For years, Queens was one of the safest parts of New York City, its residents thriving from peacetime. This abruptly ended the night when terror and fear had stricken the people surrounding the Parker Foundation building. Thousands of locals, from the streets to apartment windows, looked up in shock and awe over the forces of good and evil battling in the heart of Queens.
Journalists and news times were already capturing the astonishing action. The Daily Bugle team, led by renowned journalist Betty Thompson, arrived. She wished their promising intern, May, were here now to get pictures of the rescued. Most onlookers tried to catch peeks of the action while others called their loved ones.
All of them couldn't look away. This was the first big-scale superpowered battle the city had seen in years. Watching with tenacity the sheer power, spectacle, and danger of this battle was almost hypnotic. Even from the ground, they can see the haze from bombs and echoes of webs blasting. They all wanted to know who was up there protecting their lives.
Emergency services were crowded closely around Parker's building, establishing a parameter and ensuring no falling debris struck any bystanders. They refused to let anyone across the line, except a black car rolling up whose driver they instantly recognized.
A tall, middle-aged police officer of African-American descent steps out of the car with eyes locked on the building. A loud bang from one of the floors causes the crowd to gasp collectively. Soon, they screamed at the sight of several large glass shards falling toward them. Though many were able to run away in time, it did little to quell the growing panic. One of them was the officer trying to spot his son.
"Miles," Jefferson Morales whispered in concern. The situation is more severe than he thought. His boy would already be getting civilians out by now, but instead, he sees electricity intensify on the roof and fires spreading across several floors.
"Chief!" Jefferson turns to see a young officer in the police squadron calling for him. "Thank goodness you're here." He expected this woman to be the captain, but her rank said otherwise. "Sergeant, where's your superior?"
"Captain Jones and I were the first to arrive when he got struck by falling debris. He's badly hurt but alive."
"So…you organized this whole perimeter?"
"Yes, sir. I'm coordinating with firefighters to put out fires on the mid-level floors, and I've ordered a squad to go in. They've cleared out some drones in the lobby and worked with firefighters to get several civilians out."
"That's…. excellent. Good work, Sergeant…?"
"Yuriko Watanabe. Orders, sir? I've never witnessed anything like this."
"That's because this isn't some hostage situation. Those are supervillains up there!"
"What?! But I thought the heroes ran them out of town years ago! How many are we dealing with?!"
"Precisely five of them, officer!"
Hearing the familiar voice above, both see it's none other than Spider-Man, Jefferson's son, swinging over. "They call themselves the Sinister Syndicate. Amongst them are a new Mysterio and Electro, and their powers are just as insane as the old ones. And worse, they have a new Doc Ock with them, and she's just as dangerous."
The last name was especially worrying. Doc Ock was one of Spider-Man's most dangerous adversaries, responsible for several world endangerment schemes and the deaths of many people, including the famed George Stacy. To hear now that his legacy has lived on would be utterly fear-inducing to many but not to Jefferson. He's the chief; he can't afford to let such shocking news affect his judgment.
He asks, "Any information on her?"
"Look up a Carolyn Trainer in your database, sir."
"I'm on it," Yuriko said, dashing to a police truck. Its built-in computer system was connected to the department's database.
Jefferson accesses the situation presented. They've had small-time villains in recent years, but never have they encountered one with such firepower and resources to fight off a hero like Spider-Man. Miles still had plenty of fight left in him. Still, Jefferson couldn't shake his anger at the sight of his son looking the most bruised and cut up in months. Whoever this team and this new Doc Ock were, Jefferson swore they wouldn't get away with hurting his son.
"We'll see what we can find. I'll call the Special Unit and—"
"No, Chief, we got to get everyone out of here."
"Why?"
"This group made some kind of bomb. Perhaps a fission bomb. I don't know, we can't get a good look thanks to Ock's shield," Spider-Man said urgently, "it's powerful enough to disintegrate everything within a half-mile radius. Until we can deactivate it, people must leave!"
Jefferson froze. It's not every day you're told a nuke across the street is ready to blow at any minute. He allowed himself a small chuckle at how absurd stakes had suddenly risen. "Man, and I was having a good day, too, and now a mini-nuke?"
Spider-Man shares a laugh, "sucks, doesn't it?"
Jefferson sharply inhales and quickly takes charge. "All Units, this is a code 716. Evac all civilians within a half-mile radius." He turns to his son, saying, "We'll do what we can from down here."
"Leave evacuating the hostages inside to me, sir," Spider-Man said, ready to swing back into action when his father stopped him for a moment.
"Spider-Man," he said, but Miles knew he was reaching out to his son, not Spider-Man. "Just…tell me that you have the situation under control." He trusted his son's capabilities, but a father can't help but be worried for their son sometimes.
"Sir, the Spider-Girls are up there fighting," Spider-Man said confidently. "I am confident that they have this handled."
An explosion from the side of the building startles the crowds. Spider-Man and Jefferson look to see Doc Ock and Spider-Girl leap out of one of the several uncontrolled flames above. They were locked in intense combat. Doc Ock's deadly tentacles clung to the building while lunging burning objects at the young hero. Spider-Girl dodges them at first before seeing the massive crowd of people below. She dives, catching up with the large debris and webbing them up before they could hit the crowds. Swinging back into battle, she leaps over another flung projectile but this time webs it and lobs it back at Ock.
Ock shattered the projectile, giving Spider-Girl time to swing around her foe. She leaps to attack, but Ock's reactions are faster than expected, and Spider-Girl is swatted away by one of Ock's tentacles. Spider-Girl retaliates with two webshots at the building to stop her fall. An idea pops into her head, and she smirks. Spider-Girl can reverse her momentum and launch herself at the young Doc Ock using these webs like a bungee jump. Barreling towards her like a bullet, Spider-Girl lands a solid right hook square in Carolyn's abdomen. The force is enough to throw them back into the building.
"See?" Spider-Man said, though his father's raised eyebrow showed he didn't quite share the sentiment. Spider-Man fires his web and swings back inside the building.
Jefferson sighs, whispering to himself, "Be careful, Miles."
Issue #6: The Marvelous Spider-Girls vs. The Sinister Syndicate (Part II)
[Thirteen Minutes and thirty seconds until detonation…]
Spider-Girl tumbles across the floor, reeling from a new pain in her back. She picks herself up, seeing Doc Ock already back on her feet, or in this case, tentacles. Mayday recognizes the orange and green painted walls; they're on the eco-tech division's floor with dozens of plants and indoor trees now all up in flames. Her web-shooter warns she's already running low on web-fluid. "Damn," she whispers, reloading her cartridges.
A loud, metallic stomp from Ock's tentacles snaps Spider-Girl's focus back at her. She chuckles despite still catching her breath, saying, "Reloading…so soon? Come on...this has just been a warm-up." Spider-Girl didn't underestimate Carolyn's power. She dished out enough attacks to knock out over a dozen men, and yet the good doctor only sported some bruises.
'Whatever she's got flowing through her veins, she's extremely confident on it and those tentacles to protect her,' Mayday thought. 'Her overconfidence will be her downfall. She must have something that'll deactivate the bomb's shield, a backup in case she's caught in the blast radius. Now, how to get past her?' Spider-Girl glances at a cement ceiling, ready to fall over Carolyn. "Bingo."
"What? Your usual brave words and taunts lost on you, Spider-Girl? Has it perhaps now dawned on you that you've met your superior?"
"If you're so superior, then dodge this!" Spider-Girl fires her webs at the cracked ceiling and, with a sharp pull, causes it to collapse.
"Ha! Child's play," Carolyn smirked. Her tentacles smash and deflect the heavy debris, creating a plum of thick, rocky ash around her. Carolyn's smirk quickly fades at her miscalculation; she should've kept her eyes on the prize, and now Spider-Girl was shrouded in the ash cloud. "I may not have your pesky spider sense, but I got the next best thing." Carolyn holds up her left glove, which contains a small circular mechanism built into it. A light in the center flashes blue before she carefully switches modes and activates her shade's infrared sensors. "Should've built this differently," she muttered, "I dare not press it while it's flashing blue."
Her tentacles try blowing away the cloud as she scans her surroundings, but her tech fails to warn her that Spider-Girl hanging behind her. Without hesitation, Spider-Girl leaps after Doc Ock. Carolyn flinches from the snap of the web and launches a blind tentacle at her foe, but Spider-Girl diligently dodges and punches Ock's left cheek. Spider-Girl quickly wraps her left arm around Carolyn's neck and promptly searches her pockets. Her window was closed when Carolyn's tentacles grabbed and tossed Spider-Girl against a nearby wall.
The heroine quickly recovers, dodging subsequent attacks as Doc Ock goes on the offensive. "A bit protective, ain't ya? Mind sharing with the class what you got hiding."
"I'm not hiding anything!" Carloyn's anger grows, and she uses her tentacles to tower over Spider-Girl in intimidation. "I'm simply disgusted at the thought of being touched by filthy insects like you!" With a flick of the switch on her glove, two of Ock's tentacles begin building energy, glowing blue at each end.
'What's—Spider-Sense tingling!'
Two powerful plasma beams fire from their arms, but Spider-Girl zips away with a quick web-swing. Looking back, she sees those weapons were no joke as they burned through steel and concrete like butter. A barrage of blaster bolts riddles the room as Ock tries to fire at Spider-Girl. A few misses were too close to Spider-Girl's liking, so she re-strategizes by switching her web-shooters capsules, firing a series of specialized acid-webs at the arms. The entangled tentacles begin to melt faster than the nanobot's ability to regrow.
Doc Ock growls at this sight and lunges her four other arms at Spider-Girl, but the wall-crawler leaps over them before grabbing a burning crate with a well-timed webshot. In mid-air, she thrusts the crate overhead and onto Carolyn. The strike and momentum of the attack were enough to make Ock fall through the floor below.
Following her, Spider-Girl stumbles upon a large room with over thirty employees surrounding them, each held hostage by several of Mysterio's hijacked drones. The drones quickly turn to fire at the hostage. "Everyone, run!" Spider-Girl shouts while webbing several of their turrets and drawing all the drone's attention to her.
As the crowd flees and Spider-Girl smashes the bots to bits, Doc Ock stumbles herself up with another fresh bruise. She wipes her face, noticing blood dripping from her nose and staining her black gloves. "You…you BROKE my nose!" She rises, shaking off any acid residue from her reformed tentacles, renewed fury in her eyes. Just as Spider-Girl dispatched the last drone, Doc Ock charges after her while nearly hitting the last escapees. Spider-Girl retreats to lead Carolyn away from civilians, going back outside and wall-crawling up the building before Carolyn comes roaring behind her.
"I'm done toying with you! Now you'll pay for making me FURIOUS!"
Doc Ock lunges her tentacles at her foe. When Spider-Girl dodges and swings around her, she quickly retaliates with another barrage of plasma bolts. While Spider-Girl webs one of the tentacles, she spots Carolyn meddling with something on her wrist. 'A built-in remote,' she thought, 'it's connected to her arm's systems…the same one that converted Dad's reactor.'
She fires and lands a web on Carolyn's chest. Pulling herself directly towards her, Spider-Girl fights off Carolyn while trying to rip off the remote glove. Though she tore a piece off, Spider-Girl took a direct punch from Ock, the force of which once again proved their strengths to be nearly equal. A tentacle latches onto Spider-Girl's back and smashes her against the building. Again and again, she's battered against the cement. The mad villain even strikes her with a tentacle whose heavy head morphed into a hammerhead. Mayday hasn't felt her torso bruised this much since her training days. However, this meant Carolyn couldn't dish out anything Spider-Girl couldn't handle.
Despite being smashed through a wall, Spider-Girl can free her arm and fire a web directly at Carolyn's glasses. The one mistake in May's plan was she mistakenly used acidic webbing.
Intense, searing pain spreads across Carolyn's face, like being dosed with boiling water. "GAAAAH! HOT! HOT! IT BURNS!"
Spider-Girl is quickly tossed against the building, freed from Ock's grasp as the villain struggles to yank the webbing off. Spider-Girl catches her breath and notices her mistake; a terrible feeling spreads within her. Carolyn's dangerous, but she's still just a teen like her, and no kid deserves to have their face burned off!
"GET IT OFF! GET. IT. OFF!" Carolyn yells before yanking off the acidic webs. Though her glasses melted off, they saved her eyes, but she now struggled to open them. A slight touch of her face hurt like hell, but everything felt intact. Despite the intense acidity, she has only suffered first-degree burns.
Spider-Girl breathes a sigh of relief. "Would it help if I said, 'My bad?'"
"SHUT UP!" Doc Ock charges after Spider-Girl, locking the two in a close-combat duel. Despite her blurry vision, Doc Ock's tentacles furiously try to pummel Spider-Girl. Her previous calculated attacks were gone. Now, Carolyn was just a teen lashing out. Spider-Girl sees this as an opportunity to gain the upper hand and leads them both to the roof while trying to slow Ock down by webbing the arms.
"YOU! YOU DARE RUIN THIS FACE?! TARNISH YEARS OF WORK?!"
"A perfectionist and a lunatic, charming combo."
Doc Ock's blood boiled over her quip. Spider-Girl can't tell if Carolyn's red from anger or the burns.
"Shutupshutupshutup! You don't understand. You'll never understand! More reason why I despise you egotistical maniacs! Especially YOU, Spider-Girl!"
"Me? How could anyone hate a cute face like mine?"
"Is everything a joke to you?!" Doc Ock fires a flurry of plasma bolts that force Spider-Girl to leap backward onto the roof.
Mayday sees it's empty, and she hopes her sisters are holding their own in this building. Hearing Doc Ock approach, she dives behind one of the many utility machines and concrete slabs. 'Okay, May, cool it before she pops a nerve. Focus on the glove remote.'
Doc Ock reaches the roof, scouring for Spider-Girl. "Grrr! Fool! Coward! Why am I not surprised? You all see yourselves as these mighty, perfect figures, but you're all frauds. You waste all that power because of petty principles and naive idealisms, but I don't! You don't deserve such power, but I do! You've never known the struggle of being weak to everyone around you, to be ridiculed by inferior, to have your future stolen…but I DO!"
Spider-Girl reloads her cartridges and keeps her sight on the remote on Doc Ock, whose blurry vision forces her to use sound to track her. "Here goes nothing," May whispers before raising her voice, "Okay, Carolyn, you want me to be serious? Fine, here's some serious advice. You need help, Carolyn!" Mayday stays on the move as Carolyn tries tracking the source of Spider-Girl's voice, fruitlessly smashing the empty cover. "I don't know what you've been through, and I'm sure it's been hard, but inheriting a madman's mantle and endangering thousands of lives won't solve anything!"
Spider-Girl leaps to another cover, narrowly avoiding Ock's tentacles. Hanging back, she discovers she's beside a large power generator running the utility machines. She quietly opens the panel. 'I recognize this setup. One good static discharge will fry anybody touching it.' An idea pops into her head, and she faces Ock ahead, who is scouring for her.
"These people should've thought twice before working for that fraud, Peter Parker! They and that cursed Spider-Man helped in the success of that poor excuse of a scientist. Partners in the true crime of STEALING my predecessor's chances for glory!"
"And your brilliant solution is to burn it all to the ground?!"
Doc Ock smiles upon finally locating Spider-Girl. "If it'll ruin him and you Spider-freaks forever, yes! After that, I'll finish what Otto started and fulfill his grand vision. You heroes are too cowardly to build a perfect world!"
Doc Ock charges, her deadly tentacles moments away from lethally striking Spider-Girl, but the heroine leaps out at the last moment. Four of Ock's six tentacles strike and get stuck in the unstable generator.
Spider-Girl fires a precise shot of electro-web at the weakened core and causes a chain reaction. Over a thousand volts of electricity course through the tentacles and directly into Carolyn's body. The discharge was a short but effective attack. Carolyn pulls away, but the voltage coursing her nervous system still scrambles her control over the nano-tentacles. She struggles to keep them solid but eventually tumbles to the ground.
"A perfect world, you say…" Spider-Girl said, snatching the remote glove with her web, "Did you ever wonder that in pursuing perfection, you forgot how to be better first?"
But Carolyn didn't listen, instead struggling to get up and reaching out for the remote. "Give…give it back!" She launches two tentacles, but Spider-Girl dodges, though her cheek is cut by one of the blades. Mayday firmly grabs one of the arms and uses her strength to throw Doc Ock, who crashes hard into a nearby comm tower.
Spider-Girl runs to the ledge to get to the shield, but her spider senses warn of incoming danger before she can fiddle with the remote. She dodges torn spikes from the broken comm tower and sees Doc Ock find her footing. 'Spiderling, Wild-Spider,' Mayday calls out through their special spider-sense connection, 'I got Doc Ock's remote; it's probably our only way of getting past that shield and deactivating the bomb.'
She leaps over the edge and quickly pursues her way down with Doc Ock. Carolyn taps a small earpiece comm to warn the Syndicate. "Spider-Girl has the remote…I need backup, or we may be doomed to share their fate."
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
[Ten Minutes and seventeen seconds until detonation…]
Hearing Mayday's update on how to disable the bomb was the news Spiderling needed to hear because this heroine had her work cut out today.
She has been struggling to keep up with Mysterio's illusions, not quite telling what was real and what was not. On top of that, the villain freed fellow syndicate member Hallows' Eve, while Spiderling was disoriented by one of Mysterio's illusions. Mayday's voice echoes through her spider senses. "I'm on my way to the bomb, but Doc Ock's not letting up! Think you two can meet me there for backup?"
"I would, but I'm too far away now."
"Where are you?" April's voice echoes in her mind.
Spiderling brushes aside thick vegetation and sees a vast river system miles away. "The Amazon, by the looks of it, or what used to be the engineering division."
Spiderling was trapped in Mysterio's illusions inside the building. The wildly different terrain confused Spiderling and likely provided ample cover for the two villains to set an ambush. 'Dad shared all he knew about Mysterio's smoke and mirrors, but this lady's tech is on another level,' Annie thought. The humidity and foliage felt so real. The tropical rain beating down on her tasted like rainwater. Even the tall cliff edges felt natural like she could reach the bottom if she climbed down.
But she could figure a way out even with the limited time; the problem was that the frequent lightning bolts from this 'storm' weren't helping. It's like Annie's spider senses would blare out intense warnings every few seconds, and by the time she swung away, she saw lightning had nearly struck her. Not every bolt of lightning conjured by Mysterio aimed at her; it almost seemed random to Annie when she'd get attacked.
"Now, for my next trick!" Mysterio's voice echoes across the sky.
Out of the foggy hillside came an enormous flash flood, barreling down nearly thing in its path. Spiderling notices her senses aren't tingling this time. "I call your bluff, bubblehead!" Spiderling shouted to the air. Even these new illusions couldn't simulate the force of a flood.
"Do you know?"
Suddenly, a shriek is heard in the distance.
"AHH! What's happening!?"
Spiderling spots a utility worker running from the flood. 'She must've been trying to escape but got caught in the illusion like I did!' Annie curses and swings into action. Illusion or not, it was real to the civilian, and Spiderling couldn't ignore her distress. She snatches the civilian into her arms in the nick of time as the jungle floor is flooded. Spiderling lands on top of one of the taller tree's branches.
"Oh god…thank you, but please tell me what's going on," the woman sobbed, scared half to death.
"It's one of Mysterio's illusions. This may all look real, but we're still somewhere inside the building…which is still set to explode…but don't think about that for now."
Annie sees she still needs to work on her people skills and shifts back to looking for an exit. Looking out to the vast flooded area, she notices something off. It's taken a brief respite of thinking for Spiderling to deduce the thunderstorm looming in did have a pattern to its strikes. 'Of course, they're interconnected. A connected system allows for enough interlude time for certain discharges to, I guess, reload each charge of lightning.' She can recall the several times she visited this division, her dad imparting lessons while she fiddled with tools. 'Yeah, yeah… there's plenty of electricity-generating gadgets in there for her to makeshift the Illusion of lightning. And I know even the best models there needed time to recharge.'
Seeing the woman frightened by the storm now above them, Spiderling offers her a hand. "I think I see a way out. The lighting may be real, but where they come from isn't. After each strike, it creates an opening, an opportunity to peek behind the curtain, you may say."
"You want to go through one of those dark clouds?! How?!"
Spiderling fires two webs at two nearby trees in front of them. With the webs firmly secured at the tip of these trees, Spiderling pulls herself back, turning herself into a human slingshot. She aims at a robust lightning chain, waiting for the moment just after it strikes. "Better hang on tight; I'll quickly drop you off at an escape route."
The civilian hugs Spiderling quite tightly. "You are a brave girl…"
Out of nowhere, Annie's spider-sense started going haywire. It was like a speeding train was…right behind her!
Hallows' Eve reveals herself with a mad cackle and throws away her civilian mask. She pulls back her arm, brandishing a steel knife. "And the brave is always the first to die!"
Annie didn't think but ran on pure instinct as she let go of the webs and evaded the thrust of Eve's dagger. Her body practically moved itself as she elbowed Eve's face, throwing her against the tree. Annie didn't have a second to think when she suddenly heard a ticking sound. A high-tech pumpkin bomb was stuck onto her spider-suit! Eve was so close that Annie's spider sense must've blended the knife and bomb as one threat until she shoved Eve off her.
"Enjoy my treat! AHAHAHA!" Eve cackles, donning her ghost mask and vanishing into the tree.
Spiderling yanks the bomb off her and throws it as hard as she can, but the fuse is too short, and the bomb implodes. It didn't kill, but the shockwave hurt like hell, and Annie plummets below. "Gah! I just had to land on my shoulder! When I get my hands on that witch, I'll—"
No, stop, she tells herself. There's no point in complaining if she'll be atomized in a few minutes. She must stay focused on that exit.
She ignored the shoulder pain and dodged some lightning before restarting her plan. She sets herself up like before and, with a mighty yank, is propelled at fast speeds to the small escape window.
When Spiderling enters the lighting cloud, she smashes through a dome window into a control room to discover Mysterio controls this whole testing area.
"Of course," Annie said, "you just converted this place like this into your personal death maze. Too bad it's still just a sham, like you."
"A sham? Am I?" Mysterio growled with her fist raised high. Then she fires a blast of green energy as Spiderling, but the heroine swiftly dodges the close-range attack and cracks the illusionist's dome with a swift kick. This Mysterio was tough to pick herself back up, but Spiderling figured it wasn't something a few punches wouldn't solve.
Unfortunately, Mysterio's pal decided to pay another visit by phasing into the room and shifting into a new mask. Donning a devil mask, Eve's form mimics a conniving demon and bellows a plum of fire out of her mouth. Spiderling narrowly avoided getting burnt to a crisp. Both villains then began attacking from both sides. With a flurry of punches and kicks, Spidelring holds them off until Mysterio's fear gas shoots out of her gauntlets and coates Annie's face.
"Wha—" she coughed rapidly, "what going on? What is this?!" Her whole world suddenly becomes a big, contorted mess of voices and flashing lights while her Spider-sense is going berserk. 'My head! My whole body! It's like it's splitting apart!' Annie wildly swung her arms at her imaginary enemies, but reality was out of reach. She could not tell if that was Mysterio or just a shadow. A chant of hundreds rattle her mind.
"WEAK! POINTLESS! ALL YOUR FAULT!"
'S-shut up! This is all fake, Annie. Snap out of it!' Spiderling shouted in her head, but the terrifying illusions were relentless.
"Getting stage fright already? Come now, Spiderling, your performance has been magnificent!" Mysterio mocked as Spiderling cowered in fear of imaginary demons. Eve pulls out a bomb, but Mysterio stops her. "No," she said, "let her whimper like the child she is, her last moments being of total fear. The bomb will kill her anyway, and we'll be joining her if we don't help Doc Ock."
Mysterio blows a hole outside and begins to levitate. "Fine," Eve sighed, "I'll just leave a goodbye gift." With a devilish grin, Eve lazily drops the bomb and leaps out on her broom right before it detonates. The blast didn't kill Annie, but it did collapse over five tons of upper-floor cement on top of her, trapping her beneath the rubble.
She hacks out dust from her lungs and feels the heavy cement crushing her. She cries in pain, trying to yank the tons of rock off her, but the gas is too much. It's tricking her mind, making her muscles feel like rubber, like she's not strong enough. Even worse, her spider senses were being turned against her. The gas is making her mind think everything and everywhere is out to kill her, so her senses are stuck screaming at her in repeat, breaking her concentration. Mind trapped by demons, body fooled into believing it is weak, Annie can only struggle and cry. 'May…April…I'm scared…'
Amid the whirlwind of horrifying creatures and screams of her failings, Annie catches glimpses of her sisters. Today seemed like another day, and she was pumped to make herself stand out this new semester. She can only imagine how pathetic she looks. Once again, she's the weak link needing saving, crying out like a kid. "I… I'm not a kid," she grunted, fighting back the tears. Trying to regain her inner balance, she pushes back the mental block, but it still isn't enough to find her strength and move the debris off her. "I'm a spider-girl…I can't let…. Mysterio—"
A sharp gasp escapes her when memories of the vision return to her, reminding her of her family's doom if the villains succeed today. 'No! They're going after Mayday; they'd be too much for her! She's going to die and all because I can't think my way out of this nightmare!' She grits her teeth, trying to find the will to push the cement and steel. 'I'm not a kid! I'm a spider-girl, just as strong as my sisters, as Spider-Man!' Yet, no matter how much she repeated these words, it wasn't enough.
Despair threatens to ensure itself around Annie's heart. For years, she struggled to keep up with her sisters, constantly feeling like she was just some naive rookie in their eyes. Even her mantle as Spiderling sounded more like a baby alias than something heroic like Spider-Girl or cool like Wild-Spider.
Even her heavy reliance on tech was to compensate for her lesser skill. Ultimately, all this proved fruitless, perhaps proof that she was never ready. Upon facing the real deal, a catastrophe that dooms thousands, Annie is alone and stuck beneath a ton of rubble and metal. 'Why can't I think?! Why can't I do this simple thing?! It's like it's bye-bye, Annie. All because of this stupid gas fooling me into thinking I can't do this!'
Annie tries not to hyperventilate, and as she steadies her breath, a deep sigh leaves her upon realizing the truth. 'No. It's not this gas… it's just me…just me.' Annie almost felt like a liar, acting like she was just as heroic as her sisters. 'I probably just got lucky this morning attack. Mayday would've figured it out eventually, just like she did now. Now I've ruined her plan to save everyone because of my mistakes!'
Annie couldn't tell now if it was the fear gas talking or herself. 'How could I do this to them? Maybe I was never ready to begin with! A real daughter of Spider-Man wouldn't fail her family…fail Mayday…April…Mom and Dad… they're all gonna…gonna…!'
Her past visions burn her mind. A ball of pure light vaporizing everyone she loves and dooming this city to an era of villainy and ruin. All because of little Annie.
No. Anna-May Watson-Parker DOESN'T fail!
Just as despair was about to consume her heart, something deep within her refused to give up, fighting back the grief with a vengeance.
"I… I'm Anna-May Parker," she declared with her whole heart, "I have the power to help save everyone!" The demons cast by Mysterio's illusions reel in pain from the light of Annie's newfound spirit as she begins to lift the rubble. "I'm a spiderling for now, but that just means I'll only get better and better!" Manifested, her willpower punched and kicked every shadow cast on her, proving how weak tricks were against the Watson-Parker spirit!
"This…is all just smoke and mirrors. I'll prove it…by smashing that mirror!"
Like that, Annie's mind and body believed they could do anything. With a significant lift of pure might and will, Annie Watson-Parker lifted over five tons, setting herself free. "Yes! I did it!" she cheered, throwing the last debris out of her way. All it took was to find her will to get back up. Annie's mind becomes a steep trap against Mysterio's fear gas. Upon regaining her clear mind, her spider senses warn of her sisters in danger.
"Hang on, guys, I'm coming!" Spiderling swings outside with precise agility and catches sight of Mysterio and Hallows' Eve on their way upward. "Leaving already?" Spiderling said, firing a web at Eve's broom and yanking it out of her grasp. "We aren't done with Act III yet, director."
"What?! That gas should've left her a nervous wreck!" Mysterio gasped.
Eve hits the side of the building while struggling to get a new mask. She eventually dons a vampire mask; her chalk-white skin turns into a dark violet as two black wings sprout from her back. "Grrr! I told you I should've killed her!" Eve circles back and flies after Spiderling, but Annie's web-wings and the night's heavy winds give her the momentum to outfly her.
Mysterio fires more green energy, but Spiderling fires back with her Spider-Bots. The little critters quickly crawled over Mysterio, coating her helmet with webs. Blinded, the illusionist fires a stray energy beam, piercing one of Eve's wings. Spiderling catches Eve by her hood mid-fall and swings her right into heavy windows. Eve slams against the floor when her vampire mask falls off. "Wha…what?! No mere mortal could tear one of my faces off!"
Spiderling swoops in and webs Eve's torso before yanking her towards her. "In case you haven't noticed," she said, pulling back her fist and punching Eve with a hard right hook. "I'm no mere mortal. I'm SPIDERLING!"
The punch launches Eve against the wall; Spiderling gasps upon witnessing Eve's face come off like a mask. A Halloween mask version of Eve's face rolls to Annie's feet before breaking into two. As it did, Eve's ominous cackle could faintly be heard before falling silent. "What on earth?"
"Urgh…" Eve groaned, or at least Spiderling thought it was still Eve. Upon approaching and unhooding the woman, she looked completely different. Her facial structure, voice, and hair color were all different. Spiderling didn't recognize her; this was just some random woman.
"Hello? Are you okay?" Annie carefully, but the woman falls over unconscious. "I don't know what happened, but at least that's one less foe to worry over."
Speaking of foes, Spiderling hears Mysterio yanking off the webbing. She snatches the broken Eve mask in her pack before swinging out. With her renewed confidence, Spiderling confronts the villain.
'Eve is down, dealing with Mysterio now. I'm gonna try regrouping with Mayday.'
'Great work, Annie! Doc Ock isn't letting up. April, where are you?'
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
[Six minutes until detonation…]
It's just April's luck to be stuck with the most annoying members of this Syndicate. The past nine minutes have been a blur of static, concrete, and blood. The pain in her lower abdomen, the ooze of red and black blood barely sealed by her symbiote skin, made her heartbeat like no other way. Going toe to toe against a foe nearly created of pure electricity and an armored bug was an utter thrill. She has battled across several floors and destroyed everything in her wake, and she hasn't even gone all out yet. This would be the perfect heroic day for her if her sisters and parents weren't in danger. Amid the fighting, April ensured no one else was left on the upper floors, which meant she didn't have to worry about collateral. An exciting prospect indeed.
Wild-Spider's ferocious fighting style and wild symbiote powers made even the powerful Electro doubt if she could win. Whenever Electro fires a powerful bolt of electricity, Wild-Spider's symbiote skin helps protect her. These static discharges faded too quickly to exploit her weakness to intense heat, for it didn't stick and burn as fast as fire. Still, didn't mean they hurt like hell. April had never seen the original Electro fight, but she already thought this new Electro had one thing he didn't: pure fighting tenacity, which April respected.
She was still quite amateur, like during April's early training days. Nonetheless, this Electro was just as thrilled as she was to test the extent of her powers. When Wild-Spider morphed and enlarged her arms to pummel Electro, the villainess only grinned with a spark in her eyes. Electro unleashed a tremendous shockwave, throwing Wild-Spider off her. "So, you get it too, Spider? You hold nothing back, wanting to show the world how strong you are. Shame that you're about to die; you would've made for a fun rival."
"The only thing dying tonight is your dumbass plan when we smash your machine to bits! Now get out of my damn way!"
The two superpowered fighters charged with renewed vigor. Wild-Spider leaps and dodges blasts from the hovering Electro. She snatches onto small boulders with her webs and smashes them against Electro, sending her flying outside.
'April!' her sister mentally called out.
'Yeah, yeah. I'm coming!'
Wild-Spider swings out to the other side to regroup. In the distance, she can see Doc Ock and Mysterio battling against Spider-Girl and Spiderling. Both sides were tiring each other out, and her presence would significantly tip the scales. She keeps her eye out for Electro looping back around but also for the Beetle whose presence she hasn't felt. Either she cut her losses and abandoned her team, or she was waiting for the right moment to—
'Spider-Sense tingling!' April thought, narrowly avoiding a sudden blast from Electro, who sprang around almost out of nowhere. 'Argh, I don't have time for this! I'm finishing this now!" Wild-Spider stretched out her arm, grabbed Electro, and readied for a devasting right punch until the villainess smirked.
"Now!"
Wild-Spider felt the tingle but didn't see where Beetle was until she changed to her normal size. She attempted to swing away, but it wasn't Beetle's usual repulsor blasters that fired but her greatest weakness: sonic weaponry.
In an instant, Wild-Spider's concentration shattered as her whole body was struck with immense pain. She roared as she desperately clung to the building, but every second of this awful noise was unbearable. Her grip loosened before plummeting several stories where she crashed onto a balcony.
"Go," Beetle orders Electro, "The Doc and Misty need you. I got the spider-freak." The super-charged woman was pumped to kill such an opponent but relented and followed her orders. Beetle shrinks down and bids her time to strike.
Wild-Spider whole body spasmed, struggling to move or even breathe properly. The gentlest way April could describe this painful sensation coursing through her body was as if two drills dug into her ears and met in the middle.
The pain inflicted on her, feeling her stomach churn while her head pounded, nearly clouded her mind with rage. "That does it!" she yelled, pushing herself to stand back up, "when I get my claws on that bug, I'm gonna—!"
'April!' Mayday's voice rings through their connected spider-sense. 'Electro decided to wrestle with us. Where are you?!'
'That bug lady blasted me with sonic blasters. When I see her again, I will tear her to shreds—!"
' Focus, April! We need you, now!'
'…right.'
Begruntling, Wild-Spider avoids detection from Beetle and crawls across the other side. Suddenly, the whole building shakes, and there's a big flash of light. Hearing the battle coming closer, April could instantly tell it was Electro's shockwave blast. April spots cracks across the support beams; the whole floor above them is about to collapse on top of them. Then she heard a familiar voice cry out.
"Watch Out!" Mary Jane shouted as she and Peter led the last group of hostages to one of the advanced emergency escape systems. Peter invented a highly durable, independently powered speed elevator for this exact purpose, able to fit over forty people and deliver them to the ground floor within seconds. These were those last forty. Before, this floor was relatively far from the fighting, but unlucky circumstances now placed them in the middle of the battle.
The collapse of the floor was colossal. Time slowed to a crawl as one end of the room began to cave in, getting closer to April and her parents. She could leave quickly with her speed, but the last hostages were still funneling to the exit, and, of course, her parents weren't going to leave anyone behind. 'The collapse is too fast; they will get pancaked!' Wild-Spider let out a mighty roar before planting herself a few dozen feet away from her parents and latching onto the collapsing ceiling. With her symbiote powers, she morphed and spread her tendrils across the remaining ceiling, keeping it all together despite the immense strain on her body.
Suffice it to say, April was now stopping an actual fuck ton of steel and rock from crushing her parents. She always boasted to Mayday that she was the strongest; now was the moment to put her money where her mouth was. 'Heh…just. Try. And. Top. This. Mayday!'
She joked, only to help reassure herself that she could do this. Her parents' lives were on the line, the very people who saved her from a lonely life in a test tube. "GO!" she shouted, her voice deeply strained under the colossal weight. Everything hurts, but she can stop nearly half the floor from collapsing, buying everyone left those few extra seconds needed to escape safely.
Thankfully, Peter and MJ have already sent down the hostages, meaning the elevator will be back up any second for them to get out of their daughter's way. Seeing that time is dangerously close to hitting zero, they share a look, knowing exactly what the other is thinking. They might bite the bullet and call their daughters to abandon the building. Miles and city services have already done a great job evacuating the surrounding area. With their daughters' help, they can maybe, just maybe, get everyone out in time.
It was a mighty big deal, maybe, not to mention the Syndicate's persistent attacks, but it's better than having their kids battle directly on top of a ticking bomb.
Before either of them could make the call, however, the building shook once more, and this time, it came from the six-armed doctor. Just outside, they barely caught sight of Doc Ock falling. Ock is fatigued, just like Spider-Girl. Further above, she spots Spiderling incapacitating Mysterio before tussling with Electro. This wasn't good; she needed an upper hand of some kind. Peter and MJ hid behind the cover, but Carolyn's eyes were keen enough to spot them. A devious grin appears when she spots Wild-Spider struggling to keep half the floor from collapsing.
"Beetle, now!" she orders in.
Peter and his daughter's spider senses go haywire upon Beetle reappearing beside Ock, her sonic blasters aimed straight at April. Spiderling was too busy with Electro to help. Spider-Girl tried to stop the Beelte, but Doc Ock's many arms grabbed and shoved her against the building. "Wild-Spider, look out!" she cried, trying to fight off Carolyn, who had reclaimed the remote. Wild-Spider knew what was coming, but the second she let go, there was no way to grab her parents and swing out of this floor, especially with the damn Beetle there.
Beetle's blasters hum as they're about to fire, then a bright flash of light is emitted. Except these weren't her weaponry but MJ's stun pistol. It was still on her, and she tossed it to Peter to shoot it. Beetle's blasters fizzle out from the static discharge before Beetle's bug-like goggles are busted from two direct static blasts.
"GAAH! My suit! What's going on? What have you done?!" Beetle shouted in pain, struggling to move as her armor rippled with electricity. She shrunk and regrew randomly, her wings barely keeping her afloat and her remaining repulsor blast firing in sporadic directions.
"Her targeting system's out of control," Peter surmises. His spider-sense suddenly screams when Beetle's suit randomly targets Mary Jane, aiming the repulsor at her. He saw the blast fly towards his wife and, without hesitation, shielded her with his own body.
"Peter!" Mary Jane cried in shock and anguish. The blast's power launched them over the edge, and they were in free fall within a second.
One word screamed across the sister's heads, 'NO!'
Spiderling webbed up and slammed Electro through the building before leaping on top of Doc Ock. "GO!" she shouted, pummeling Carolyn's head with a flurry of punches.
Spider-Girl and Wild-Spider simultaneously dove after their parents; Mayday won't forget the emotional roar April bellowed upon seeing thier parents fall. MJ clung onto Peter as tightly as the twins fired their webs. Thier minds screamed, 'ComeonComeonComeon!' until both webs wrapped securely around thier parents. They pull them up and latch onto the building with thier parents within thier grasp.
"Peter!"
"Dad!"
All thee quickly tended to Peter's wound, and the repulsor burned a small hole in his lower right abdomen. If Beetle's suit hadn't malfunctioned and fired at full blast, Peter would've been much more dire. Mayday whips out a healing spray on her father's wounds as April hugs her mother to offer some comfort. Moments after first aid was applied, Peter sharply inhaled and stopped himself from passing out. "We...we all need to go, we're out...of time."
"No. If we leave now, then hundreds around us could die!" Mayday argued.
"I'm...your father," he whispered, "I don't...I can't lose you all tonight."
Mayday gripped her father's hand as a tear fell down his cheek. "Dad...I know, but I have a responsibility, too." May carries her father to April, telling her to swing them to safety.
"May, wait-," Mary Jane said.
"I know, Mom, and I'm sorry."
Mayday turns to April with a rarely seen glare in her eyes, a look only the two truly understood. April nods and carries thier parents to safety. Spider-Girl springs into action. She sees Beetle incapacitated beneath the rubble. Electro was decharged by the smashed water pipes, and Mysterio was unconscious. That left only one member remaining. Doc Ock swats away Spiderling, badly hurt, and crawls back to the converted bomb.
"They're safe?"
"Yeah, Wild-Spider's should be dropping them somewhere safe right now."
"She still has the remote. I'm sorry, I was just so angry and-"
"Spiderling," she said, brushing off the dust from her sister's tired face, "take the syndicate members out of here as fast as you can; April should be back to help."
"What?"
"That's an order," Spider-Girl said before giving a confident wink. "I'll be fine. If something happens, I'll take a note from your playbook. You always did have the answers."
She leaves Spiderling to her duty and swings after Doc Ock.
"Spider-Girl," Miles spoke through her suit's comm device, "your parents are secured. We will try evacuating the last few blocks from the blast radius. Retreat and help us save as many people here as we can."
"As many, but not all..." Mayday said, "I can't accept that. A hero saves everyone, especially a Spider-Girl."
The doctor stood before the bomb as the fire scorched the corners of the one grand room. "Carolyn!" Spider-Girl shouted as she landed on the opposing side, "It's over. There's no time for either of us to escape, and you are a smart enough girl to see it's pointless to kill yourself just to take me with you."
Carolyn smirked and turned her head toward her. Her face was bruised as she wiped blood from her lips. "You know what, Spider-Girl...you're right." She crushed the remote in one fell swoop. The dome shield disintegrated, and the nanites dissipated, but the reactor was still running hot. Its massive dome encasement hides what's occurring at its core.
"What did you do?"
"Have you ever wondered exactly how my precious bomb could atomize this whole radius without even a single radiated atom? Let me give you a hint: it begins with anti-"
Spider-Girl eyes shoot open upon realizing the dreadful truth. "Your nanites manipulated the system not to turn it just any bomb, but an anti-matter bomb!"
"Indeed," she said with a gross smile, "this would've been done faster if it was a particle accelerator, but this suited my designs just fine."
"But you told Parker-"
"You seriously think I monologue about every bit of my plan to the enemy? I never told him exactly what the bomb would turn into. I figured a scientist like him would've put two and two together. I guess senseless heroic clouds one's rationality."
"Maybe because he wanted to believe even you aren't insane enough to create such a thing."
"And that misguided faith will one day lead to his demise."
"Grr! Why do this?! How could you turn a reactor into an anti-matter bomb for something as petty as revenge!"
"Because I can! Because I finally have the power that's been unjustly denied to me my whole life. My intellect knows no equal unless you wish to challenge that. Now, answer this simple question. What is the best part about converting an advanced reactor into an anti-matter bomb?"
Spider-Girl knew the answer, but she almost dared not say it but had to. "It...it's unfixable. It's too destabilized...nothing can stop it. You're remote was never gonna deactivate the bomb, only the shield."
"Dingdingding! Ladies and gentlemen, I have discovered that the Spider-Girl possesses quite a clever intellect. Not clever enough, however, to purposely leave yourself behind at ground zero while you cowardly run away. Why stay anyway, Spider-Girl? To appeal to my humanity? To prove to the world that your little heroics ideals? That may have been the old ways, but the world will soon see it's a lie. Look around you; your peace was destroyed in just a single night by just five people."
"Can't believe you need a reminder, but you're stuck with me too, Doctor."
"Am I now? My my, Mysterio does make for a great acting coach to fool even you."
Spider-Girl receives an urgent call from Spiderling. "Spider-Girl! Wild-Spider and I were on our way to the safe zone when Mysterio poofed nearly all the syndicates away! Only Eve stayed behind."
"I see my associate is right on cue. See, while you were off rescuing the Parkers, I sent an Octobot from my pack to wake Mysterio up. This also signaled Mysterio to activate her experimental hologram device on her belt. I wish we had tested it further, but the results are nonetheless successful in fooling your companions and buying time for them to escape. As for me, well, I think you know well enough how versatile my brilliant arms are, unlike your petty webs. Even with such little time, an escape should be a breeze. The real question you should ask is this: will you try to stop me and kill us both or try in vain to stop the bomb?"
Mayday's fist tightened so much she was bleeding her palm. To be outwitted just when it seemed they had a chance, and now Spider-Girl could be wasting her life for nothing. 'I...I should've listened! Now all those people...my own life...what am I supposed to do now!?"
Suddenly, something snaps inside Spider-Girl's head. To Doc Ock, she can't tell if she came up with an idea or indulged in a fruitless endeavor. Either way, Spider-Girl dashed forward with sheer determination in her eyes. She passed Carolyn, and the two glared at each other, each cemented as the other's arch-nemesis. If they both survive, thier battle against one another is NOT over. It has only just begun.
Spider-Girl tends to the anti-matter bomb as Doc Ock energizes her tentacles to dash at high speeds across the air. "Auf Wiedersehen, Spider-Girl!"
Spider-Girl sees she only has just over a minute left. As she inputted new programs into the scrambled reactor's system and quickly pulled in crude equipment from the lab below, she saw the faces of all her loved ones, never a moment believing she wouldn't see them again. "I will see you all again," she whispered with a sad smile, "and it won't be in the next life. I'll spend the rest of this semester doing my best and ace all the tests. I will help push the basketball team to the champions and take home the trophy."
[One Minute until detonation]
She hastily plugs in new machinery, nearly burning herself in the process. "I'll train even harder with Miles and attend his recording sessions. I'll help with Uncle Ben's and Janine's next big art project before hanging out with Reily more often."
[Forty-five seconds until detonation]
She narrowly avoids a stray anti-matter blast as she pulls out all her freeze web capsules. "I'll help Annie find new friends, maybe even find her a cute girlfriend."
[Thirty seconds]
She activates the new program into the reactor. Nothing happens, and her voice begins to shake. "I'll ensure April stays out of trouble and be her guide whenever she asks me...which is rarely ever."
[Twenty seconds]
She stands back. Whether what she just did will work is entirely out of her hands. She clutches her Star of David necklace. A heirloom passed down from her father's Aunt May. "And...and I'll kiss my Mom and Dad goodbye...and say I'm proud to be a hero like them."
[Fiveteen seconds]
Mayday Watson-Parker dashed over the edge as fast as she could, a leap of faith that what she did would at least save everyone else's lives.
[Five seconds]
She fires her web and takes her potentially last swing into the air.
/-/-/-/-/-/-/
"MAYDAY!" the whole Parker family cried. Peter and MJ practically had to be held back by April. She made a silent promise at that moment with Mayday. It was a look they shared in only the most serious of circumstances. She upheld her end even when the clock hit zero.
Peter, MJ, and MIles shielded the Parker siblings from the inevitable blast. They saved as many lives as possible, but Spider-Man doesn't always save everybody...
...
...
But was this time one of those times?
It was an undeniable fact that Carolyn Trainer's bomb was gonna implode. What wasn't an absolute truth was exactly HOW big said blast would be.
The whole Spider family cringed upon hearing the warping of the anti-matter bomb but didn't expect the force to feel so...faint. They eventually dared to look and look in utter shock.
The bomb went off, but instead of having a massive blast radius, somehow, the radius was reduced to just the entire Parker Industries tower itself. An area that was evacuated long ago.
"H-how?" Miles wondered.
Annie blinked as her mind rationalized an answer. "Th-that was anti-matter...but how could she..." She gasps upon remembering Mayday's words. "She thought I had the answers...anti-matter can be minimized only by..." Annie empties her web-shoots to see her freeze webs are empty. Mayday took the extra freeze-webs! A smile shines across Annie's face, "absolute zero!" she cried. "Anti-matter can be diminished if you get it to temperatures to reach absolute zero! She saw what I did this morning and modified the machine to stop the bomb but to cool the inside enough to save hundreds!"
Upon the anti-matter orb collapsing in of itself, Miles chuckled in pride of Pete's daughter. "She's well on her way to becoming truly great one day."
April smirked as Annie hugged her in joy. "Tsk, show-off."
Peter and MJ embraced as tightly as his wounds could let him. The moment briefly loses its optimism when they hear nothing from Mayday. Without a word, Miles, April, and Annie carry Peter and MJ to the blast sight.
"Spider-Girl!" they shouted as they combed the petrified ground zero.
Peter struggled to stand as she gripped his chest and bellowed, "MAYDAY!"
Silence...and then an echo.
"Heeey..."
The group ran out of the blast zone and to the surrounding buildings that partially collapsed from the force of the bomb. They all cleared out the rubble in one building; they think they heard this voice and burst into tears to see Mayday alive and well. "Mom...dad...I bailed detention today, sorry."
The group nearly burst out in relieved laughter and collective hug Mayday. "Don't ever do that again, hotshot," Mary Jane cried.
"No...promises..."
Peter pulls back to look at his daughters, bruised but victorious. Oh, he and MJ were sure to ground them for disobeying his last words, but he also never felt prouder. "This family survived this terrible night all because of you three. You were more than just heroes tonight; you were a family, and we're the happiest parents in the world to call you our daughters."
The Parker sisters cried as they embraced thier parents, all the adrenaline fading and letting this moment wash away the physical and mental toll this battle has given.
Miles smiled at such a warm, loving sight. He squats beside Peter, "Just a heads up, your wound is starting to reopen, Pete."
"Oh, yeah. Now I'm starting to feel it," Peter chuckled as he gently pulled back and lay beside Mayday. "Owowow...oh god, been so long since my last beating that I almost forgot how it feels."
Mayday chuckles before looking where her dad's work used to be. "Uhhh, sorry for not saving you and your colleague's workplace, Daddy."
Peter and the family looked over. It wasn't exactly a pretty sight. He sighs and looks at the stars. "it's okay, Mayday. Let's not think about money for tonight. Besides...it was just rental."
A/N: I hope you all enjoyed it because I am tired but satisfied with finishing this long-overdue issue. I am delighted and looking forward to reading the new Ultimate Spider-Man comics in January. It's fantastic that a lot of Spidey fans are excited, too!
