I'm changing the uploads to at least every other day. Trying to write a whole chapter every day feels like its wearing me out and forcing to me not write to the best of my ability. As a result it feels like the writing quality suffers, resulting in considerable intervals like this one.

Either way, thanks for your patience and enjoy.

Cindy wasn't sure if it was the adrenaline that made it so she wasn't feeling anything after crashing through the wall.

Ironically, what hit her first was the musty potent smell of an ancient place. Staggering up, Cindy saw dark spots on the walls, peeling wallpaper, broken ceiling tiles and pipes peeking from the holes in the ceiling. She managed to catch a date from a faded advertisement on the wall nearby - 1977.

Cindy stood and she heard a creaking once her foot planted on the ground. Without her headphones, she was able to hear the intricacies in that creaking and what followed -

A cracking,

Pop-pop,

Something metal that sounded like a dying whine.

She glanced around - nothing seemed safe to go to. She wasn't knowledgeable on construction, but even a person like her could see that these walls seemed one moment away from breaking away. Cindy was trying to think of the next course of action when her mother flew through the hole Cindy had tumbled in. Cindy didn't even get a chance to utter a sound, only reach out in an attempt to, when the floor gave way when her mother landed.

Feeling the sense of weightlessness, her senses made her body move -

A webline above,

Gave way immediately when the tile broke upon her web's impact.

Another webline -

There was a crumbling of rock and splintering of wood as the wall it attached to popped out of place the moment the line went taut.

When it did, the webline tugged her upright before it gave just like the last one. She heard the wall's weight shifting in its fall and she zipped out of the way as she landed on the floor below.

Only to hear that same creaking again,

Becoming louder when her mother landed,

And then when the wall smashed into it, it crumbled into chunks and debris.

Cindy's hand snapped up to shoot yet another webline and yelped when her body slammed into wood, concrete, and the debris under her. She grit her teeth, sharply inhaled, and held her side to help tolerate the stinging pain.

The tingling and pulsating aching in her head compelled her to turn it to look in a particular direction, where her mother was. Despite the dust cloud surrounding her in a thick veil, obscuring everything around her in an opaque grey, she could sense her position as though she were looking at her on a clear day. Cindy glanced at the floor in her vicinity and saw that there was too much debris to sneak around. Not moving, Cindy carefully used her feet to put pressure on the floor and found that this floor was way more stable from the previous two.

Taking another gander of her surroundings, Cindy spotted the pillar partially peeking out from the dust screen. She had glanced at it before and only now realized that it was the center point of the room and the floors above. Cindy raised her arm to it, then paused. She looked at the underside of it, realizing that for every shot that she made with her webs there was always a noise. Given how her mother, more or less, seemed to have the same capabilities as herself, or at least similar, her mother would likely hear it as well.

That was when she felt something shift in the tubing in her arm which her webs go in and out of. She carefully set her fingers where the tube was. She looked back at the pillar. She raised her arm and her webline shot out silently, even upon impact - its pattern a distinct wider shape, almost reminding Cindy of a parachute. She jumped, tugged, and reeled in her webline. Landing softly on the pillar, she crawled around it and looked towards where her mother was.

She was standing still, likely waiting for Cindy to make the first move. She was about to take the bait when something in her mind told her to stay. Something gave way, opening. Soon she saw glowing yellow lines appear in the dust screen, some of them in varying shades of yellow - some lighter, some darker. But she recognized their shape - her mother had made a network of weblines as an alarm system in such a short amount of time, all of them connecting to a point under her foot. She noticed that a few of them connected to the pillar - two above and three below her position.

Cindy was thinking about the best course of action for a moment when her mother apparently lost patience and made a webline to zip to the pillar. The tingling and pulsating aching from before ushered her to move and she did - keeping one hand on the pillar and using her leg to silently kick off to swing around to the other side just as her mother landed.

Those two sensations were soon telling her to move yet again, the close proximity to her mother also had that impulse from before yawning at her conscience. However, if what she conjectured was true then this pillar was the only place in the room that was safe - the walls' condition uncertain as they were hidden by the dust cloud but if the previous floors above were any indicator they weren't any better, as well as the debris that littered the ground in various shapes and sizes.

Although the sensations were insisting that she continue the fight, Cindy fought against them in order to think about her options. That was when a different sensation poked and prodded her mind, telling her to follow it. Deciding to humor it, Cindy closed her eyes and followed.

There was that odd feeling of something opening in her mind again. Soon, she felt this notion of a network of webs inside of her mind, reaching into the deep recesses. She felt confusion through the strong oncoming sense of fear, a tide never noticed until now that was always high.

She pushed it aside and continued to follow the new sensation. It led her down one of the web strands. As she went along it, it began to thin out, slimming but still traversable. She then felt something shift and felt as though she could now breathe..

But soon, she found herself thinking about herself - where she was and how the Spider was influencing her. How much was it influencing her? This thought gave way to remembering the promise she gave to herself - to always protect her to make up for that one mistake, for all of that time lost, to prevent that from happening again.

Cindy blinked in confusion, holding her head, trying to understand what was happening to her mind when she felt herself realizing that she was on the opposite side of the pillar. Cindy's eyes widened when she realized what was happening before her spider senses blared in her mind.

The last thought Cindy felt before flipping upwards to dodge her mother's kick was that there would be no more games. Cindy wanted to say something but the impulse took control. She rushed at her mother.

Punching,

Kicking,

Using her webs to make boxing gloves or gauntlets, which her mother countered by tearing them apart with web claws,

Swinging around the pillar to retaliate once getting thrown off the pillar from a strike from her mother,

Up and down the pillar, fighting on a vertical plane,

Spider against Spider, yet again.

Cindy did a flying kick,

Her mother ducked,

Cindy shot her web behind her to spring back for another strike once the line went taut,

Her mother caught her and threw Cindy to the side,

Cindy's quick reflexes allowed her to catch herself with her foot via adhesive touch on the pillar and used the momentum to flip back onto her feet on the other side,

Her mother broke after her, throwing a flurry of kicks and punches -

Cindy was on equal footing, checking and deflecting the different attacks, sometimes outright striking the limb to block out her mother's momentum - and her mother did the same in kind,

Up and down once again, their intense fighting led them to spiral around the pillar, taking care to dodge the different web lines from her mother's web-network from earlier.

For every hit that landed on Cindy, a fire gradually flared to life within her. The conversation they had before this fight echoed in her mind - it was the boiling water in Cindy's pot. Her anger got the best of her and her mother grappled and threw her away from the pillar. Cindy's hand touched something in her flailing and she gripped one of her mother's weblines in her web-network, catching herself as she used the momentum to swing herself up onto it.

Out from the veil of grey, her mother shot through. Cindy leapt up, whereas her mother flew past under her. But only for so long as she had landed on another one of her weblines to fling herself back to Cindy. Cindy twisted her body and leapt to do a spinning kick that sent her mother into more of her web system, and just like Cindy she had recovered quickly.

Cindy went after her mother - shooting webs, and using the many weblines to throw herself at her; likewise, her mother used the same methods. As a result, many more weblines ended up being created in the chaos of the fight as it intensified, attaching at different angles and lengths, and placements - bouncing and swinging from one line to another, punching and kicking.

Her mother struck her hard in the chest, sending her into one of the lines. She didn't have time to recover when her mother landed on her, one foot on her chest and the other on the web line. She felt her hand plant itself flat on her chest and soon Cindy felt that they were in the air, sprung up by the web line.

Panic struck Cindy as she felt the weightlessness in the air, allowing her mother to form webs in her reeled fist.

It smashed into her face -

Once,

Twice,

Thrice,

Four times-

They began to fall.

The fifth punch shifted Cindy's orientation to be more horizontal. Soon she felt something pointy from her mother's foot digging into her chest. Her other foot planted near her shoulder, and she felt more points threatening to puncture her suit. Her mother kicked off, throwing Cindy to the ground, Cindy felt something tear and the points in the web claws on her mother's feet threatening to scratch her skin under the suit.

Cindy yelped when a web line caught her suddenly at her shoulder blades. When sensing that her mother was falling towards her, she utilized the little momentum that remained, grunting when her legs swung up and over to get herself under the webline to pull it down. When she let go, it sprung out like a rubber band and there was a loud smack when it hit her mother.

Seeing her tumble in the air as a result, Cindy landed on a lower webline and shot at another above to catapult herself to her. They collided, and in the tumbling Cindy threw her mother at the right time to throw her down into a web line farther below. But as she did, she felt something shift in her mind - the tingling and pulsating ache lessened, and soon something about her mother felt different.

She saw her mother catch that webline Cindy threw her at and used the momentum from her tumbling to swing herself back up to Cindy's elevation. In that brief moment where they were face to face, Cindy saw that her mother's eyes had become a vibrant red before she found herself assaulted by a barrage of blows. Even when they began to fall, her mother merely latched herself onto her, planting her feet at Cindy's thighs and sent a flurry of punches at Cindy's face, dislodging her mask.

Cindy tried to counter, but it only got her arm caught by her mother. When she felt a fist smash into it, Cindy screamed. Cindy landed on a webline, and felt her mother crawl over her body to get behind her with a never-before-seen agility. Her firm hand smacked against Cindy's throat and squeezed as she shot a webline to another behind them. There was the sound of it stretching to its limits before her mother let go of Cindy.

The sudden inertia prevented Cindy from screaming as she was flung into the wall and crashed through it. She skipped over the ground, tumbling. She rolled back awkwardly, her leg swinging wide overhead, to recover. She took a moment to breathe and assess her person - her suit on her chest and left shoulder was torn and the jacket that she wore was gone except for the sleeve on her left arm. She looked at her right arm, the one that her mother hit. She carefully flexed her hand, twisted it - still working, nothing broken, from what she could feel.

She glanced around at her new surroundings - an old abandoned subway station. But there were many things that stood out among the old decor - the slim and sleek boxes that looked to be military of some kind. Scattered about here and there, stacked together or alone on impromptu tables made from cinder blocks and plywood. She spotted what looked to be a mechanical bird on one table, one not too different to the birds that the Hunters used. But on the far side, there was a capsule of some kind that caught her eye and it was all she had left to see before her mother swooped in.

In her landing, she looked more like an animal when she landed on her hands and knees. She stretched out, propping herself on her fingers and toes. She then broke into a sprint with her legs kicking and her arms cutting through the air, and with the dim lighting her eyes were now truly glowing. Despite there being no pupils, Cindy felt the heat in their intense gaze. Although Cindy didn't feel the same as before, those two sensations in her mind were still there, she still felt the fire inside of her.

She focused on it, she smouldered,

She rushed forward,

And the two spiders collided again.

"B -"

"No. I'm doing this with you. Besides, who else would be in these tunnels besides us?"

Rafferty could see that Lola was against this, but seeing her body language she could see that she was just as happy to see her again after their break up. She could see it in her posture, the few glances that she had made since they began walking together, even how she wasn't shuffling her feet as she had seen her done in school.

She had thought about talking to Lola for a long while now, deeper than greetings in the halls or single sentence explanations. She wanted an actual conversation, something that was like before. Back when they were together in the Underground, and before all this with that Spider-Lady, or Mother, as Lizzie and Rat had called her.

They were in these tunnels because the safehouse in this abandoned subway tunnel ended up not having anyone staying in it. Overtime, as the members that relied on these safehouses for homes started to get farther in their jobs that some of them opted to try having an actual home. As a result, some safehouses like the one they were walking to ended up being vacant. Some needed to be checked for maintenance and housekeeping in the case that they are eventually used properly.

"How've you been, Lo?"

"...Uh, fine."

"Eating okay?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Studying alright?"

"Yeah. of course."

"...Wanna do it?"

"Sur - A - E - Deh - Huh?!" Lola stopped in her tracks and held her chest, flabbergasted.

Rafferty burst out into a laughing fit, then, wiping her tears, "...I've missed you so much, Lo."

After a moment, a small smile pulled Lola's lip, "Yeah. I missed you, too."

They walked along, basking in each other's presence for a moment.

"Think this counts as a date?" Rafferty asked, "Walking in a dark and dreary place like this. Just the two of us."

"I few that we did back in the day were more exciting than this."

"...Still have that picture we took?"

Lola pulled out her phone, showing her screen background.

Rafferty smiled, "...Lola. Never change."

"What does that mean?"

"Never stop being cute."

Lola frowned, "I still don't understand how I am."

Rafferty giggled, "You just are."

Then there was a long pause. One so distinct that Lola glanced over.

"...We can't."

"But its been months, and nothing's happened."

"Doesn't mean I can let my guard down."

"All of those sketches were ambiguously… Well, let's face it - whoever drew those weren't artists. Although I don't know why one of them drew an anime character."

Lola snickered, "The one with the spiky dark hair and the blue shirt? A real Mozart."

Rafferty's lip tensed into a pursed smile. She opened her mouth to correct Lola when the wall beside them exploded. Rafferty had turned her body away out of developed instinct from her days in the Underground, but that didn't stop Lola from reaching out to protect her. The loud thumping and squealing metal on the opposite wall made them summon their weapons from their programmable matter.

Their eyes settled on the limp figure against the now cracked wall, the piping on it flattening from the impact. The figure was wearing a red and blue suit, ruined with tears all over it, some of which they could see blood on them. It was a woman by the obvious curvature, and her dark hair was tousled and disheveled, covering her face.

Both Lola and Rafferty only took a step forward when the sound of webs shooting out halted them. They jumped when that Spider-Lady that had taken Lizzie and Rat flew through the hole and smashed her feet into the woman's chest. The impact caused the woman's body to lurch, flicking her head up and revealing her face

"...Cindy?" Rafferty said.

By the drooping eyes and the distant look of her eyes, as well as the oncoming swelling on her face, the blood from her nose and her mouth, it was uncertain if Cindy was conscious, much less alive. It was how limp Cindy was as the Spider-Lady's fists hammered in fast hooks and uppercuts that made the whole scene before them much more violent.

"Cindy!" Rafferty rushed forward, the programmable matter technology propelling her forwards.

"B, wait!" Lola followed close behind.

The Spider-Lady's head turned so sharply that it likely would have snapped her neck if she were a normal person. The visage of the white mask made of webs and her red eyes standing out in contrast stunned Rafferty and Lola. The Spider-Lady's arm flung wide and a webline smashed itself into Rafferty's chest, causing a guttural yelp to burst out of her throat and drop her weapon as she stumbled back. Sequentially, her other arm snapped forward to shoot another line at Lola, just as forceful.

The Spider-Lady reeled her weblines, launching Lola and Rafferty off of their feet, and she spun on her heels to throw them both further down the tunnel. In the air, both of them heard the loud smacking of the Spider-Lady's fists smashing into Cindy until they hit the ground and tumbled to a stop.

Lola's final tumble had her fall on her back in a heavy thud, knocking the wind out of her, and as she struggled to breathe she saw Rafferty on her stomach, looking back at her with a rifle in her hand, made from the program tech. The embarrassment and shame Lola felt was worse when she had assumed that it would be Rafferty who would be more likely to be in this situation. Being out of the game has made her more vulnerable.

Lola merely pointed her finger at the Spider-Lady,

And Rafferty held her rifle in her hands and looked through the scope.

Her finger was on the trigger as she lined up her shot and was about to pull it when she saw the Spider-Lady stop after grabbing Cindy by whatever was left of the collar of her suit. At this angle, Rafferty couldn't see Cindy's face as her head was tilted to the side, her hair obscuring what she could have seen. There was a moment where the Spider-Lady paused, and although this was the perfect moment to take the shot she noticed that the Spider-Lady seemed to be in the initial moments of hyperventilation.

The falling and rising of her chest went faster and faster,

Her fingers slipped away from Cindy, dropping her to the ground in a limp heap,

She stepped back as though Cindy herself was a bomb just one tap away from detonating,

She looked at her trembling hands, then back up at Cindy, her shoulders going lower with every panicked breath,

Her hands went to her mask, but upon touching the webs she tore them away, all of it, before they then covered her face.

Rafferty heard no voice, but by how her body was shaking and jumping - the Spider-Lady was sobbing.

"SPIDERWOMAN!"

The call split through the air and the tension. The Spider-Lady looked over her shoulder, through the hole, then at Cindy. She took one step forward, her hands reaching for her. That was when Rafferty shot. The Spider-Lady jumped and turned to Rafferty and Lola's direction. That was where Rafferty caught a glimpse of the Spider-Lady's face.

A mask of horror, disbelief, shock, and pain.

The Spider-Lady glanced at the hole in the wall once again before she broke off down the tunnel, using her webs to zip away. Soon after, a familiar web-slinger flew through the hole. Spider man looked over at the Spider-Lady escaping, then at Rafferty and Lola. There was a moment of pause as he stared at them before shaking his head, keeling down, and taking Cindy in his arms.

"Spiderwoman." He said, "Hey, hey - look at me."

When Cindy wasn't responding, he pressed two finger's against Cindy's jugular.

"Oh my god…" The words were breathless.

"Spider man!" Rafferty called out, waving her arm, diverting his attention, "Here! Follow us!"

Peter glanced back and forth between Cindy and Rafferty before doing as said.

"B?" Lola whispered as they ran.

"Not now!" Rafferty hissed, "Now's not the time."

"Where are we going?" Peter said as he ran behind them, carrying Cindy in his arms.

"A safehouse." Rafferty said, then turned her head to Lola, "You got that thing I was preparing right?"

"Where else would it go?" Lola said.

Soon they arrived at the safehouse that Rafferty and Lola were intending to go to in the first place. Rafferty used the program tech to manifest a purple key, which, when it appeared, a purple key slot mechanically whirled into appearance on the wall she was facing. She inserted, twisted the key, and that mechanical whirling came again as the segments of brick and mortar unfolded as segments of camouflaged metal until a doorway opened into a room inside.

By the decor, it seemed to be a living room of some kind with a computer with three large monitors on the opposite side of the room. There were doors that led into other rooms. The living room was neat and tidy, but the emptiness other than that implied that no one had been in this place for a while.

There was a table directly to the left of the doorway they entered through with miscellaneous items on it. Rafferty shoved all of them off the table and gestured for Peter to set Cindy down on it.

It was only now that Peter realized that Cindy didn't have her mask on - in fact, it was torn off. When he tried to hastily put it on he found only a ring of red fabric.

"Don't worry about it," Rafferty said, as she and Lola were preparing something off to the side, "We already knew. We go to the same school."

Peter wanted Rafferty to possibly elaborate on how she and her friend knew, but Cindy's attention mattered more. As they were getting ready for whatever it was they were doing, Peter tore Cindy's suit to get a better opening for her chest and began to do CPR.

"C'mon…!" Peter whispered, "C'mon!"

He paused to check her pulse.

"She's still not breathing!" Peter said.

"Done!" Rafferty gently motioned for Peter to step aside as she went to Cindy's side.

In her hand was a metallic rectangular cube of some kind with a clip on it that kept it close. Rafferty pushed the clip to open it and inserted Cindy's finger into it.

"Got her vitals?" Rafferty said to Lola, who had a visor on.

"Yeah," Lola said, "Everything's zero."

The program tech on Rafferty shifted to manifest sleek gauntlets with small bead-like pads on different segments on the hands and digits of the fingers. Rafferty clapped her hands and there was the sound of static. She rubbed her hands and spread them apart. Seeing the electricity arcing between them, Rafferty nodded.

She set them over Cindy's chest, "We're going to lose our window… Lo, tell me if anything changes - three, two, one!"

Rafferty shoved her hands,

There was the cracking of static,

And Cindy's body jumped up.

"Nothing." Lola said.

Rafferty shoved again.

"Still nothing."

"C'mon…" Peter mumbled.

"C'mon!" Rafferty shoved harder.

Lola shook her head.

Rafferty gestured for Peter to take her place, and given the situation he knew what she meant. He pumped at Cindy's chest a few times before Rafferty returned to her position.

She shoved.

"A pulse!" Lola said.

Peter and Rafferty sighed in relief.

"But we took too long, I think." Rafferty said, dismissing the gauntlets with a heavy sigh, "Here, Lo. Give it to me."

Lola took off the visor and handed it to Rafferty. Who, after a moment, slowly recoiled her head, blinking.

"What's wrong?" Peter said.

"...We… Resuscitation after this long - I don't know when she went unconscious but likely during her fight. But looking at how bad she is, it should have resulted in Cindy going into a coma, but… her vitals are all… fine, all things considered. Bear with me, just got this thing finished a few days ago, but… her brain activity is going wild, if these readings are correct."

"But she'll live, right?" Peter said.

Rafferty took off the visor and dismissed it in a flash of purple, "Yeah. From the looks of things. At least, she'll probably be unconscious for the next few days. But, uh… What are we going to tell her dad?"

Albert Moon stared at the monitor that had the new Spidergirl's social account.

He stared at the profile picture,

He looked at another window showing a blurry picture of a woman with black flowing hair in a white outfit swinging through the air at night.

He stared on and on.

He leaned back in his chair, took a deep breath, and sighed.

He closed his eyes, and he felt a tiredness that he hadn't felt for a long time.

Another deep breath,

And he pinched the bridge of his nose. He glanced over at the room door nearby that was used for a specific purpose, a room that Cindy would never get herself to go into no matter how many times they moved, no matter how many times the door changed.

He looked at the monitor again to see the two pictures. His eyes shifted. He felt a bad feeling come over him.

His phone rang - it was Cindy.

He picked it up, "Hello?"

"Uh," An unfamiliar voice, "This is Cindy's dad, right?"

"...Who is this?"

"I'm Rafferty, a friend of Cindy. We were out and we had planned a surprise for her since she's a fan of Spiderman. We, uh, we had made her a suit that's similar to the one that the new Spiderwoman wears. Um, we were going to Central Park to take photos, y'know, to have fun and be goofy when these crazy people wearing red jumped on us."

Albert's eyes drifted back to the monitor and he didn't look away, "...Where is she?"

"The hospital. My friend tried to fight them off, but they were too much. Spiderman, the, uh, red and blue one, saved us but, uh…"

Albert stared at the image of the woman with the flowing black hair.

"You're at the hospital near Central Park?"

"Uh, yes."

"I'll be there." Albert hung up, and before he went to grab his keys he looked at both images on the monitor one more time before turning away and leaving, "What are you doing, Nari?"