"It sure was swell of you to let me stay here the night, May," said Gwen appreciatively, as she and Teresa enjoyed another batch of May Parker's famous wheatcakes at the breakfast table. The old Parker residence was just as welcoming as it always had been, and when Teresa had called May to explain that Gwen needed a place to stay for a few days, the old lady was more than delighted to be of help.
"Oh, think nothing of it dear," smiled May, as she picked up some of the now discarded dishes and cups, and took them away to be washed. "It's always nice to have friends and family visiting here, and with my boarders away at the Church fete, it's looking set to be a quite quiet day today."
"Unlike yesterday hopefully," smiled Teresa, as she finished off the last pancake on her plate. "At least we haven't had any more creeps in purple masks crashing in through the window. Though I don't mind admitting, it was all kinda exciting."
"Yeah, about that," said Gwen a little seriously. "It was a pretty brave, if reckless, thing you did, posing as me. I mean I'm grateful and all, but that creep could have killed you!"
Teresa shrugged. "I guess I just got caught up in the heat of the moment and reacted without thinking. It did happen all so suddenly. Actually, the really brave one was Spider-Woman, rescuing my neck back there. It sure was lucky she happened to have turned up on the scene at that precise moment to save the day."
"Yes, I suppose we do owe that young lady a big thanks," May's voice floated through from the kitchen. "Though why she wants to go around dressed like that horrible Spider-Man, I'll never know!"
"Ahem, yes, well," coughed Gwen. "I do gather she gets around the city quite a lot. Guess she must have just been passing through."
"Hmm, maybe," said Teresa thoughtfully, before changing the subject. "So do you have any ideas who could have stolen the 'dust', Gwen? That Prowler guy did seem pretty adamant that someone had beaten him to it."
"Well, I have been thinking about it," said Gwen. "There are three particular students I know who are smart enough together, but I sure hate to think that they might be involved..."
At that moment, Gwen's phone began buzzing, and as she checked the screen, she saw that it was Betty Brant-Leeds calling, a reporter for the Daily Bugle who had subsequently became a friend of Gwen's following Peter Parker's funeral.
"Hi, Betty, what's up?" asked Gwen as she answered the mobile.
"Gwen, one of our reporters just got sent over to Memorial Hospital. The Bugle got a message that one of the girls from your university just showed up in emergency. She's got radiation sickness."
"Radiation sickness?" said Gwen quietly, suddenly feeling quite tense. "What's her name?"
"Carla Wilson," came the simple reply.
Gwen's face fell. "Oh no..."
SLAP!
The Prowler yelped and winced in pain from the stinging strike of the Rose's hand across his face. He felt a trickle of blood flow from a cut across his cheek, caused by the sharp stone embedded in a ring that the Rose wore on his gloved hand.
"Imbecile!" rebuked the Rose sharply as he angrily paced about the living room. "Your actions were stupid and ill-planned! Not only did you grab the wrong girl, but you let Spider-Woman make a fool of you too!"
"Sorry, boss," muttered the Prowler meekly, unable to look his employer in the eye for fear of provoking the Rose's wrath into being becoming more terrible than a simple slap to the face.
With an aggravated sigh, the Rose managed to compose himself. "Fortunately, the situation is not beyond recovery. I have called in someone to recover Doctor Stacy for us."
"Who's that, boss?"
"Marko."
The Prowler flinched, not liking the sound of that. "Not Man Mountain Marko?!"
The Rose nodded. "He is quite efficient, and less of a bungler than you are."
"He is a brute! A simple minded thug!" protested the Prowler. Like many in the underworld, he had heard of Man Mountain Marko, who had formally been loyal lieutenant to the notorious Silvermane, and the stories he had heard about Marko's strength still sent shivers down his spine. Heck, he had heard that the guy had almost given Spider-Man a run for his money years back during that incident involving some tablet with a secret formula to restore a person's youth.
"True he is not cunning like others," said the Rose. "But he more than makes up for that in sheer superhuman strength. He takes pride in his work."
The Prowler sighed. "And when will he get here?"
"He is here already!" laughed the Rose, as Man Mountain Marko, a big hulking dark figure of a man, emerged out from the opposite room and stomped his way over, towering high above the cringing Prowler, who gave a feeble squeak of fright.
"Ya call me a brute," snarled Marko nastily, crossing his arms as he glowered down at the trembling cat burglar. "Ya call me simple minded, yet ya the one who keeps messing things up!"
"Yes, yes, we are already aware of the Prowler's shortcomings, Marko," said the Rose almost impatiently. "The point is, can you remedy the mess his incompetence has caused?"
"Sure! Just tell me where this Stacy dame is, boss, and I'll bring her ta ya no problem. And if this Spider-Lady butts in again, I'll squash her till she's as flat as a pancake!"
Just then, Mr Varley burst almost breathlessly in, an excited look on his face. "Boss! We just got a tip from one of our informants at Memorial Hospital! One of the new patients has got radiation sickness. He reckons she must be one of the guys who's got the merchandise we're looking for!"
"Excellent!" said the Rose, clapping his hands together happily. "Was our man able to get her address?"
"Yeah, Johnston is already heading over there right now."
"Good! Then we shall go and join him," said the Rose decisively. "Come, Marko! You too, Prowler. We'll take my Limousine. There is not a second to be wasted. We must seize our prize before it has a chance to slip through our fingers again!"
"But what about this Stacy dame?" asked Marko.
"She is of no importance now," stated the Rose. "Once we have the plutonium, all my goals will come to fruition. And I will not permit anything to stand in my way!"
Gwen Stacy was absolutely seething with anger and disappointment. "I cannot believe you hotheads actually did this!"
Both Craig Jefferson and Ted Stevens winced from Gwen's steely expression, not to mention the daggers that Teresa's glare was giving them too, as they all stood in the waiting room. Upon hearing that Carla was the one with radiation sickness, Gwen, with Teresa in tow, had gone straight over to the hospital, where she was now furiously confronting Craig and Ted. The two students did not even attempt to deny that they were the ones who, along with Carla, had first broken into the lab through the main window like cat burglars and stolen the plutonium, hiding it at their shared apartment. That explained the rope that had been found hanging by the lab window, as it clearly had not belonged to the Prowler. It seemed that the three students had wanted to make a point about the lack of proper security regarding the radioactive material, since no-one at the time, except for Gwen, seemed to have been taking their concerns seriously enough.
"Somebody had to," said Craig despondently, his worried thoughts still focused mainly on Carla. "Doesn't matter now..."
"Doesn't matter!" cried Teresa in disbelief. "Do you realise all the trouble you've caused..."
"Take it easy, Teresa," said Gwen soothingly, trying to get her own temper in check as she questioned the two abashed students. "What I don't get is how Carla got radiation poisoning. The plutonium wasn't hot and it was in a lead container. I don't see how..."
Her words trailed off, and she gave Craig and Ted a look of utter horror as she suddenly realised what they must have been doing with the stolen plutonium over the last couple of days.
"You built a bomb," Gwen stated, in a near frightened whisper.
"To prove how easy it was, Doctor Stacy!" said Ted defensively. "We weren't going to explode it!"
"We're going to give it back," added Craig in earnest.
Teresa stepped forward and poked Craig right in the chest with her finger. "You idiot! Some guy tried to kidnap Gwen, because he thought she might have the plutonium. Do you realise what a creep like that could do with an atomic bomb?!"
"Miss Parker, relax," said Craig soothingly. "Nothing's going to happen."
"Yeah, we didn't get any plastic explosive. Nothing can happen," added Ted.
"We're going to give it back, we promise."
"Oh, give me strength," sighed Gwen, clasping her head in exasperation. She could see that the students were sincere and had meant no real harm, but she still could not believe that the two of them could be as complacent as they had accused Baylor of being.
"Where is the bomb now?" she asked, taking a few deep breathes to calm herself.
"At our apartment," replied Craig.
Gwen knew there was not a moment to lose. "Right, I know where that is. Teresa, could you do me a favour and keep an eye on these bozos? Make sure they don't go anywhere till Jean and her officers get here?"
"Sure," said Teresa. "But what are you going to do?"
"Get over to their apartment and check on that bomb. If someone happens to find it and tamper with it, who knows what could happen!"
Without waiting for a response, Gwen marched her way out of the hospital and darted into a dark alley. Within seconds, Spider-Woman was web-slinging her way with all speed towards the block where the apartment that Craig, Ted and Carla shared was.
THWIP!
As she swung and wall-crawled as fast as she could, Spider-Woman's mind raced over the possible repercussions that might happen if that bomb fell into the wrong hands. It was bad enough that some crooks were after it, but if some hapless bystander happened to stumble upon it and messed around with the controls and wiring...
The consequences could be catastrophic.
Landing onto the roof of the building next to the relevant apartment block, Spider-Woman raced over to the ledge, when her spider-sense began tingling. Ducking down out of sight, she peered over the top of the ledge, where she had a good view of the side of the opposite building, which had a fire escape connecting each apartment building window. Climbing up the network of metal stairwells were a group of five unscrupulous-looking individuals. One was the Prowler; the other a big hulking man called Man Mountain Marko, whom Gwen recalled hearing about from her father some years ago; two were smartly-dressed men, possibly gangsters; and the fifth was a man dressed in a white suit and fedora, with a purple leather mask covering his entire head.
Gwen recognised the purple-hooded figure at once. It was the Rose, a criminal mastermind who had often turned up in New York to cause trouble, though his main illegal enterprises these days tended to take place all over the states. Spider-Woman had crossed swords with him twice fairly recently. The first occasion occurred when she had recently stumbled upon the Rose's illegal fixing of football game results by bribing or intimidating the main players, and the second took place when Spider-Woman had uncovered a stolen goods smuggling racket run by the Rose and broke it up, although on both occasions, the masked criminal mastermind managed to slip away and make his escape. There were rumours that the criminal might also be the son of the late Wilson Fisk, the notorious Kingpin of Crime, though as yet, no definite proof had been found to back up this claim.
Seeing that the criminals were climbing in through the main window of the apartment where the plutonium was being held, Spider-Woman considered the situation carefully. Looking down, she spotted a white Limousine, presumably the Rose's main mode of transport. Once she was certain that no-one was watching, Spider-Woman crawled her way down the side of the building, leapt off the wall when she had nearly reached the bottom and landed gracefully by the car.
As Spider-Woman tentatively checked the Limo over, she noticed that it seemed to have a second license plate hidden under its main New York one. Pulling the first plate off, she peered at the second one underneath, which seemed to be a Californian licence. Memorising the number for future reference, Spider-Woman put the New York one back in place, then crossed over to one of the rear wheels. Leaning in, she placed one of her spider-tracers against the Limo's metal framework, where it would not be spotted without a particularly rigorous search.
"Good," she thought to herself. "Now if something goes wrong, I can track them down if I have to."
With her contingency in place, it was time for Spider-Woman to deal with the Rose and his men. Glancing upwards, she spotted the Prowler climbing back up the fire escape, heading for the roof. At a guess, he had probably been instructed to keep an eye on the streets from up top. If Spider-Woman could take him out first, it would make the odds easier when she had to deal with Man Mountain Marko and the Rose's thugs. Quickly, she began to crawl up the wall after the Prowler.
Things were turning out even better than the Rose had anticipated. He had originally intended to get hold of the plutonium and sell it to the highest bidder, but now he felt like he had hit the jackpot. The room was filled with a whole load of scientific and electronic equipment that the students had either bought or borrowed for handling radioactive material, and sitting innocently on the worktable was a large cylindrical container, with a big metal ball suspended in its centre and a complex network of wires running across its surface.
"Well, well," the Rose chuckled to himself, as Varley began checking the ugly-looking device with a geiger counter. "It appears that the occupants of this apartment have been busy with the plutonium."
Marko looked at the object with some awe. "Whoa! It's a bomb, ain't it?"
"Do you think it'll work?" asked Johnston.
"Not with this modelling clay," said the Rose, picking at the soft material placed against the surface of the ball with his gloved hand. "But I think we can find some real plastic explosive for this little toy. I must say, I am impressed with the craftsmanship. Perhaps our young friends did us a favour by taking the merchandise and preparing it for us."
Varley gave a satisfied nod as he finished checking the device over, an almost admiring look on his face. "Not bad. Not bad at all. The outer sphere is containing most of the radiation inside. We can handle it, no sweat."
"Excellent," said the Rose with some considerable satisfaction. "Get it down to the car. We shall have the Limo put on a cargo flight. Marko, you, along with Mr Johnston and Mr Varley, will stay with it at all times."
"Don't cha worry, boss," said Marko. "We won't let anyone near it."
"Good. Meanwhile, the Prowler and I will set on ahead in my private jet and..."
The Rose's instructions were abruptly interrupted by a loud startled cry from the rooftop above them.
"That was the Prowler," realised Johnston with a vexed groan. "What trouble is that idiot causing now?"
The Rose clicked his fingers at Marko. "Go and see what the situation is."
"Right away, boss," said Marko, as he climbed back out of the window and made his way up the fire escape to find out what all the commotion was about.
Things were not going as smoothly as Spider-Woman had hoped. Upon reaching the roof, she had spotted the Prowler a little away from her with his back turned, and she had tried to sneak up on him and take him by surprise. Unfortunately, just as the web-spinner was about to pounce, the nervous crook had chosen that particular moment to glance about his surroundings and spotted his would-be assailant. With a loud yelp of alarm he fired an air blast from his gauntlet, forcing Spider-Woman to leap to the side.
FZOPPP!
There came a loud explosion as that section of roof was hit by the blast, sending bits of concrete flying all about the place. Managing to avoid getting hit by the soaring debris, Spider-Woman landed on the other side of the roof, just as the Prowler was charging at her, his sharp claws outstretched and ready for the kill. She leapt gracefully to the side, avoiding getting herself impaled, then delivered a strong punch right to the Prowler's jaw, knocking him backwards.
"Sheesh, Prowler, that wasn't very friendly, now was it?" remarked Spider-Woman with a smug smile behind her mask. "Didn't anyone tell you it's rude to take potshots like that at a lady?"
With an angry cry, the Prowler recovered himself and fired off a series of explosive charges, but again, Spider-Woman jumped clear, performed a fast cartwheel across the roof to avoid each blast, and landed on top of a rooftop generator. Moving fast, she fired out a web-line which snagged the Prowler's feet, enabling her to yank the villain right off his feet and sending him crashing down on his back onto the hard roof surface.
Just as Spider-Woman was about to leap down and ensnare the crook with more of her webbing, her spider-sense flared again, warning of danger from near the fire escape. Whirling around, she saw that Man Mountain Marko had reached the top of the roof and was charging right towards her!
Quickly, Spider-Woman launched herself off the top of the generator, just narrowly avoiding get crushed by Marko's fists, which smashed right into the metal paneling and caused it to bend completely out of shape. With a roar, Marko spun around with surprising speed and managed to grab hold of Spider-Woman's foot while she was still in mid-leap, then flung her against the side of the generator before she had time to react.
THUMP!
"Oof!" gasped Spider-Woman, the wind knocked right out of her.
Taking advantage of the masked girl being dazed, Marko slammed her against the generator a couple of more times, then lifted her above his head with his titanic fists and stomped over to the ledge on the other side of the roof.
"Watch this, Prowler!" he boasted with a wicked sneer. "This is how a proper professional deals with bugs!"
Gathering all his strength, Marko flung Spider-Woman right through the air, all the way over the top of the opposite building, and down the alleyway on the other side!
Her recuperative powers pumping away, Spider-Woman's eyes blinked open and widened in dread, as she realised she was about to hit the ground with a very messy splat! Fighting the urge to panic, she fired out her webs, forming a net between the two buildings that formed the alleyway, miraculously catching her and breaking her fall, just a few feet away from hitting the ground.
The sudden stop caused Spider-Woman to lose consciousness for a few minutes. When she came to, she sat up on the net, caught her breath and shook her head to clear the cobwebs. She was a little battered and bruised, but otherwise okay. But things had not worked out well at all. By the time she would have made her way back to the apartment building, the Rose and his men would already be speeding away in their Limo with the bomb. Still, thanks to the spider-tracer she had planted on the car, she should be able to catch them up using her long-range tracker.
But as Spider-Woman reached for her utility belt, she heard the tinkling sound of broken glass and circuits, and as she pulled out the tracker, she was mollified to see that the device was smashed. It must have gotten damaged when Marko had slammed her against the generator.
With a groan of frustration, the wall-crawler slapped the damaged tracker in disgust. It would take hours for her to repair the device, and in that time the Rose may already be miles away, far enough for her spider-sense to not be able to pick up the tracer's signals on its own.
Spider-Woman shook her head in defeat. The Rose had made a clean getaway. And now he had a doomsday machine with enough power to bring devastation to the whole city...
TO BE CONTINUED!