can talk, and figure this out," She got to her feet and moved to the wardrobe and opened it. She took a step back as she saw clothing therein.

"What the hell?" Gwen breathed, "What. The hell?"

She parked her bike a few blocks away. Whoever the alternate Gwen Stacy that she had taken over, her taste in clothing was something else… cardigans, short skirts, thigh high socks, more Mary Jane style shoes than she'd ever want to see in her life, and she didn't even try with the weird black head band. No, she drew the line at the gawdy clothes. "God I hate this…" She said to herself as she climbed the fire escape to the rooftop. And she wasn't sure if it was the loss of the wallcrawling power or the schoolgirl look.

She had a plan, granted it went all over the place as she thought through on the way there what she could do to get Mile's attention and get him to understand… well, she doubted she could. She didn't even fully understand the situation herself beyond the fact it was the worst mess she's ever even heard of.

Once she reached the top of the roof she leaned against the railing and set down to catch her breath. If, no when she got her powers back, she definitely won't take the strength and stamina that came with them for granted ever, ever again.

"Ok, go to the edge of the rooftop with a clear view of his bedroom, wave like I need help, he'll suit up and come to 'save the day' because, that's who he is as a Spider-Man, and then I can spill my guts about all this crap. I don't care what the man in red said, this wasn't part of the deal!" she said as she moved to get a clear view and was prepared to wave. She froze in mid motion.

She saw herself standing in the open window looking out at the street, and she was wearing the basketball jersey she saw Miles wearing when they reunited a few days ago… and judging by her bare legs sticking out the bottom, there wasn't anything else under.

She wanted to look away. She had to look away. But she was frozen. Like a deer in headlights just waiting to be hit. Like someone watching a train about to crash. She couldn't will her body to look away.

"You do know how to take a man's mind off things, babe," she heard Miles' voice and watched as he, while wearing only a pair of boxers, walked up behind her other self and placed his arms around her.

To Gwen's horror her other self looked up at her, made direct eye contact, and smiled. "I dunno, Miles, maybe I need more practice?"

Other-Gwen smiled brightly right at her before turning toward him. Gwen felt bile rise up in her throat and her whole body went numb as she watched Miles tug the jersey off, showing that she was correct on what was under it.

Gwen was finally able to tear her eyes away, and fall down to a seated position her knees went to her chest and she held her head in her hands as she tried to ignore the muffled noises coming from Miles' bedroom.

"So, like what I've done with the place?"

Her tear-filled eyes looked up at the man in the red suit who was smiling at her.

"…Why?" Gwen whimpered.

"Isn't this what you wanted?" He asked with a sympathetic smile, "Spider-Man and Spider-Woman together and happy?" he listened for a moment and grinned, "And from the sounds of it they're very together and very, very happy."

"Please stop…" She choked out, trying not to sob.

"Too late for that, you put your name on that contract, my dear…" He shook his head. "I COULD cancel the contract… but well…" he glanced toward the window, then back to Gwen and made a cut motion across his throat. "You want to go back to laying flowers at a grave? I could make it happen…"

"Why … I don't… this wasn't what you said…" she shook her head in her hands.

The man in red squatted down to her level and when she looked up, the Man in Red changed himself into an exact duplicate of herself in a red Spider-Woman costume. "I didn't know… how to tell you…" her eyes widened in terror at the sight before her: her own face split into a grin and she heard herself laugh a dark evil laugh as she shifted back to the man in red.

"Enjoy your new world, Prowler," he turned and began to fade away, "I'm sure you'll learn to love it."

Gwen fell to her side and curled herself into the fetal position as she began to openly cry.

To Be Continued …

Next Chapter: Prowler is hunted by the Spider Gang, and gets an unexpected ally…