Issue #10: Origins - Part III

Part 3: With Great Power...

'Dumb! Dumb! Dumb!' Mayday repeated in her mind as she found herself trapped in a corner. Not literally, but it sure felt like it. Why, one may ask? Perhaps it is due to the faucet handle stuck to her hand when it's supposed to be attached to the restroom sink. What was supposed to be a quick trip to the restroom has now turned into a huge mess. At least, that's how Mayday perceived it. She panics, trying to shake the handle off, but it doesn't work. She tries yanking the handle off, but it doesn't work. She considers biting it off but quickly shoots it down, realizing how gross it is; think of the germs! 'Why isn't it working!?' Mayday despairs, staring at the fountain of water spraying from the broken sink.

Even for her age, many, including her family, presume Mayday Watson-Parker is the most level-headed of her sisters. She certainly puts in the most effort and always steps up when helping her sisters. However, when faced with a problem alone and adding newly discovered spider powers to it, Mayday experiences a new kind of anxiety she never thought possible. 'Chill, girl,' Mayday thought, taking a breath despite the restroom looking like a water park. 'You have superpowers, and you can control your powers. If you can't, you might as well hang up the mask. You. Can. Fix. This!'

A second later, the voices of several classmates echoed outside." Eww! P.E. always makes me feel gross!"

"Eeep!" Her instincts kicked in, and Mayday leaped to the ceiling and crawled out the window as she heard shrieks and water splashing.

Among them, she heard April's voice. "What the heck?!"

"Someone broke the sink! There's water everywhere!" one girl shouted.

Another angrily shouts, "Urgh! Those dumb boys and thier pranks!"

Half the class stood dumbfounded by this, and the other half ran to the P.E. teacher. Mayday heard April continue her questions. "Mayday, you here? What happened?"

'Let it go, April,' Mayday hoped.

"Maybe she went to the other restroom?"

'Crud!' Mayday quickly guesses where April is going, sneaks across the roof, crawls down, and scurries away without anyone noticing. Luckily, she made it in time, as April arrived shortly after. As April opens the door, Mayday uses paper towels to cover the handle still stuck to her hand and pretends she's dried her hands. "Hey, April. Class over already?"

"The locker room's restroom has water everywhere, and you weren't there." April crossed her arms, her eyes perplexed.

Mayday did her best acting natural. "Seriously? What happened?"

"Facet broke. Class's saying it's some boy prank."

"Hmph, that sounds like something they do. Man, the one day I didn't go to the lockers, I couldn't have caught them." Mayday tries to take thier conversation outside by walking out, but April steps in front of her, a glare in her eyes.

"Yeah, convenient," she said with deep suspicion.

Mayday knew the trash was behind her, so she subtly shifted the hand that hid the handle behind her back. She asked innocently, "What?"

"You know something I noticed when in there?"

"No?"

"The faucet handle was missing. I know those boys are dumb, but they're not dumb enough to take something that would get them caught."

Mayday slides her hand a bit further. The toss wasn't the hard part; the hard part was making it land quietly enough for April not to hear the landing. "What do you think happened to it?"

"I think... it's right here!" April suddenly reached behind Mayday and yanked the paper out of her hands. However, she quickly saw it was just that, paper with no sign of the handle.

Mayday opens the palm of her hands, showing she's empty-handed. Secretly behind her was the incriminating handle, hidden beneath piles of used paper towels. "Conjuring another excuse to get me into trouble?"

Now irritated, April throws the paper at Mayday's face. "It's not an excuse!"

Mayday gasped, genuinely shocked by the gesture. "April, what the heck?!"

"I know you did this. I don't know how, but ya did."

Mayday scoffed. "Why would I break a sink?"

"It doesn't matter. What does matter is how it's not fair that you get away with trouble, but I can't."

This wouldn't be the first time they argued over what is and isn't fair, but Mayday was not in the mood to do this. The stress and heat of the moment made her blurt out, "That's your problem, April, not mine. So stop throwing around dumb accusations!" If Mayday could slap her hand over her mouth, she would. However, she does not risk her hands touching anything during stressful situations.

Mayday quickly becomes quiet as April takes a sharp breath, her fists clenched in boiling anger. "D-dumb," she hissed. Her fist flew towards Mayday, but it collided with the door beside them, narrowly missing her head. A loud bang echoed as April kicked open the door, storming out. "Whatever! I trust my instincts, and it's saying you're hiding something. If you are, you're the one with a problem, not me!"

When April stormed off, Mayday sighed and stared at the palms of her hands. 'That was close. She almost found out, and for that, I made my twin mad at me...' A pit in her stomach formed an anxious, guilty feeling that struck her core and wouldn't go away. "Whatever," Mayday mumbled, "It's April. She'd pick on me regardless."

[That evening...]

Her clock showed it was already past 10 p.m., yet she couldn't call back to sleep. She needed to clear her head and feel like herself.

Wearing an old blue jacket and red P.E. pants to disguise herself, Mayday sneakily opens her window and wall crawls up to the roof. With backpack in hand, Mayday leaped from one roof to the other. While initially daunting, Mayday gradually adjusted to her enhanced agility to leap great bounds swiftly. One would think such an exhilarating activity so late would be utterly exhausting, yet Mayday felt wide awake. Every time she did try to go to sleep, it'd always end up the same-knocked out for two hours, and she'd wake up as if she had taken a whole night's rest. Since then, Mayday figured she would spend her nights doing something worthwhile.

She leaps up to a talker structure, an exuberant experience rushing over her as she feels the cool breeze brushing her face as she hurdled across the air. As always, rather than crash into the wall, she clung to it as if she fell onto a bundle of pillows. Wall-crawling to incredible heights with the city lights glistening afar far, a feeling unlike anything else. It was like some amazing fantasy to Mayday. Her excursion eventually led her to an empty construction site, one she'd discovered was a fine playground for her powers. She dons her makeshift mask, "Let's go!" she shouts, and walls crawl up the half-built building.

Mayday was initially safe about her powers for her first few visits, but it became as easy as pie after finding her footing, such as swinging around the many chains dangling across the site. She spins and swirls across the air naturally, and when she accidentally flings herself towards a concrete wall, her hands and feet absorb the impact by sticking to the surface. 'Ha! Like a kitty would, or in this case, like a spider would!' Chuckling at her joke, Mayday decided she had enough fun with this obstacle course that now was the time for the real thing. "Please work," she said, pulling a pair of web-shooters. She created them from supplies and chemical mixtures 'donated' by her science teacher's lab. Though crudely made, Mayday liked to think her best work came when she had to get creative.

She aimed at some steel beams and launched her first web!

Her glee faded when the web's thrust faltered, and the wind blew it away. "Whaaat? That range was nothing," she grumbled. With her one prototype cartridge used up, a disappointed May crawled up to the top floor—another sign from life that she was not ready yet for the real deal.

The idea had certainly tempted her, and kicking some bad guy in the face sounded super fun, but her rational side knew it was too dangerous. 'Not to mention, the second one of those doofuses gets a look at me, then the police will know,' Mayday reasoned. 'And if the police know, then the news will know. If the news finds out, your whole family will learn that Spider-Girl exists! If they do, Mayday, guess who their number one suspect will be. That's right, you girl!' Glancing at her glitchy web-shooter served as another reminder that it would be best to stay low. 'Urgh! This stinks! What's the point of having superpowers if I'm not allowed to use them whenever I want? Dad did, and everyone other hero. Why can't I?'

With nothing but rubble and scraps around her, Mayday throws dozens of small scraps across great distances. "Nice! A hundred yards, new record." She throws another and another, eventually growing bored of the act but not seeing much else fun to do. So, she sat down and pulled a tasty batch of creamy cookies out of her backpack. Yes, she used her powers to take it from an unsuspecting corner store, but she made sure to leave money, and she knew her stomach would be growling for food after this late-night adventure. 'Even after that awesome dinner, I'm still hungry.' Left to her thoughts, she couldn't ignore the elephant in the room. The pit in her stomach lingered as her sister's words echoed in her mind:

"You're hiding something! If you are, you're the one with a problem, not me!"

'Two weeks. I've been lying to April, my whole family, for two weeks,' she thought, pacing back and forth. 'Why is it that the longer I sit on this, the harder these words are to say? It's not like Mom and Dad aren't ones to talk either. Like, Dad lied for years, and why? Spider-Man hid away to protect others, but who's he protecting by hiding it from us, his daughters? Is it because we're still babies to you, Dad? Well, can a baby do this?!' Mayday grabs a scrap of metal and throws it but quickly sees the scrap still attached to her hand.

"Gah! Not again," she whined. She first tried to wiggle the metal off, then just tried pulling it to no avail. "Come on, stop giving me trouble." She tried again to pull it off, but it felt like peeling off the strongest glue in the world. Her grip soon slipped, and her stuck hand flung back. Then, at the corner of her eye, Mayday sees the metal fly out of her hand. However, the speed and propulsion of the metal made it clear her attempt wasn't the cause. It looked as if the metal shot out of her hand like a cannonball, made especially clear when the metal shatters to pieces upon crashing into a wall. "Woah…cool!"

Mayday stares, dazzled, at this newfound ability when she's startled by a warning echoing in her head. 'My Spider-Senses are tingling!'

This intense ability was the one thing Mayday was still getting used to; in fact, she felt almost lightheaded from the warning. Despite this side effect, this sixth sense was a potent tool. For instance, it told her precisely where this danger was coming from. 'From below?' Mayday dashed behind a pillar and peaks below to see a black truck roll up to the empty site. Within seconds, another truck rolled in, and a minute later, a grey car arrived. Mayday was already quite tense, but fear began to take root when she witnessed a dozen men come out, all armed with guns. Not just pistols and SMGs either; these were high-caliber assault rifles, which her school always warned were immensely deadly and they should hide from in case the worst occurred.

Somehow, despite the awesome firepower wielded by these men, her spider-sense warned of someone more dangerous. She saw who this was when one of the men opened the car door. Stepping out was a man with an unnerving smile, dressed in a black and white one-piece suit, a painted green face, and green dye highlights across his afro hair. Over a dozen small magic eight balls were attached to a strap wrapped around his torso, with several more attached to his belt. 'Hey, I've seen this clown before,' Mayday thought. Her memory brings her back to an ordinary afternoon, flipping through channels when she stumbles upon the news reporting a small-time villain on a crime spree named Crazy-8. Though they reported that he lacked superpowers, he was dangerous enough for the Spider-Men on the search for him.

Being several stories high, Mayday couldn't catch what Crazy-8's crew were talking about, but they did pull out a map that looked like one of those blueprints she had seen in movies. 'Gosh, you're pulling from movies already, girl?' With how distracted they were, Mayday saw her window of opportunity to escape, and her powers allowed her to do this easily. Still, Mayday continued to stand there, almost frozen in place. Fear was a factor, but an innate sense of conviction grew stronger when confronted with the thought of running away.

When she reasoned that she could call the authorities, this conviction told her that she had exposed her identity and that people could die in a fight between them.

When she reasoned that she could call other heroes, her conviction asked where she found one. She only knew her father, but she had no idea where they were going.

Then, when fear told her just to run away straight home and cower in her bed, her conviction outright refused.

'I...I can't let them go,' she thought as she sneakily wall-crawled down the opposite side of the building. A little over halfway down, Mayday begins to overhear their talk. She missed most of their planning and strategizing, but she did catch one crucial piece of information.

"I'll only say this once, you two," Crazy-8 said to some henchmen. If I see one of those web heads swinging down Olympus or the 6th and you two don't let me know immediately, consider your cut of the profits gone." As his men quickly shut up, Mayday remembers where this intersection is. The only thing significant was some warehouses, but she remembered it had a symbol of a nearby major hospital on it. Before Mayday could get more info, Crazy-8's gang loaded up thier weaponry, hopped back into thier vehicles, and drove off.

The moment they were gone, that little voice in her head continued to try to pull her away. In her head, this voice takes the form of her dad. 'STOP. You're waaay over your head, girl. You're not ready for this. They have guns. You don't even have working web shooters. They will kill you! What can you do that'll stop them?'

Mayday quickly utters her answer. "My best," she said, "I'll do my best."

Since her web shooters were on the fritz, wall-crawling and leaping great bounds would have to do for the young Spider-Girl. She knew exactly where they were going and hoped she was fast enough to catch them before they escaped. Despite the training, Mayday couldn't help but feel anxious as she leaped from building to building; she couldn't tell if it was because of the height or the inevitable fight she was getting herself into. Entering the financial district, she leaps across the many local high-rises and public buildings, one of them being a hospital her parents took them for thier checkups. Being one of the busiest hospitals on this side of Queens, it only made sense to Mayday that they needed a place to store incoming supplies and medicines for maximum efficiency. 'That has to be what they're after,' she deduced as she neared the warehouse. 'They wanna steal all those valuable stuff for themselves. Hurting, who knows how many people rely on those to stay healthy, to stay alive!'

She arrived at the scene, crawling inside through the roof. Aside from Crazy-8's henchmen flashlights, it was pitch black. Still, Mayday could see rows and rows of supplies in storage. Her foes were already moving large crates to large doors, loading them into two parked trailers outside. 'Did they have someone on the inside helping them find those trucks? To get past security so quickly?'

"Faster boys," Crazy-8's voice echoed, "make sure those Krakoan miracle medicines are loaded first. They're worth a fortune!"

'No time to wonder about that. I gotta move.' Mayday quietly drops on top of the tall aisles and squints her eyes. One thing she noticed during her nightly outings was her ability to spot people clearly, even in pitch darkness. Through concentration, her eyes count twenty opponents. This included Crazy-8, who stood by the loading dock. 'So many,' Mayday worried, 'I don't know if I can take them all on. If these guys leave even a scratch on me, my whole family would freak out and find out instantly. Come on, think, think!' An idea then springs in her head. 'That's it! If I sound the alarm, they'll be bumbling thier way to thier mamas as the authorities arrive. Heck, maybe one of the Spider-Men will notice and show up! All I have is find it.'

Mayday stuck to crawling on the ceiling, carefully trying not to make a noise with the metal beams around her. She scouts out the area when she sees a flight of steel stairs leading to a 2nd-floor room. 'Bingo!' Then she noticed one of the henchmen posted inside. 'Oh, come on! Urgh, it's fine. You can crush metal. Surely you can get the jump on a single nobody.' Quietly, she crawls towards the room illuminated by a buzzing LED lights over. She peeks through the window. The unsuspecting henchman was monitoring police frequencies and monitoring outside with the security cameras. Noticing his gun on the table, Mayday quietly clutched the door handle. She twists, praying it would not squeak.

SQUEEAAK!

'Crap.' In a split second, her spider-like agility helps her quickly open the door and stick to the ceiling right as the guard sharply turns, his eyes fixed on the open door. Mayday feels her heart racing in anxiety, even more so when the man grabs his gun, clutches a radio on his vest, and rises from his chair. Her spider-sense went into high gear, her cover about to be blown by the man below. As he is about to radio the others, Mayday pushes herself from the ceiling, placing an elbow on his head. The disoriented henchmen incidentally fired a brief spray of bullets, which shattered the glass window. Mayday clutched her ears from the intensity of the sound until the man fell unconscious.

"The hell?! Donny!" a voice echoed outside.

Once the ringing stopped, Mayday could feel her whole person filled with panic as she scrambled to find the alarm. 'Alarm, where are you?!' Mayday pounds her fist in frustration before finding a solution. 'Mayday, smash!' she thought as she punched her fists into the mainframe. She yelped as sparks flew but then heard the noise she'd been waiting for. Horns blared, and red emergency lights illuminated the warehouse; the entire district was alerted to a security breach. 'Run! Run! Run!' she panickedly thought. As she leaped out the window and onto a tall aisle, Mayday couldn't believe how much her body was shaking with fear and excitement. 'I can barely concentrate. All these and the gunfire are cranking up my senses to eleven! But I have to focus, or else I'm seriously dead!'

Unfortunately, her nerves got the better of her. As she ran on top of a row of boxes, her weight caused the shelf to shake, causing a heavy box to tip over. Its crash below echoed across the warehouse, drawing the assailant's eyes to a shadowy figure running above them. "Up there! Shoot them!" ordered Crazy-8.

Mayday leaped onto a steel beam on the ceiling when an array of bullets flew around her. By some miracle, she didn't freeze up and jump onto another aisle, where she quickly got behind cover. 'I'm a sitting duck up here! Maybe by going down, I can shake them!' Cardboard and wood rain above as the aisle is riddled with bullets, but Mayday can make her way down. Mayday dashed a ground exit as they continued to fire but turned a corner to surprise three opponents before her.

"What the-?! Is that a kid?" one of them shouts.

Mayday's spider senses were still going haywire, but something about thier rifles, loaded with real bullets, shook her to her core. It was like staring at death for the first time, and it was going to take it if she didn't do something. 'I can't move! How can I make my body move?!'

With startling speed, Mayday leaped at her foes as she, for some innate reason, said, "Woah there, fellas! Were you just going to shoot little old me?" Her left foot connected to the foe to her left while her fist bashed the foe to her right. Despite her age, these hits felt like being socked by the world's angriest gorilla. "If so, here's a warning for you!" The third foe tries to fire at her, but his gun is kicked away, and Mayday lands a punch, cracking his ribs and launching him across the floor. "This little spider has fangs!" With a second to breathe, Mayday almost couldn't believe what she had done. She was no stranger to sass, but using it in battle somehow soothed her nerves enough to focus. Why? She didn't know, but she sure wasn't complaining, especially when she ran for the open loading bays and saw several henchmen blocking her way.

With this newfound focus, Mayday became more in tune with her spider sense and dodged the next wave of incoming bullets. Mayday found such leaps and dashes weren't much different from her basketball practice. Leaping from cover to cover, she took to the offense by using her strength to lunge whole crates and heavy equipment at her foes. "It's a shame for you, dorks!" she shouts as she goes on the offense. She fires her webs at two henchmen on opposing ends, the sloppy webs working to her advantage as it blind their visions. "Tonight seemed like a beautiful night for stealing until I arrived!" She ducks from another henchman's gunfire and slides towards him before knocking him to the ground by swipe kicking his legs.

He's able to get up and whip out an electro-baton. "W-who is this wildcat?! Spider-baby?!"

"Baby?! Moi?!" Mayday easily dodged his reckless swings. "Listen up, Einstein—I still wear the webs! Be sure to remember that in your new home: prison!" Leaping over him, Mayday delivered a swift kick to his spine and launched him into a crate, shattering it. Mayday didn't let up as she dealt with the last two henchmen in her way. She caught them in the middle of reloading and so barreled herself into one of them, knocking them into a wall with surprising force.

The other gives up on reloading and swings the butt of his rifle at her but misses by a hair. "Who cares who this kid is?! You're dead meat, ya meddlesome lil' witch!"

He tried again to strike her, but Mayday quickly caught the butt of the gun. "Oh Man! You're lucky you used the W-word instead of the B-word!" She snaps the rifle in half, the sight of which terrifies the henchman. "'Cause the B-word is a baaaad word that makes me real mad ..." Quickly planting her hands on the floor, she delivered a powerful strike to his gut by kicking with both of her legs. "And this is me only mildly cheesed off!" Before reinforcements could arrive, Mayday makes her quick escape. She leaps onto the tough steel above, tugging it down firmly. Its locks break, and it quickly falls. Mayday leaps outside before the loading door slams shut. "Hah! I did it! I beat them all!"

"Not all!"

Suddenly, her spider-sense rivets her attention to a figure on top of one of the parked semi-trucks. Instinctively, she leaps backward, barely avoiding Crazy-8's explosive entrance!

'Stupid! In all your fighting, you forgot about this psycho,' Mayday reprimanded herself.

"My! My!" He leans forward atop the truck, showing more of his crazy look. "You're certainly a peculiar little thing. First impression? Your choice of colors is awful! Who the hell mixes red with blue? Why not a little green, like me?"

"You mean dress up like a clown? Yuck!" Mayday retorts, discreetly trying to look for a chance to flee.

"Ho, ho, ho! Quite the attitude. Your parents must've raised you horribly," Crazy-8 snickered deviously. You may not be the real deal, but I'm still sooooo thrilled you dropped in and relieved me of the drudgery of an otherwise dull midnight's toil. I apologize if my men were rude to you with all the pow-pow and bang-bang, hehehe! Here, let me tuck you into bed FOR GOOD!"

A volley of eight balls is flung at her at startling speeds. Whoever this costumed villain was, he was a master acrobatic and surprised even Mayday. She leaped and dodged many of his eight balls, but soon she realized what made them so dangerous as, barely a second later, they exploded! They fill the air with green gas, concussion blasts, and searing jolts of electricity. She tried to crawl to the roof, but Crazy-8's aim and speed were impeccable, and he blocked her way with more bombs. Even as his poses turned silly, such as holding himself up with one hand, his barrage grew even more relentless.

'My head,' Mayday thought as she coughed from the gas. She kept fighting despite her vision blurring and her ears stung from the concussive bursts. 'I gotta beat him somehow, but how? My webs barely work, and I can't get close enough to hit him!'

"You got spirit, little spider. You're faster and far more agile than I thought, even at a young age. Still, even you can't avoid me forever!"

Right before he threw his next volley, Mayday noticed the speed and the time before detonation. 'They...they don't immediately detonate. Something about eight balls' hard, unusual casing causes a delay. But how does that help me?' In the middle of her thoughts, Crazy-8 throws several bombs at her. Mayday's highly tuned senses make it seem like time slowed down, her body barely able to move, but so did the bombs. 'Think, girl, think! If your strength and webs won't work, what will?!'

Suddenly, a memory from the corner of her brain appears, and she feels ridiculous for not realizing it earlier.

Rather than run, Mayday stands her ground, shocking even the psychotic Crazy-8 himself. "You're right about one thing, clown. I can't avoid you, so..." Mayday said as she held her hands wide open. With but a bit of spider instinct and a pinch of basketball training, Mayday's hands snatched every one of the several bombs. She was so fast and cunning in her speed and agility that the skilled Crazy-8 only saw a blur as if she instantly grabbed each of his bombs. The hand-eye coordination needed to pull this off and not set them off was astonishing! Before his mind could even process this, the next phase of Mayday's plan came as she finished her sentence. "I'll have you get a taste of your own medicine!" Though she saw this power once, Mayday deduced this ability was like a powerful reverse magnet, a skill she discovered is a perfect counter to these attacks. With a simple thought, she launched all the bombs in her hands, and they flew faster than even a bullet.

Crazy-8 had no chance to dodge. The bombs erupt into a large explosion, destroying the truck and throwing Crazy-8 high into the air. Mayday shields her eyes from the intense flash and heat. She sees no sign of Crazy-8 in the smoke and fire. This being her only chance to escape, Mayday fled.

She ran and leaped across the neighborhoods, never stopping until she finally returned home. She yanked off her mask, her hair a curly mess and her face covered in soot. The whirlwind of emotions within her raged like a tornado as the battle rush faded. Even as she gasped for air and her heart kept itself from punching its way through her chest, she couldn't be prouder of herself. 'I beat them...I DID IT!' She wanted to laugh. She wanted to cry. So, she did both. She hugged her legs; tears flowed down her cheeks as she smiled at herself. 'I really can hold my own out there. I really can be a hero!' She rugs her eyes, still feeling the irritation from the gas when her fingers wet her forehead. She suddenly felt a sharp pain when she blood stained on them. The more the adrenaline faded, the more it hurt. She quietly rushed to the bathroom and treated it. Luckily, it was nothing more than a nasty bruise. She guessed it came from a piece of debris that struck her during her duel with Crazy-8.

And yet, Mayday couldn't shake the terrible feeling in her gut at the sight of her blood. That's when the harsh truth sets in. 'I almost died,' she contemplated. 'If I was a second off, they could've killed me. Killed.' Feeling exhausted, Mayday bandaged her bruise and prayed it would disappear in time for school. Guilt and triumph swirl in her heart as slumber takes her. 'Am I ever going to be ready? Should I even be doing this?'

Part 4: Great Responsiblity...

[The Next Day...]

She gazes out the window of the family car. She's sure her sisters are discussing something in the backseat, and her father is asking them something related to school, but Mayday is completely zoned out. Since waking up, her mind has been on autopilot. Her memories swap between moments of last night's triumphs and moments of fear from Crazy-8's psychotic laughs. While the entire morning was a blur, one thing did pull her attention: the news. It revealed Crazy-8 was still out there, that those arrested told of a little hero wrecking thier robbery, and traces of dissolved webbing were found at the scene. Mayday could not turn off the T.V. before her father caught the report. He hadn't said a word to her since. 'Chill, girl,' Mayday thought, 'give one hint, and he'll find you out.'

The car slows to a halt upon reaching thier middle school. "Have a good day, you two," Peter smiled, watching April and Annie rush to class. Before Mayday could join them, her father said, "Mayday, I need to speak with you. Just the two of us."

"Uhh, why?"

"Because I wanna know why my daughter has had a thousand-yard stare this morning." Peter raised his hand, brushing away her hair to reveal a small bruise on her forehead. "And you've been hiding this."

"I...tripped?"

"Mayday," Peter sighed, "your mother and I are sure you have good excuses, but it won't change how worried we've been about you recently."

"Worried? About what?"

"For starters, hearing noises upstairs when it's past your bedtime."

"I've been pushing myself to study harder, that's all," Mayday said defensively.

"Your teacher said you stole from his science equipment."

"Suspected," she quickly rebuttals. "Mom and the principal saw he had no evidence but some broken glass."

"And your sister has been frustrated with you."

Mayday slumps into her seat, pinching her brow. "I told you," she mumbled, "April's making a big deal out of nothing."

"Mayday, sit up straight when you're talking to someone," Peter said, his tone firmer. "Even if everything April says is false, your highly defensive dismissal reaction isn't what the girl your mother and I raised would do. Acting that way can make you look even more guilty. Are you hiding something?"

Mayday couldn't help but scoff at what she was hearing. "Is Annie the only one in the family not breathing down my neck?"

"Mayday, don't have an attitude now. I'm only-"

"Only what," Mayday asked, her tone increasingly emotional, a sudden flood of anxiety that's been building up within her for days. "Are you worried I'm not acting the way you think I should? That I'm not some little girl anymore? Dad, I'm almost eleven, and everyone's already saying how mature and talented I am for my age, including you. Aren't I allowed then to do my own thing, to explore the lengths of my skills adults praise so much?"

"Mayday, you're not even thirteen yet."

She scoffed with pride in her tone. "And I can already solve high-level calculus problems like nothing. Even my basketball coach told me I'm the most promising player seen in years."

Peter stays silent. By this point, it was obvious that Mayday or any of his daughters were exceptional. This wasn't the point of contention for him—it never was. Instead, it was something more profound than that, something behind all the power these skills bring. Peter wished he was as good at conveying this as his uncle.

Meanwhile, Mayday's passion to go on continued to make her stubborn on the subject. 'Unbelievable! If this is how he's acting, compared to me, acting a bit differently, he'll ground me forever if he finds out my secret. And for what? To protect me by possibly making me turn my back on my powers, of all the potential good I can accomplish?! Parents-go figure!'

"I can handle things alone, better than any kid my age," Mayday continued. Her words carry a subtle but fierce stubbornness, yet her hands nervously clutch the sides of her seat. "Everyone says I have a gift, and it didn't take until recently to see what it was. Now, I want to be free to do what I feel is right with it, like helping someone. But I guess because I made one change about myself, I've become the weirdest girl in New York."

"Nobody's saying that, Mayday."

"Then stop acting like I am!"

Silence fell between them. Mayday refused to look at her dad, at Spider-Man. In her eyes, this was her hero who faced immense danger like she had countless times and was now indirectly telling her she was not ready while showing no sign of revealing his secret. Part of her wanted to understand, but the frustration still boiling within her threatened to taint any regret she shared. A remorseful sigh from Peter breaks the silence, shaking his head at, in his eyes, a complete fumbling of what he was genuinely trying to tell her. The school's morning bell echoed, signaling classes would begin shortly.

"I gotta go," Mayday said, regretfully stepping out of the car.

"Mayday," Peter said, stopping her in her tracks. Mayday turned and gave him her full attention. His thoughts gathered, and Peter told her, "I can't help but feel that something's scaring you and making you panic. And it's natural to feel that way, especially when you have a lot on your plate you weren't ready for. Yet no matter how scary, you've always tried to push yourself and be the best at what you love. All the more reason we support you in pursuing anything your heart guides you to. Especially since, one day, you'll come to a turning point in your life that'll hit you when you least expect it. When it does, I want to be sure you know the type of person you choose to be, for your sake."

"Yeah..." Mayday mumbled, yet one could practically hear the uncertainty beneath.

"I only ask that you promise me something." Mayday listened closely as her father spoke from the heart, saying, "In this world, your gifts carry immeasurable potential and frightening power—the power to be selfless and the power to be selfish. Promise me that you'll use that power with the utmost responsibility."

Mayday nods her head, almost unsure how to respond to that. Still, it was all her father needed for a response. Before closing the door, Mayday said, "Love you, Dad," before sprinting off the class. Peter smiled as he drove off and whispered, "Love you always."

[Later on...]

The noon bell rang not long ago. Silence filled the halls on this side of the school as everybody went to the cafeteria for lunch. Well, almost everyone. Mayday spun a stick inside a flask containing a boiling white substance in an empty science lab. 'Success,' Mayday gleefully thought. Within no time, she successfully inserts her revised web formula into the mechanism of her web shooters. As she carefully clicked in the crude cartridge, Mayday realized how clear her mind had been for the past fifteen minutes. She supposed that's what she shared with her sister Annie. When she needed to clear her mind, she headed straight for the workbench. 'I know I should trust my spider-sense, but I can't shake the feeling that danger will pop out at any moment,' contemplated. Her thoughts quickly spiral into a whirlwind of sporadic ideas.

'Maybe I'm overreacting, and the gas bombs threw my senses off. Those concussions were seriously headache-inducing. Is that what Dad had to deal with practically every day? At least for him, he was a teenager and probably had a bajillion super pals. I barely scraped by my first night, and I haven't hit puberty yet. Oh god, puberty with spider powers sounds like a nightmare waiting to happen! If I grow extra arms in the middle of my yearbook photo, my life's donezo. Then again, it would make multitasking a lot easier. Huh, Mom's right; everything does have an upside. Did she catch the report on the way to work? If Dad hasn't figured it out yet, she definitely will. Maaaan, face it, May! They'll find you guilty of hiding it from them, and you'll regret it for eternity. Perhaps that's what your dad, who you freaking yelled at ya brat, was indirectly helping you with? I don't know! This is the first time he has told me of this lesson, and I'm not even sure I'm ready to commit to this life for it to matter.'

Mayday lays her head on the table, unsure of what to do. 'If I am committed, am I not automatically responsible for using my powers for good? Sure, I am hiding it from family, and my fight could've gone better, but things could still be worse! God, things can go so much worse at any minute. Maybe that's why I'm feeling paranoid.'

Knock-Knock!

Mayday scrambled from the sudden noise, throwing her web-shooters beside her suit into her backpack before approaching the door. 'Play it cool, girl.'

Opening the door, she faces Courtney Duran, her newest friend since the field trip. Mayday leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed, and said, "Hey."

"Hey?"

'Okay, maybe not that cool,' Mayday thought.

"Why are you all alone in here?"

Mayday looks back at the used lab equipment. "Uhh, I'm doing a special project. It's not due for a while, but I wanna get started early."

"That's cool! I wish science were as easy for me as Math is."

"If you're having trouble, I can swap notes with you. Even my little sis asks for my help, and she's a legit genius."

"Thanks, but that's not why I'm here," Courtney said, flustered. "I wanna ask a different favor."

"Sure. What is it?"

"Geez, this is embarrassing," Cournty muttered, "but...can you protect me?"

"Protect?"

"Gah, see Courtney. It's embarrassing," she told herself. "It's fine, May; just forget it."

"First, it's Mayday. Second, it's not embarrassing. Who do you need protection from?"

Courtney flinched when laughter was heard from the hall. Mayday looked out to see a group of boys and girls making a ruckus. These weren't just any 8th graders; however, Mayday had encountered them a couple of times and not under friendly circumstances. One boy was the same one who mocked her and her sisters the day of the field trip. Now, they were tossing lunches on the floor in front of an elderly janitor despite the fact a trash can was right there.

"They're even disrespecting Mr. Hackmutter? Gosh, those jerks have no shame," Mayday said.

"Mister who?"

"Hackmutter, the janitor."

"You know his name? Aren't you creeped out by him? Rumor has it that he's a former criminal."

Mayday rolled her eyes, "Sure, rumors bullies like them made up. You think the school does such a thing, or will you believe everything a rumor says?"

"Good point. Anyway, can you escort me to the cafeteria? I feel like they're following me."

"Of course," Mayday smiled, wrapping her arm around Courtney's shoulder. "Heck, I'll eat with you. I kinda got lost in my project to eat lunch."

"Okay, only so that I make sure you don't starve."

While the two friends headed towards the cafeteria, the kids left shortly after, leaving Hackmutter with messy floors and a messy lab. "I ain't paid enough for this," he muttered, kicking aside the trash and walking back to his quarter. Due to city budget cuts, he's been stuck in the dusty old school basement with barely enough working lightbulbs to keep it illuminated. In the shadowy room, he kicks up his feet and proceeds to eat his lunch, mumbling, "Snot-nosed brats the lot of them."

"Hehehe, I couldn't agree more!"

Hackmutter fell over his chair and hurried away as he witnessed a man dressed in black and white emerge from the shadows. He tried rushing upstairs, but the agile criminal Crazy-8 had plans for him and swiftly tripped him.

"Argh," Hackmutter groaned. When his vision cleared, he saw Crazy-8's face more clearly. "You! You're the guy the news has been talking about."

"I am, and I have been enjoying every second of it! Though, it came at a small price," he said. He bitterly turned to the sling wrapped around his broken right arm. "A little goodbye gift from that elusive hero before they left."

"W-why are you here?"

A piece of fabric is tossed to the janitor's feet. It appears to be a simple tag, but Hackmutter sees the school emblem upon closer inspection. "I remember my P.E. days," Crazy-8 shares, "and these funny little tags in my uniforms always itched."

"You think it's one of these kids?"

"Among these thousands of sniveling kids is that anonymous little spider. Urgh, no wonder they became such a good little brat; look at this place. Heroes always get the pretty campus, don't they? Heh, but that only makes us more cunning to see that even the brightest areas have their shadows." Crazy-8 eyed the shivering janitor with an ominous smirk.

Hackmutter shudders in fear, "what are you gonna do to them?"

Crazy-8 gasped. "Oh contraire, good sir. I'm not going to hurt them." Before Hackmutter could respond, Crazy-8 whips a small syringe filled with a mysterious orange liquid. When his manic eyes locked on Hackmutter, the janitor tried to get up but was stabbed in the neck and injected with the substance. Hackmutter's body mutates almost immediately, his skin becoming scaly and orange while his teeth become as sharp as daggers. Crazy-8 leisurely steals Hackmutter's lunch and takes his leave, "Enjoy your new friend, spider-brat."

The moment he's gone, Hackmutter's body enlarges as deep snarls echo in the basement. His sharp claws smash the table beside him when his dark red eyes open. Its piercing gaze turned to the echoes of people chattering above.

[Meanwhile...]

"And that's why I'm forbidden from ice skating ever again," Courtney chuckled.

"No way. You were having so much fun by the sounds of it," Mayday said.

"It wasn't for the dozen kids I've rammed into. I'm used to it anyway. My parents can be overbearing, but I can be clumsy if you can't tell."

Before Mayday could continue their chat, an intense tingling rattled her mind. 'Wha-?! What is this?' she thought. Her vision flashed with a myriad of colors, and the silhouettes of students around her distorted. An otherworldly roar could be heard in her head, soon taking the form of some beastly red shadow looming afar. 'I never felt anything this insane before! Something's coming this way, something big!'

Seeing how freaked out her friend looked, Courtney rushed to her side and said, "Mayday, you okay?! You look like you have a headache!"

As Mayday stood up, the cafeteria fell silent when they heard a choir of roars and screams erupting outside. Every student began to panic when the group of bullies from before barrel inside, trying to lock the cafeteria doors. A faculty member quickly demands the meaning of this, but his question is soon answered when a large fist punches open the doors. Students and faculty stare in horror as a ten-foot-tall humanoid dragon bursts in. His hulking frame was intimidating on its own, but his glowing red eyes paralyzed everyone in fear, which exuded an aura of primal rage. Mayday almost froze, but Courtney's terrified expression snapped her out. She took action when she looked across the cafeteria and saw April shielding Annie.

His reptilian tongue licks his sharp teeth at the sight of the petrified crowd, and he protrudes his long talons. "Paaaay," the deluded monster growled, "you all shall pay! So says The Dragon King!"

The cafeteria became an utter frenzy as everyone panically tried to escape Dragon King's attack. In the middle of this chaos, Mayday took Courtney's hand as she leaped behind the cafeteria counter. Running past fleeing lunch workers, Mayday hid Courtney behind some large kitchen equipment before running back out. Courtney shouted, "Are you crazy?! Don't leave me!"

Mayday yanks her hand away, "My sisters are out there! I gotta save 'em!"

Courtney trembled but recognized how terrifying that must be for her friend. "O-okay, but please come back!"

"I promise," Mayday swore before dashing away. Dragon King has already wrecked several tables and injured the school security posted here. All the exits were cluttered with waves of students fleeing, and Mayday saw no sign of her sisters among them. "April must've hidden herself and Annie somewhere; this monster won't find them," she deduced.

She spots the open freezer door and uses that spot to change into her makeshift suit. As she clicks on her web-shooters, Mayday wonders where this creature came from and what it wants with a bunch of random schools like theirs. However, the cries of terror outside make her not really care about the whys and hows. 'What matters is keeping your sisters, Courtney, and everybody safe!' She dons her mask, covers the backpack on her with webbing, and leaps out of the freezer.

The Dragon King's keen nose picked up a new scent. His eyes brightened, and he unleashed a powerful energy beam at a flipped-over lunch table. April and Annie were hiding behind it. April shielded her little sister, shouting, "Stay back!"

A quivering Annie asked, "April, what is that?!"

"I don't know. But it's big, ugly, and ticked off."

Dragon King roared, "UGLY?!" He raised his right hand, his razor claws aimed at them.

April grabbed Annie's hand and whispered, "When I say run, do it, okay?"

Dragon King's talons swung down, but all he struck was the brink wall. Before his strike could connect, two webs clung to the sisters and pulled them out of the way. Dragon King turned and growled at the sight of Spider-Girl protectively holding a shocked April and Annie in her arms.

"Run," Spider-Girl said as she let go and leaped after Dragon King, delivering a hard kick to his face that knocked him back.

April and Annie stared at the stunning sight of the two beginning thier battle. However, it wasn't the spectacle that made them sit in silent shock; it was the hero's voice that saved them. April's eyes were fixated on the mask, knowing that the knitting pattern was anywhere.

To her left, Annie said what both of them were thinking. "May...day?"

When Spider-Girl narrowly dodges thrown debris, April takes Annie's hand and runs to the nearest exit. April muttered to herself, "Sis, you have some freaking explaining to do!"

Spider-Girl, meanwhile, starts to see how much of an amateur she still is as she spends more time dodging Dragon King's attacks rather than fighting back. His awesome power was unlike anything she could've imagined; even the kick she delivered before barely left a scratch. She tried to blind him with her webs, but Dragon King proved himself faster than expected. Instead, he grabbed her webs and threw her into the wall, leaving a large crack. Mayday has gotten hit in her life by bullies or from incidents, but the immense shockwave of pain from this one strike is almost too much to bear, and she struggles to stay awake as she falls to the ground. To her surprise, she wasn't paralyzed. Still, it didn't make getting back up any less of a struggle.

"Weak bug," Dragon King growled, charging his eyes for another blast. Out of nowhere, a small but sharp pain strikes his tail. He glances back to see it is a small kitchen, and Courtney is running back inside it. "Annoying," he said, blasting the kitchen with his beam, an attack so strong it caused a partial collapse of the cafeteria and buried the kitchen in rubble.

"COURTNEY!" Spider-Girl immediately jumped into action and punched her foe relentlessly. A ferocious spirit totally renewed within her, as if possessed by an unwavering spirit fueled by passion and grief. "Monster! If I see one scratch on her, you're in a world of hurt!" Her onslaught eventually led to a dynamic web swing to his jaw. The strength behind it caused Dragon King to crash through a wall. With the beast down, Spider-Girl rushed over to the rubble of the kitchen, clawing away bricks until she found an unconscious Courtney. The lower half of her body was trapped beneath a heavy fridge that shielded her from the debris.

Spider-Girl saw a few remaining faculty members still here, ensuring all the students had fled. "Take her," she pleaded as she swung over and handed Courtney to the faculty. Spider-Girl's fury returned with her friend safe when Dragon King stood back up. "I gotta take this somewhere else," she told herself, "before someone else gets hurt." With one location in mind, Spider-Girl swings away and allows Dragon King to chase after her. It was a risky move, forced to retreat while dodging deadly energy blasts, but it also steered the monster in the opposite direction of civilians. Spider-Girl's web is cut by an explosion, but she lands in front of the empty school gymnasium.

Spider-Girl dashed inside, the dark interior shielding her from the Dragon King's wrath as the monster burst in and scowled. "Come out, bug! You can not stop me!" Suddenly, some metal chairs hurdled toward Dragon King, and though he swatted them away, it distracted him so Spider-Girl could fire a thick coat of webbing on his eyes. "Gah! You think this cheesy webbing can blind me, little girl?" He attempted to burn it off with his blast, but his insult didn't change how these webs resisted his eye beams. He tried clawing it off, but his talons couldn't cut the web's steel-like durability.

Spider-Girl used this chance to continue pummeling him with punches and kicks, trying to whittle through his tough skin. "Say what you will about me, but nobody insults my webbings!"

Dragon King roared, wailing his tail to get Spider-Girl off him. "This where you bugs begin exchanging witty remarks?"

"That was the initial idea, but then you hurt an innocent girl! So I'll skip that part and jump straight to defeating you!"

Despite her speed and his blindness, Spider-Girl felt as if she was barely putting a dent on her foe. Then, Dragon King's hearing started to put in the legwork as his attacks became more dangerous. When she leaped over him and attempted to bash the back of his head, her spider senses warned her of his tail. Unfortunately, she was in mid-air and was too late to fire a web. The thick appendage struck her side, throwing her into the bleachers. 'Pain! Pain everywhere,' she thought, reeling in pain and unsure if she could take another hit like that. As she barely stood up, her spider senses went off, and she saw Dragon King mid-air. Through her torn-up mask, Spider-Girl saw those talons aimed straight at her, and she had no energy to dodge. 'Am I...about to die?'

As she stared at the jaws of death, she thought of her family, her friends devasted beyond belief. Her parents forced to identify her at the city's morgue. Her sisters are grieving over her gravesite. Right beside that headstone was another, Courtney Duran, the first and last person Spider-Girl has failed to save. This bleak world was moments away from becoming reality until Spider-Girl's right hand balled into a fist.

'No,' she thought, 'I won't give up. I CAN'T give up!' Spider-Girl launched herself straight toward Dragon King, his massive frame overshadowing her, yet she didn't slow down as these two forces were a second away from clashing.

One final hit that'll determine the outcome.

Spider-Girl honestly didn't know if she'd win this gamble; in fact, part of her was ready to accept this as her end, but the other half would see this through to the end. 'I'm gotta put everything in this one punch,' she thought, 'all my passion, strength I don't even know I have, all of it! I have to, for Courtney, April, Annie, my parents!' Dragon King's talons made the first move and slashed at Spider-Girl. A spray of blood flies in the air, not from her heart but from her cheek. Spider-Girl ignores the cut and aimed at the center of her opponent's chest. 'Because...this is my responsibility!'

Her fist bashed into Dragon King's chest, piercing his thick skin. His painful roar made the whole gym tremble. The intense concentration of power behind Spider-Girl's punch completely devasted the monster. His unconscious body fell straight down and crashed at the center of the gym's court. Spider-Girl fell too but picked herself back up, battered but victorious. Quickly, something caught her eye, something that was on Dragon King's neck. She goes over to see a syringe stabbed into her skin. "Who did this?" It didn't take long for Spider-Girl to realize the crushing answer as a label on the syringe read: From your first foe. "No," she gasped, collapsing to her knees. "He did this? But how did he where I-?" She looks down at her gym pants and finds the tag with the school emblem missing.

Suddenly, Spider-Girl felt something on her cheek, something other than blood. She touched it to see she was crying. She didn't understand until the terrible thought sprung, 'I did this.' Her hands covered her face as she began to bawl, a crushing guilt gnawing at her heart. 'If I didn't go after him, none of this wouldn't have happened. It's all my fault people got hurt, all my fault!'

"She's here!"

Spider-Girl flinched at the voice and the sound of doors opening. She was so clouded by guilt that she couldn't tell who it was until she felt the familiar hugs of her mother and father. "M-mom? Dad?" Sweat dripped down thier heads as they rushed over here like the second they heard a monster was ravaging the school. Behind them were her sisters, faces saying they'd already told them everything. Spider-Girl looked toward her family and said with deep shame, "I'm sorry."

Her mom grabbed and hid the mask while her father covered her with a towel. "It's okay, Mayday," Peter assured.

"No, it isn't. Courtney, she was-"

"Paramedics already have her," M.J. revealed. "She's alive, Mayday, because of you."

Peter carries Mayday as he and M.J. lead the family quietly back to the car, away from cameras, the authorities, and this whole mess.

[At home...]

"I see," Peter sighed as she talked on the phone. Mary Jane sat on the couch alongside April and Annie, the three waiting anxiously for the update. "Okay. Thank you," he finished before hanging up the phone. He turned and informed the family, "Ben said no other students were hurt, and only a few faculty suffered minor wounds that'll heal in a few days."

"Thank goodness," M.J. sighed in relief.

Annie asked, "And Mayday's friend?"

Peter reacted with a pained look. He turned to the stairs and headed for Mayday's room. His daughter has shut herself in there and hasn't come out since. The family was close behind him as Peter gently knocked on Mayday's door, but she did not respond. "Mayday," she said, "nobody was seriously hurt, and everything's under control. The authorities only reported one serious injury: your friend, Courtney Duran. She's alive and expected to make a recovery, but the collapse caused by that creature badly broke Courtney's lower back. The doctors say she'll likely need a wheelchair for the foreseeable future." When more silence is heard, Peter opens the door. The family entered to find Mayday cowered at the corner of the ceiling, sobbing.

"It's all my fault," she cried. "Some psycho I defeated returned and turned someone into that monster. I'm why Courtney won't walk again. I broke my promise to protect her!"

"Mayday, you know that's not true," Mary Jane said gently.

"It is! All of it."

"Sweetie, your friend's injury isn't your fault," Peter urged. "I've been in your position so many times I've lost count. You did everything you could to help; don't let this guilt destroy you."

April and Annie become confused. Annie asked, "Dad, what did you mean you've been in her position?"

Peter and M.J. look at each other, knowing where this conversation is going. Peter calms Mayday enough for her to come down. Mary Jane took her daughter's hands and said, "I think it's best we just show you." The couple guided thier daughters up to the old attic, a place so dusty and boring that the sisters had never once bothered to go up before. Peter flipped the light switch and kneeled before an old leather trunk. M.J. handed him the key, and upon opening it, Peter moved aside and let his daughter look for themselves.

April and Annie stared in complete shock when they found Spider-Man's signature red and blue suit and an assortment of gadgets inside. Even Mayday couldn't help but be in awe at seeing the real thing before her. Annie picked up the suit, inspecting its tears and linework. "This is the real deal. It's THE suit," she gasped.

"Sure is," Peter said. When his daughters looked back, their jaws dropped at seeing their dad sitting on the ceiling like Mayday was before. "Though, that museum you visited has quite the quality replica."

"That's-this is amazing," Annie squealed, jumping into her father's arms. "The world said you were dead, Dad. Why aren't you working with the other heroes?"

"That's a long and complicated story," Peter said as he set Annie down.

A baffled April muttered, "Complicated enough to keep it from us?"

M.J. could hear how hurt April sounded. She turned to Mayday, who's been especially quiet and not nearly as surprised. "Sweetie," she gently said, "you already know this, yes?"

Mayday nodded. "The day I got my powers, I overheard you and Dad talking. You said we deserve to know that we're Spider-Man's daughters."

"So I was right. You knew about all this," April said, "and you didn't tell us, tell me, for two weeks?"

"I...was scared," Mayday admitted.

Annie asked, "That we hate you or something?"

"A little," Mayday answered. "I was afraid you would see me differently, that I'm some freak, or this is something to shut away."

"Yeah, you are a freak," April mumbled, "but...the good kind. Even if it was dumb of you to hide this." Mayday smiled at April's unique words of support.

"To put it less crudely," Peter said, "you have a real gift in you, Mayday, and not one entire because of me. This power is yours and yours alone. While we wished you were more open with us, suppose we'd be lying if we said we wouldn't have done the same thing when we were your age."

"However," M.J. said, "from now on, we would like you to have an open channel with us, especially regarding these powers. We won't impose on you, but we want no more secrets like this again. Are we clear?"

"Crystal."

"Good, because I have one question I need to ask," Peter said. "What do you want to go from here?"

Mayday took a deep breath as she ruminated on this big question. She looked at herself, banged up and covered in dust. She felt every scratch on her, every bruised bone—a mere sliver of the hurt that will come from a life of hero work. A life where she must always be on duty because, in this world, someone will always be in danger, be it from social woes or the machinations of supervillains. In the real world, someone has to answer a cry for help. Mayday saw it first-hand today, the personal toll inflicted in taking action and the dangers of failing even one person, especially one she calls a friend. She looked deep inside herself, asking if she would ever do this duty again.

At that moment, Mayday came to the only answer she'd accept: " I want to keep going. I want to stay as Spider-Girl."

Peter nervously gripped his knee, asking, "Even with the immense responsibility that comes with it."

"Especially so," she vowed. "When danger appears again, I won't ever gamble with the lives of my friends or anybody by doing nothing. I have a responsibility to act, and I will! I don't want anyone like Courtney ever to suffer because Spider-Girl failed to help when she should have!"

"Woah," Annie awed while April sat silently.

Mary Jane could barely contain the tears of pride at her daughter's conviction and selflessness. She saw Peter hide him, too, as he pinched his brow and took a sharp breath. They share a look and think the same thing: Mayday will never stop helping others, no matter what they say to her.

Peter stood up and crossed his arms, "Well then, Spider-Girl. If you're sure, then it only makes sense to have a teacher or two."

Mayday leaped up in excitement, "You're gonna train me?! No way, THE Spider-Man is gonna train me!"

Caught up in the moment, Annie gasped, "Mayday's gonna be a hero, April!"

"Greaaaat," April said sarcastically. "So when are we getting our powers?"

"Well, I'm not sure," Peter answered, "Mayday, how did your powers appear?"

"Oh, well, it felt as if they were always there. The first time was when I was four, but only briefly. Then they kept appearing sporadically, and I didn't have the words to explain what was happening to me each time. The day of the field trip, I ran into -"

"Who?"

"Long story. I saw this kitty about to be run over and...I don't know. I felt something had changed and wanted to save him so badly. So, I did."

"Okay," April said, "Annie, have something big barreling towards you, and I'll leap in to save you."

"You're joking, right?"

"No."

"Slow down, April," M.J. said, "this isn't something you can force out."

"What if I'm really nice?"

"April."

"Fiiiine," April pouted.

Mayday chuckled, a much-needed reprieve after today. She looked down at her burnt mask, a bit sad that something precious had been torn up so badly. However, with a brighter attitude, this could prove to be an opportunity to create a new mask—a mask the world will look up to, a mask she can proudly call her own and which symbolizes all the values she swears to uphold.

Who is she? She is Spider-Girl, and the next generation of spidey excitement starts here!


A/N: I DID IT! I'll add author notes later, but wow, thank you all for this story's kind words and support so far. It has been rough trying to perfect this specific issue. However, it turned out great, a mix of adapting the early Spider-Girl comics while adding new elements that better fit this universe. I hope you enjoyed it! Next time, we'll focus on the next Parker sister and meet, for the first time, people with a deep history with the Watson-Parker family.