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• Earth - 919: The Marvelous Spider-Girls | Commissioned art by @ArthurChin12

It was another breezy morning, marking the last day of the summer of 2013. In an ordinary world, the young woman awoken by the sound of a passing train would go about her early morning like an ordinary person would. She’d untangle her short, spiky brown hair. Put on her ear piercings. Wipe the crust off her monochromatic eyes and have her school supplies all organized.

It would be left at that in an ordinary world, but she didn’t live in that ordinary world. No, sir, she lived in a world of marvels.

No girl her age and background should leave this perfect morning at that. First, she recites Modeh Ani in Hebrew before wearing her workout gear. She opened the drawer beside her and whipped out the latest version of a trusty old design: the ever-reliable web shooter! With a click, she loaded the shooters; the gadget felt so natural on her. With that ready, she reached underneath her pillow and unveiled a familiar red, web-patterned mask. A symbol known worldwide, the mask personified great responsibility and expectations. She takes a breath, dons the mask, and swings out of her room as quietly as any spider would.

Swinging across one of the most magnificent cities in the world, she could practically touch the skies of New York City. Sure, she took this route hundreds of times, but there are just some views that don’t get old. Leaping across the Queen’s skyline, the misty streets below illuminated by streetlights created an almost dream-like scenery, a perfect symbiosis of fantasy and reality. Her swinging was interrupted when a sharp, tingling sensation tickled the back of her head. Soon, she spots two figures donned in black and armed with high-tech pulse carbines. The criminal accomplices wounded a security guard and now were threatening two bank employees, forcing them to use thier clearance to break in without setting off alarms. They would’ve gotten away if a friendly neighborhood spider wasn’t watching.

“Once we had ’em load the cash, what about ’em?” one of the robbers asked, pointing at the employees.

“No witnesses, ya hear?” the other whispered, pumping his carbine.

“Yikes, dark much!? And all for a bunch of green paper?” a voice echoes across the back alley. The crooks aim their carbines, but two webs spring out of the mist and yank away thier weapons. The crooks, just like everybody else in this city, instantly recognized those webs belonged and tried in vain to escape. A few web shots instantly dashed these hopes and lifted them into the air. Within seconds, they were tied together and suspended by layers of webbing around them. While the employees call the authorities, the girl checks out the two weapons that look straight out of a sci-fi flick. “How are these becoming more frequent? More importantly, why does every bad guy have terrible taste in design? I can make tech that looks cooler than this. You think people committed to a life of crime would want to look cool, or else what’s the point?”

Tearing up the weapons like tinfoil, she hurries to her destination: the old sunny side railroad yard. Being one of the most extensive train yards in the city means plenty of space for this marvelous girl to begin her workout regimen. She puts on some tunes and starts with a simple challenge: run two miles there and back while pulling ten tons. Simple! She shoots her webs at a 10-ton train car, gets a good grip on it, and pulls! She clenched her teeth; her muscles strained until she achieved the seemingly impossible by moving the car! She smirked confidently, slung the web over her shoulder, and ran as fast as possible with ten tons behind her. Not for a moment did she slow down. If anything, she moved faster. Simple sit-ups afterward suffice after such a strenuous exercise, but not for her. After stretching, she lies on her back, raises her legs, and webs over a large cinderblock. She catches it with her feet and repeatedly trains her lower muscles by lifting the five-ton block. This girl, she felt compelled to go further. Her marvelous powers made it feel like she had to.

After all, she can bend tungsten metal like it’s taffy. She can run circles around speeding bullets. She can punch practically as hard as the Rhino. You heard that right, not a rhino, THE Rhino. She can destroy all Olympic world records in gymnastics and acrobatics without breaking a sweat. She can solve some of the most complex mathematical equations with spare time to finish extra credit. After another successful session and catching the sun rising fast, the teen hurriedly swung home. As she did, an observer may ask themselves, how? How could a teen do all these spectacular things?! The answer was simple.

This teen and her sisters are the daughters of Spider-Man.

Born with these fantastic abilities, she’s compelled to be the leader her sisters need.

She is May “Mayday” Watson-Parker, a High School Junior and leader of the famous crime-fighting trio The Marvelous Spider-Girls!

• Earth-919: Mayday | Commissioned art by @Karahuset

Mayday returned to her room as quietly as she left it. Though her family’s two-story home was old, it thankfully wasn’t old enough to make loud creaks. Like her room, the house was cozy, nestled between the East River shores and Flushing Bay in the College Point neighborhood. Her room had a great waterfront view, which included sights like Ryker’s Island, Hunts Point, and Harding Park. One refreshing shower later, Mayday was dressed and ready for the day, wearing one of her best outfits. Walking out to the upstairs hallway, she approached the bedroom opposite hers and knocked on the door. “April, time to get up. Let’s go.”

Nothing. Silence is a rare response, given it’s usually ‘$^$%^! off' or '@#$@#$ you!'. She knew it was risky, but she must be assertive; this was a big day. “April,” she whispered as she opened the door. She peeked her head in when her spider senses tingled. The source: her twin sister! Mayday narrowly dodges a black and blue gooey tendril aimed at her head; its sharp, whip-like end creates a small crack in the wall behind her.

“Hey! Remember house rules, or I’m telling Mom,” Mayday said sternly.

Annoyed, April reels in the otherworldly tendril back into her body. This ability may terrify others, but you get used to it when you grow up with a half-human, half-symbiote sister. “Meh, I remember. Rule numero uno,” April yawned, “no webs, tendrils, or claws in the house.” Lazily sitting up, April quickly untangles her lengthy, black, curly hair with her shapeshifting powers imbued by her symbiote physiology.

“That’s right,” said Mayday as she allowed herself in. The cluttered floor shows how much of a mess April’s room is in, especially compared to her room. She helps take out April’s backpack, ensuring her school supplies are in there and that there isn’t anything potentially illegal. ‘Speaking of illegal,’ Mayday thought. “Erm, April, you swing straight home after your night shifts, right?”

“Yeah, why? Am I being accused of something?” April asked with some bite to her tone.

“That’s not it. Listen, did you run into anybody carrying ugly-looking weapons?”

April blinks in curiosity. “Uh, yeah. It happened last week. A creep tried breaking into his ex’s apartment carrying a laser pistol. Practically bigger than him.”

“This morning, I stopped two burglars carrying plasma weapons,” Mayday shared.

“And that got you curious about why these two-bit losers are carrying heavy-duty weapons, right?” 

“Exactly. With no major supervillains in town, these guys looked for anything to give them an upper hand.”

“My nose tells me Li’s crime family is behind this,” April suggests.

“I guess. They have a long history of trafficking and dealing illegal firearms. What doesn’t add up is that they had a peace treaty with Mr. Hood’s gang last year. A beneficial one at that, so why break it?”

“Because they’re bad guys, duh.”

“Sure, but they’re smart bad guys. Plus, Mr. Murdock would’ve notified us of any suspicious activity.”

April shrugs and falls back to bed, “then it’s a big old mystery, and it’s too early in the morning to deal with mysteries.”

“Fine, suppose we shouldn’t jump to conclusions. Get dressed and dress well. We’re Juniors now, so we should set an example for Annie.”

“She’s a sophomore, Mayday. I think she can handle herself.”

“It’s still the responsible thing to do, April.”

“Urgh, fine, just get out of here before you start another one of your longwinded ‘responsibility’ speeches.”

Mayday rolled her eyes and closed the door behind her. “Maybe I give ‘longwinded’ speeches because you barely care about responsibility,” Mayday mumbled as she headed to Annie’s room. She tries not to do that; her parents say it’s a bad habit, but she can’t help it sometimes.

April is half-symbiote. Typically, the symbiosis process works as this: a symbiote and its host are two separate personalities balancing each other's wants and needs. April is fully bonded with it, has been since birth. This meant April's personality is permanently in charge while the symbiote itself is an extension of her body & will.

It's a power no one had seen before. This doesn’t change their love for her, but that also means Mayday feels compelled to keep an eye on her and guide her on the right way to use such power. According to April, she’s been doing a half-assed job. That may be true, but upon remembering the times April showed true bravery, then at least a half-ass job was better than failing her.

May knocks on Annie’s door, her room next to hers. “Annie, time to get up.”

“Five more minutes…” Annie whined.

“Am I the only one here who doesn’t sleep in?” Mayday whispered.

“I heard that. You know our hearing’s also advanced, right?”

“Well, maybe I wanted you to hear me,” Mayday said as she entered. She sorted Annie’s supplies before turning toward the water tank beside her window. She waves at Annie’s pet turtle, Speedy, before tossing in his breakfast of carrot slices. Mayday then notices Annie’s web-shooter is empty and still on her worktable. “You forgot to load it again. What if something dangerous happens at school?”

“Oh yeah, because schools are vulnerable in a city full of heroes and no supervillains,” Annie yawned, rubbing her green eyes and quickly combing her short, light red hair.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s a giant robot or a criminal with a gun. We stand ready for anything.”

“I know. Sorry, I just had a weird dream last night.”

A look of concern appears on Mayday’s face. She sits beside Annie, asking, “A dream? You sure it wasn’t a spider vision?”

Annie rubs her forehead. “Pretty sure. The visions are clear in what they show me. This blurry one only shows three shadowy figures and a tall building.”

Mayday pondered briefly before patting Annie on the back. “Sounds like a dream then. Don’t let it distract you from your first day as a sophomore. Besides, if anything happens, we’ll always be there.” Annie smiles back. Mayday can be pretty serious; she can’t help but appreciate her older sister’s sincerity and kindness sometimes. Mayday smiles back, “I also read yesterday Midtown High is presenting a whole new science wing building, donated with advanced tech by the Starks and Future Foundations.”

“Really?!” Annie exclaimed, her green eyes practically sparkling. That was the one thing Mayday knew about her little sister. Trying to convince her is almost pointless if something doesn’t interest her, but if you have her attention, hoo-boy, you HAVE her attention. Annie grabbed her sister’s hand and pulled her to the hall. “Why didn’t you say so? I’ll be ready in a second,” she said before closing the door to get ready.

With a laugh, Mayday reloads her web-shooters, makes sure her suit is well hidden, and grabs her backpack. From the sound of it, her sisters were already dressed. Her nose suddenly picked up a delicious whiff when she reached the stairs. Instantly, Mayday recognized it as Mom’s mouthwatering pancakes! ‘Oh no,’ she thought. If she smelled a whole plate of chocolate pancakes, the ultimate delicious meal served only on special occasions, her sisters certainly caught its whiff, too. Ideally, they’d all share it, but this was one thing the three refused to be equaled on. Mayday tried to be quiet, slowly stepping down to reach those pancakes first when, suddenly, her Spider-Sense tingled!

Not one of immediate danger, however, but from familial presence. Mayday turns to see her sister’s heads poking out of their respective rooms. Much like a spaghetti western, they smelt it and stood ideal, waiting for the other to make the first move.

‘First place gets the golden eggs!’ April spoke with her mind, not her mouth. Making the first move, she leaped out of her room with Annie just behind her, and the two wall-crawl down the hall as Mayday dashed down the flight of stairs.

‘You two? Outrunning me? Yeah, rrrrright!’ Mayday thought competitively to her sisters. How was this possible for the sisters? Since birth, their spider senses were partially interconnected, creating a psychic link. This offered a few unique abilities. Up to a certain distance, the sisters could sense where each sibling exactly was and speak to one another through their spider senses. It wasn’t perfect since it required concentration, and they could lose track of one sibling if they were unconscious or purposely closed off their senses. Most of the time, however, it’s proven to be a handy way for the three to communicate and keep tabs on one another out on the field. It’s also helpful in quietly trash-talking each other without upsetting their parents.

‘April, you jerk! Your speed makes this sooo unfair,’ Annie thought as her sister zoomed past her. April shoves past Mayday as she leaps down the stairs. Mayday quickly recovers by leaping over the rail while Annie tries to keep up by sliding down. The sisters soon cluster together, tied for first place, as they cross into the living room. They soon catch sight of the table where those glorious chocolate pancakes sit. When the sisters perform a final sprint toward the goal, they run into an unexpected hurdle: the family cat, Mr. Fluffy. The eight-year-old cat walked across the doorway without a care in the world, causing each sister to react differently.

Mayday stops, not taking any risk of hurting their cat. April takes that risk, but their cat hisses and scrapes her ankles with its claws, nearly tripping her. With her sisters slowed down, Annie takes the smartest route and leaps over the cat, landing on her seat on the table. Annie sticks out her tongue with a wide smirk, already putting most of the pancakes on her plate. April growls back at Mr. Fluffy while Mayday feeds the cat his breakfast.

The sisters sit down as their mother’s deep red hair shines against the morning sun’s rays. Mary Jane Watson-Parker turns around with plates in her hands to see her daughters ready for school. “Stop the presses because Midtown’s brightest stars have arrived,” Mary Jane said proudly. She kisses each of her daughters on the foreheads, handing them the rest of thier breakfasts their father cooked up. “I hope you all slept well and have sorted out which clubs you’ll join. April, I saw you speak to your bandmate Stepth last night. Thinking of prepping for the school’s Battle of the Bands?”

Her mother’s question snaps April out of being distracted by the two dozen beef sausages on her plate. “Oh, I guess, if we weren’t still missing a drummer. She suggested we check out the music club for a future member, but I don’t think any kid there could reproduce our sounds.”

“If my singing career taught me anything, April, it is that music is not as segregated as you think and that talent comes from unexpected places,” Mary Jane advises, and April listens attentively. “There are plenty of unique sounds produced by your colleagues that I’m sure will mix with yours, perhaps even make whole new songs. And I bet you twenty bucks the music club will be your key in completing your quest for a drummer.”

“Alright. Thanks, Mom,” April responds sincerely. This was one thing Mayday learned long ago. Regarding their mom, April was one of the sweetest to her. She might never admit it herself; she gotta keep up the tough girl persona after all. Still, April was always the first to support and listen to Mom’s words. Applying those lessons to her regular and hero life was a different story, but at least she was trying.

Drinking her tea, Mary Jane turns to Annie and says, “So, I’m sure Mayday told you about the science division, Annie.”

“Hm-hmm,” she said, quickly swallowing her food. “I can’t wait to see how the lessons will incorporate the new tech.”

April chimes in, saying, “I don’t get the excitement. We handled more advanced gadgets while training under the X-Men and Champions. Why all the hoopla?”

“That was all only superhero business and Logan and Riri barely let me touch their teams’ machinery, “Annie explains. “With this new division at school, I can show everyone how cool my skills are. Like turning nuts and bolts into a mini-fusion reactor or something.”

Mary Jane lowers her tea, her eyebrow raised. ‘Uh-oh,’ both Mayday and April think.  

“Oh, so it’s only for attention, then?”

Annie blinks in surprise, “No, Mom...Okay, maybe just a little, but why shouldn’t I-”

“Anna-May Watson-Parker.”

‘Crap, she just used the full name.’ All three sisters thought.

“I fully support your passions and am very proud of your eagerness. Still, remember that your intellect is a gift, not a privilege. I’m sure your competitive nature also contributes to this.”

“What’s wrong with trying to win?” Annie asked.

“What mom is saying, Annie,” Mayday injected, “is not to let pride taint you strive to do better. Like when you won that community science competition two years ago and made the second-place kid cry.”

Annie tensed up defensively, feeling like she was being targeted. While she couldn’t vent this frustration at her mother, she could vent it to her sisters. “Not my fault he was a sore loser,” she mutters.

“Sure,” Mayday said, “so you bragging off had nothing to do with it? He was just a ‘sore loser?’”

“But he-!”

“No buts,” an older voice said assertively. The whole family turns to the man walking into the morning light. He had short but fluffy brown hair and a beard while wearing his casual work clothes. He practically dressed as his uncle did: a humble man with worldly experience. Peter Parker, the once-active superhero Spider-Man, is now the head of the humble, non-profit organization Parker Foundations. He gives a warm ‘good morning’ smile to his incredible family.

“Morning, Dad,” Mayday smiled with a proud look.

“Yo…” April said casually, now looking at her phone.

“Morning,” Annie said quickly, “Look, Dad, you should know how I feel about this. You LOVE this stuff.”

“I do, so believe me when I say this: a Parker’s passion for science can make them do rash, unhealthy things,” Peter said, using his hand to lean on his chair beside Mary Jane.

“But Dad, if you weren’t passionate, you wouldn’t have gone to that science exhibit and seen that spider.”

“Perhaps,” Peter shrugs, “but I didn’t go into that building because I loved the endeavor. I went in there because I wanted to show off.” The sisters all turned their attention to their father. They had all known the amazing tale for years, but this was an entirely new detail. Peter continued, his hand donning his wedding ring grasped by Mary Jane’s. “I wanted to impress some girls while showing how cool I was to the boys. Dumb, I know. They were big jerks, but I wasn’t a perfect angel either. I couldn’t help but be vain and envious of their attention, any attention. I wanted to show them how great I was. I almost kept that attitude too, even after I became Spider-Man...until the first of many hard lessons forced me to be humble with my new power.”

Mayday sees Annie’s shoulder slump, their father’s lesson setting in for her. May glances at April, similarly pondering their father’s words.  

“You understand what your father’s saying, Annie?” Mary Jane asks softly.

“I do…”

Peter smiled, saying, “Now then...” before he crashed onto his chair with an exhausted sigh. The past several days had been nothing but constant worry and stress from work, which was beginning to catch up with him and his colleagues. “Oy,” Peter sighed. Mary Jane was already handing him his favorite coffee and bagel.

“Long week?” Mayday asks.

“Yeah, ya sound half-dead,” said April.

“Another week of this, and you wouldn’t be far off,” he chuckled. Sipping his coffee, he continued, “With Parker Foundations, I thought I finally made it. No more threats of eviction, no more deducted paychecks, no more desperate part-time jobs. Oh, what a fool I was.”

“Yep,” April casually said. “Now it’s worrying about the company building being evicted and paying your staff enough money despite the dwindling influx of grants.”

“As harsh as that was, you’re right on the money,” Peter said with a finger snap.

“And it’s always why I’m fine working another year at the Bugle,” Mayday said.” Twenty-five bucks an hour isn’t chump change. It’s also why April will keep looking for a job, right April?” Her sister responded with an annoyed groan.

“Honestly, it’s sweet that you’re pitching in, but my career can keep this house afloat just fine. My agent called last night that I got the main role for another big film.”

“Hell yeah, Mom!” April cheered as the rest of the table clapped.

“We know, but it’s not a hindrance, Mom,” Mayday continued. “Heck, I think I’ve mastered this photography thing.”

“And a new music shop is looking for part-timers,” April added, “their break room is just isolated enough to be a good space to practice my guitar.”

“Glad you’re eager to refine your creativity, April,” Mary Jane said.

Peter’s phone buzzes with a new message. “Ah, it’s just a reminder about tonight’s demonstration. Boy, I hope the city sends a quiet crowd this time. Work this week has been nothing but noise.”

“About that, Dad, I-“Mayday said before their mom’s phone went off.

M.J. claps her hands to get her daughter’s attention, “Okay, finish up. Time to go.” Mayday and Annie take their last bites before putting on their backpacks. April stretched her mouth wide open, showing her sharp teeth, and devoured her remaining sausages in one bite—another small benefit of being a half-symbiote. “Don’t forget,” Mary Jane said, tapping her and Peter’s cheeks.

“Bye, Mom. Bye, Dad,” Annie and April said as they kissed their parents on the cheeks.

After they run out, Mayday hangs back, saying, “Annie may have had a vision last night.” Her parents sit up. Their gazes turned serious at the possibility of danger to the family.

“How sure are you, Mayday?” M.J. asks.

“Pretty sure. Annie said it was blurry, but she saw a tall building and three shadowy figures. My senses may not tingle, but I can’t shake the feeling that this means bad news.”

Peter pinches his forehead, staring at his coffee as he thinks. “Okay, we’ll handle this, sweetie.”

Mayday grips her backpack, asking, “You sure? We have time after school to conduct a search.”

“Where would you even begin?” Peter brought up. This is a valid question that Mayday has no answer for. “Mayday, this is Annie’s first vision in months. The last time it happened, it saved you three from a dangerous ambush by those Li siblings. This could be just as bad, if not worse. It is best to head straight home, where you three will be safe. We’ll keep you in touch on what’s happening on our end.”

A sting of disappointment hits her heart, but she shoves such feelings aside. They soon April shouting outside. “Yo! Mayday! Better get out here before we leave you behind!”

“Bye, mom. Bye, Dad,” Mayday says, giving a quick peck to their cheeks before running after her sisters.

With his coffee finished, Peter walked over to the cabinets in the corner of the living room. He pressed a secret button beneath the top shelf, revealing a hidden compartment. He took out a spidey comm link and opened a secured channel. “Miles, are you there?” Peter asked as M.J. stood by his side.

“Hold on…” the seasoned Ultimate Spider-Man voice buzzed through, “Okay, I’m free. What’s up, Pete?”

“We have a potential attack at Parker’s H.Q. My daughter had a vision; it was blurry, but she saw a tall building and three figures.”

“That’s all? Weren’t her last visions clearer than that?”

“Not this time, my friend. I have a hunch my industry’s big demonstration is a potential target.”

“Can’t you cancel it or move it to another day?”

“I haven’t told you, but Parker Foundations isn’t doing so hot. It’s a long story, but the short version is that if I change this demonstration, we will lose big grants and even bigger clients. I can’t let this affect my staff or plans for a state-wide clean energy generator.”

“I hear ya. Alright, Pete. I’ll ask Ms. Marvel and Nova if they can take over my afternoon route. They’ll understand. Oh, and they better save me a slice of the after-show cake. There will be cake, right?”

“For you, I’ll bring three. Thanks, Miles. I’ll have the building’s security systems on high alert. It’ll take a real genius to get past all that.”

“Let’s hope these guys are dumb as rocks. Alright, Pete, catch ya later.”

“Catch you later. Thanks again,” Peter said, shutting off the communicator. A present worry remained on his face.

M.J. reassuringly grasps his hands. “With Miles there, we have nothing to worry about, Tiger.” 

“I should feel relaxed, but I know what Mayday means. Even without my Spidey-sense tingling, I can’t shake this feeling of something…terrible returning.”

[Meanwhile...]

“She’s hiding something.” April’s whisper makes Annie look away from her phone. The sisters were walking down the busy main street of downtown Flushing.

“What makes you say that?”

“Whenever Mayday walks way ahead and hasn’t said a word, she’s brainstorming some superhero stuff.” She pulls Annie closer and points, “Now she’s about to either sigh or snap her fingers.” In a brief moment, Mayday pauses and snaps her fingers, just as April said. All without requiring any Spider-Vision. 

“Huh...”

“Yeah,” April chuckled. “Now, if she figured something out, she’d clap her hands together. If she didn’t, then she’ll continue walking.”

There’s a pause, both sisters closely watching until Mayday sighs and continues walking. 

“Wow, this one’s got her stump.”

The sisters catch up with Mayday. Annie asked, “What’s wrong? Is it what I saw?”

“I... don’t know, and that’s the problem,” Mayday answered as they approached a four-lane intersection.

“Mayday Watson-Parker, the girl who got to make everything her business,” April says sassily. “You’re fretting over fake visions and a couple of peashooters. Is it because you genuinely care, or are you so antsy for real action that you’ll pursue any lead?”

Mayday scoffs, “Why on earth would I be antsy? Do you think I want something bad to happen, April? I went over this with Mom and Dad. They’re taking it seriously enough to have us benched later. It’s why I’m thinking of-”

“What?!” April exclaims.

“You talked with Mom and Dad without telling us?”

“I felt that I had to, and even they don’t know what to make of it,” Mayday said, trying to reassure her, but Annie’s look of doubt wasn’t a great sign.

“Wow, great progress there, Sherlock. Because you couldn’t let it go, we’re now stuck at home all night,” April bemoans. 

“Hey, I don’t like it either, but this might be the best way to keep you two safe from an unknown, dangerous threat. You remember the last time a vision happened. We almost got creamed by those Li psychos.”

“YOU almost got creamed, but not me. Besides, it’s not like we don’t have awesome powers to handle this new threat. Be real with me, sis. Do you believe that, or is it because Dad’s favorite doesn’t have the backbone to talk back?”

“April, I won’t have this discussion again. We’re all equals, period,” Mayday said, raising her voice. April scoffs, unfazed by her sister’s words.

Annie sighed. An argument between those two was hardly new, but she wasn’t in the mood to butt in. ‘First day already off to a great start,’ she thought. Annie just put her headphones on when her green eyes shimmered. A sharp gasp escapes her as she experiences a Spider-Vision!

It was like watching a movie scene play out. A loud crash and blaring of horns echo all around her. A sizeable armored truck suddenly rammed the cars, driving through the middle of the intersection. Its hulking frame appeared out of a wide alleyway, surprising everyone. It rams and crushes six vehicles without slowing down. An old blind man crossed the street and didn’t even notice. Over a dozen civilians are killed, with several cars thrown toward the surrounding structures, including the one behind them!

Right as it ends, Annie returns to the present, minutes before disaster. The fate of innocents is now in her hands. Determined, she zips open her bag, spotting her light blue spider suit. ‘Time to turn this into a deleted scene!’ She grabs her sisters’ shoulders, warning them through their shared spider-sense, ‘Armored truck, coming in from three-o-clock!’

Mayday and April drop the conversation instantly. Mayday spots no one walking down the sidewalk they’re on and leads her sisters to the roof via web shooters. Once behind cover, they each suit up. Mayday swiftly removed her clothes, unveiling the red and blue pattern spider suit beneath. Her trademark spider symbol spans her whole torso. Finally, she dons her red mask and calibrates her high-tech white lenses with her web-shooters. April clenched her teeth as she morphed symbiote tendrils out of her body. They swirled around her, and within seconds, she shapeshifted her form into her trusty spider suit, a dark blue variant of Mayday’s suit but with larger lenses and black claws on her hands. Annie is the last to finish, suiting up to her light blue and black suit with red web-shooters wrapped around her wrists. She quickly adjusts the red bag around her waist before donning her red domino mask. Right on queue, the sisters’ spidey senses kick in, looking over the intersection to spot the armored truck skidding out of the alley.

Mayday fully enters leader mode. “Wild-Spider, you know what to do. Spiderling, you go left while I go right.” 

“Got it!”

Once again, the Spectacular Wild-Spider and the Stunning Spiderling swing into action, led by the Amazing Spider-Girl!

Spider-Girl and Spiderling use their webs to zip over the intersection at fast enough speeds to allow the sisters to get behind the speeding truck. Upon webbing thier feet firmly onto the cement, the two fire a barrage of webs that stick to the back of the truck. “Hey, no speeding!” both quip as they pulled with thier combined strengths. The sheer weight and horsepower of the armored vehicle’s engines caused great strain on them, but their efforts were worth it when the truck began to slow down. Still, it was coming in pretty fast, and several passing cars were still in the way despite surrounding pedestrians scattering from the truck’s trajectory. Both sisters shout, “Wild-Spider, NOW!”

An old blind man was in the truck’s trajectory as he crossed the street, inevitably about to be struck if not for Wild-Spider. “Gotcha,” she said as she swung and snatched him up, safely plotting him on the other side. 

“Woah! My, what a kinda young lady,” he thanked.

‘Hmph, doubt he’d say that if he saw who I really am,’ April pondered as she stood before the oncoming truck. With her symbiote powers, she plants her feet into the cement and expands her arms to catch the truck right as it rammed into her. The truck comes to a dead stop, its massive engine block crushed by Wild-Spider’s immense durability. Civilians start to pour out of thier cars and the surrounding buildings, realizing the three young heroines just prevented a deadly crash that would’ve taken over a dozen lives.

Spider-Girl and Spiderling leap over to their sister. “You okay?”

April waved away some smoke and stretched her arms with a chill demeanor. “Pssh, I took tougher hits than this.” Before anyone could celebrate, a masked figure stumbles out of the truck driver’s seat. He tries to crawl away but is quickly webbed by Wild-Spider, “Oh no, you don’t. You still have a speeding ticket to pay and questions to answer, pal!” She tears off his mask, uncovering a shocking reveal. This man wasn’t a man, but a robot! Complete with a terminator-looking skull with wires popping out of his head.

“Woah. Twist of the year,” Annie said, inspecting the robot closely. 

“Well, now we know why our culprit was driving so crazy. He’s got a few screws loose,” Spider-Girl quipped.

“Urgh, barf,” April gagged. She was never a fan of Mayday’s puns.

“That’s odd,” Annie murmured, “I’ve seen my fair share of robotics but never one with this kind of craftsmanship.”

“Perhaps a new, rogue villain created it. If so, we got a wily tinkerer to catch,” Mayday said.

“But the Tinkerer has been in jail for years.”

“No, Annie, I wasn’t referring to THAT tinkerer. It was just an express-”

Mayday and the sisters stop when their spider senses tingle. They leap away when a surge of electricity comes from the truck. Whatever internal electronic systems it held inside were now beginning to short-circuit! The Spider-Girls get any surrounding civilians to safety, unsure of what’s inside or how dangerous this truck’s contents are. Suddenly, the vehicle’s roof opens, and a significant mechanism emerges to unleash a dozen humanoid attack drones. Thier metallic frames were covered mainly by a strange metallic goo, forming a perfect symbiosis of cybernetics and nanotech. Each of the drone’s heads was concealed in a glass dome. These domes then flashed red when they set thier sights on the Spider-Girls. The drones flew up into that air and hovered over them; the head drone snapped thier fingers, activating several robot dogs that sprang from the truck’s sides. 

[SPIDER-GIRLS, DETECTED. INITIATING COMBAT PARAMETERS] the drones said in unison. They unveil their arsenals of arm blades, flame flowers, missiles, and laser cannons.

The Spider-Girls stand in shock at this sudden escalation before Annie whispers what’s all on their minds. “We’re gonna be late for school, aren’t we?”

“Super-duper late,” April and Mayday said in unison.

The drones sprang to the attack, but the neighborhood heroines quickly responded. “Spider-Girls, attack!” Mayday commands. The dynamic trio sprang into action! Doing so, each brainstormed ways to defeat these pesky robots and guess which excuses their teachers would believe this time. 

A/N: I hope you all enjoyed this issue! Writing about their sister’s dynamics was very enjoyable. It’s cool to highlight the strains of family drama while reminding readers that they have each other’s backs no matter what. Who could be behind the creation of these killer robots? And what ultimately awaits our spectacular Spider-Family?!

Find out next time in Issue #2 of THE MARVELOUS SPIDER-GIRLS!

Chapter Text

• Earth-919: April | Commissioned art by @Karahuset

The things one would usually expect in the sky would be a bird or a plane, but neither wasn't quite normal if you lived in New York City. In NYC, what’s normal is seeing a heroic spider punching a flying robot in the face. Like, come on, it’s practically part of resident's weekday commutes. This showed how easy it was to be caught in a web of normalcy as the Spider-Girls didn’t bat an eye over the fact that their morning now involved a death battle. What worried the marvelous superheroines more was how much time they had before the first bell!‘Fifteen Minutes!’ Spiderling telepathically alerted through their shared spider sense. She is currently battling four drones in the air through skyscrapers and high-rises. She swings over morning traffic while dodging laser blasts from her drone pursuers. Not too far away, her eldest sister is the first to respond.

'We won’t make it on foot!’ Spider-Girl grunts, fighting four drones and three robo-dogs on a high-rise restaurant balcony cluttered with patrons. The cross-fire caused dozens to flee for the exits while Spider-Girl defends thier escape. Simultaneously, she punches the heads of a drone and robo-dog. The dog stays down, but the headless drone continues its onslaught by unleashing its deadly flamethrower arm at nearby citizens. With a twirl of her wrist, her web cartridge switches to Ice-webbings, creating a thick web shield covered in ice. Spider-Girl leaps in front of the funnel of fire, shielding a family and allowing the last patrons to escape.‘We’ll have to use our powers this time to make it!’

‘That’s what I’m always saying!’ Wild-Spider telepathically said, battling four drones and five robo-dogs in a busy public park. She beefed up her arms with her symbiote powers and stretched them to nab a drone. With a boastful roar, she smashed him into a metallic paste. Doing so changed her suit's form. Now her black hair flowed out, the lower half of her blue webbed mask was all black, and her lens had sharper edges. This was her body reacting to using her strength; the less she held back, the more her suit morphed. Against two-bit thugs or corrupt cops, she uses a sliver of her strength, but against mindless robots, she’s more than happy to crack their metal skulls.

One drone fires several small rockets while dozens of civilians try to flee. These rockets weren't aimed at Wild-Spider but at the escaping civilians. Wild-Spider shoots several impact webbings, exploding some of the missiles, before she rushes to save the remaining targets. There were three targets: a couple, an old lady, and a small boy. Wild-Spider dispatched two rockets by snatching them with her organic webbing. With her immense strength, she outpowers their propulsions and smashes them into an empty field. The last rocket neared the little boy. Wild-Spider had only seconds, so she leaped forward and snatched the boy away, the missile exploding behind them.

Briefly safe, she lets him go but sees the little boy still deathly frightened. Wild-Spider smiles to calm him down, incidently showing her fearsome fangs. The boy screamed and ran over to his parents. Wild-Spider sighs, ‘Why are they always scared of me?’ Distracted, the robo-dogs suddenly attack her, but Wild-Spider violently dispatches them before destroying a nearby drone. However, mere moments later, the drone began to repair itself. She realizes that the nanobots are reattaching their broken parts! She tells her sisters, 'Bad news. These drone nanobots are fixing them faster than we can crush'em!’ She leaves the problem-solving to them before unleashing her anger and charging after her regenerating foes. “You think your fancy gadgets will help you?! I’ll destroy you all!”

Back to Spider-Girl, she's wall-crawling on another skyscraper while avoiding blaster fire and retaliating by firing her spider-stingers. These thin, sharp metal rods pierced through the last robo-dog, its scattered pieces falling against the building. ‘Took care of all the robo-dogs on my end. Still dealing with four tin heads,’ she communicates. She leaps from poles and ledges, trying to counter-attack their onslaught as her spider sense helps her avoid their attacks. Spider-Girl switched her cartridges, firing a string of electro-webs to short-circuit thier systems, but it only staggered them.

Spider-Girl gasps when the drones purposefully fire at the skyscrapers' apartments. ‘Why would they switch targets?’

She swings down, barely catching a falling civilian. Then, one of the robots swoops down with its arm blade unsheathed. Watching this, she realizes the answer: ‘They’re learning! Knowing we’re heroes, they’re using civilians against us to create opportunities to attack!’ Spider-Girl narrowly swings away, but her lower left abdomen is slashed. She hisses in pain. It's nothing serious, but she won’t be so lucky next time.

‘Electro-Web won’t work, and they’re attacking civilians to lower our guards,’ Mayday communicates through their senses. ‘Annie, any other clue on deactivating them?’

As she asked, she saw Spiderling zoom by, hanging for dear life as her web was attached to one of four flying drones. ‘Working on it, sis!’ Spiderling thought. Annie's spider-sense tingles help her dodge a barrage of lasers from the three drones furthest ahead. In the crossfire, they critically strike the drone she’s latched onto. Now falling, Spiderling fires a web, but it’s cut by one of the three remaining drones targeting her. “Crap!” she gasps, falling further below before pressing a button on her wrists. Spiderwebbing in the shape of wing flaps form beneath her armpits, switching her suit into wing-suit mode. The momentum and high winds save her from a rough landing, and she glides at high speeds over the streets.

“Woo-hoo!” she cheered, gliding over a bridge with pursuers on her tail. She notices one drone power up its rocket boots, speeding up as it aims its arm blade for her. 'Spider-Bots, attack!' she commands through her spider-sense. Several spider-shaped droids, the size of a human hand, lept out of her red pouch and latched themselves to the drone. The design philosophy behind these bots followed the footsteps of her father's spider tracers, except this time, she can use her spider-sense to signal back commands rather than only receive signals of their locations. She uses this secret communication to have them unleash electro shocks across the approaching drone's systems. Staggered, Spiderling has the bots quickly scan how its nanobots work before latching herself to the drone, redirecting its trajectory upwards. With her quick thinking, Spiderling noticed how the metal goo shifts and powers the exoskeleton. A Spider-bot latches to her wrist and displays what it found.

“It has no internal generator, yet tons of energy's coursing through its system because...of the nanites! These drone nanites aren't just skin or some regenerative property. The nanites power all their systems and weapons. Gross that it is functioning like a human, except Tin-Man here doesn't have a heart." Spiderling quickly zooms in on the molecular structure of these nanites. “A complex and versatile synthetic substance like this gotta have some weakness in its molecular structure. Perhaps a modified form of gallium or- “ Spiderling paused, recognizing the structure of a certain strand of molecules. “Mercury! It uses a new advanced alloy with non-toxic mercury as its base. That means one way to destroy its digital network is…!”

Just like that, a brilliant idea pops into her head.

Spiderling pulls out a cartridge of ice webbing and punches the drone's chest before cracking the capsule in her hand. The intense concentration of liquid nitrogen spreads, freezing the particles of the drone's nanites on a molecular level. Thanks to her suit's internal heating and spider powers, when Spiderling pulled out her hand, there was barely any frost on it. The drone’s internal systems freeze until the robot is nothing more than an ice statue. “Huh, so telling foes to chill out can work,” she quipped. She leaps off the now robo-popsicle, watching it plummet safely on a rooftop before whipping out her web wings.‘Guys, I figured it out. They don’t have a traditional mechanical power source. The nanobots ARE the power source. Use your ice webbing to freeze the bots by punching their core bodies!’

Spider-Girl smiles proudly before swinging after her pursuers. Seeing a construction crane, she latched on to swing up and over to sling herself onto a pursuing drone. She glances at a nearby clock tower, “10 minutes left,” she muttered before punching her fist into the drone’s chest. A crack of the ice cartridge later, and the drone froze up. "Hoo-boy!' she cheered, "the only thing Frosty here is missing is a carrot nose and a top hat. Thanks, Spiderling, you’re astonishing!”

Soon enough, each sister quickly dispatched the remaining drones. Due to her organic webbing, Wild-Spider had to finish off her opponents using the reserve ice cartridges she carried in case her sisters ran out. After finishing off her remaining foes, Spider-Girl linked up with Wild-Spider, and the two swung toward Spiderling’s location. Thier little sister clung onto the last drone near the tracks of a Metro line over traffic. The robot was flying everywhere, trying to throw Spiderling off. It stubbornly does not go down without a fight. “Almost…got it!” Spiderling grunts until she spots an incoming train on the track. She’s nearly thrown off as the robot flies to the track, its glass dome suddenly flashing red.

“Spider sense tingling!" the twins gasped.

Spider-Girl shouted, "Spiderling, get out of there!" Annie tried puncturing its chest, but her spidey senses went off, and Spider-Girl's warning made her swing away. A second later, it self-destructed, obliterating part of the metro bridge and train track—and not just any train track but the East Coast’s bullet train rail system. The average passenger count for each train was almost fifteen hundred, and now one of these trains was heading straight towards a destroyed chunk of track.

‘Oh god!’ They all thought. The oncoming bullet train was going too fast for its brake to save it from plummeting and crashing to thier deaths.

With no time to lose, Spider-Girl gives out orders. “Spider-Girls, form up! Spiderling, send the Spider-Bots to the conductor. Tell him about the track and have all the passengers hang on! Then you and Wild-Spider use web nets to perform formation twenty-two. I’ll go slow the train. You both got it?!”

“Got it!”

The Marvelous Spider-Girls spring into action once more to stop a horrible catastrophe.

Following Mayday’s orders, the sisters get into thier positions. They fire several wide websnets aimed at and below the destroyed track gap, quickly building two durable layers of webbing. Spider-Girl gets on the roof of the head train, webbing her feet. “I feel them putting the brakes on, but it’s still too fast!" Seeing the metallic pillars and buildings around them, an idea sprung, and Spider-Girl fired several magnetic webbings onto them. Dozens of webbing latch onto these metal foundations while the quick strain burns her hands, but Spider-Girl maintains her grip on these thick webs with all her strength. Some snap-off, but her specialized fast-firing mode allows Spider-Girl to replace a web in a second. Suddenly, an intense pain burns across her abdomen. “My wound! Gah!!! Not now!” she hissed, feeling her grip loosen. “I…must…not…!” Try as she might, the strain widened the wound, and the train was still going too fast. "At this speed, dozens could still die! No, they won't die! I refuse!" Blood stained her suit, the pain worsening, and Spider-Girl’s grip slips further. “No…”

Just as Spider-Girl is about to fail, arms lock around her shoulders, keeping her from collapsing. She knew that hug anywhere. It was Annie! “I got you, Spider-Girl!” she yelled, using her strength to support her sister. Despite their combined strengths, they had seconds left, and the impact was still too dangerous to risk. 

Suddenly, several black tendrils wrapped around their waists and arms until these tendrils held onto the webbings. April was behind her sisters, puncturing her feet on the train’s roof. “All that training and you still need me,” she smirked.

“Wild-Spider!” they cheer.

“Less talking, more holding!"

Together, the Parker sisters, with all their combined might, perform one last massive tug on the webs! 'Don'tsnap! Don'tsnap!' Mayday thought. Then the seemingly impossible happened: a train going over two hundred and fifty miles an hour crawled to a halt just as it tipped over the edge of the destroyed bridge. Even as the sisters struggle against the sheer momentum they’re stopping, they don’t stop holding on to the train and each other until the first layer of net-webbing safely catches the train’s nose. As their faces turned red from the strain, they breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing the webbings hold firm. The second the train stopped dead, the trio fell onto the bed of webs below.

Laying beside her sisters, Spiderling almost couldn’t believe her eyes. “We…we did it!” she cheered, gasping for air.

WIld-Spider huffs exhaustedly, “Next time…I see a weird truck. I’m crushing it…”

Spider-Girl chuckles, “All in agreement?”

“Aye!” the sisters say in unison.

Spiderling notices blood on her, quickly realizing it's not hers but Mayday's. “Oh god, you’re bleeding!” Panicking, Spiderling scrambles through her bag with intense worry across her face. She pulls out the trusty Spider-Aid. She and her father created this advanced medical spray some months ago, and it was one of the latest feats in medical science, where any flesh wound can be sealed up thanks to the spray’s unique chemical mixture.

Spider-Girl sighs in relief as the pain goes away. “Thanks-“ She’s cut off when Spiderling lunges forward to give her a worried hug. “I am okay now, Annie,” Spider-Girl whispered.

“I just hate seeing you hurt,” Spiderling admits, her worry clear and present.

Spider-Girl hugs her little sister back. “I know, but we’re safe now, thanks to your help. You did well.” She looks up to Wild-Spider and gives a thumbs-up, which April returns in kind.

With their nerves calmed, the team begins helping passengers out of the train. Wild-Spider rips open one door, activating the emergency inflatable sliding tubes. Spider-Girl gets traffic below to create a safe space for passengers to gather while Spiderling works with the staff to guide passengers down the slides safely. To the team’s relief, the worst injuries were some light bruises, which Spiderling helped patch up by having her band of Spider-bots use their equipped healing sprays. A crowd forms around the trio, applauding the team’s efforts in stopping the threat and saving many lives.

“Another day saved, Spider-Girls!” The conductor thanked them.

“Spiderling, you looked so brave and cool up there!” some teen boys cheered. Annie thanked the compliment with an awkward wave but cringed at the heart shapes in their eyes. 

“Spider-Girl, we love you!” A group of fangirls cheered and crowded around her. Mayday blushed and blew a quick air kiss, causing several teens to swoon.

However, the adoring crowd cheered two names rather than three. Wild-Spider clenched her fists, remembering that kid in the park being more terrified of her than killer robots. She feels someone poke her from behind; she turns to growl at them but stops when she sees it’s a little girl holding a worn-out monster plushy. She wasn’t scared of her like the boy was. If anything, the child looked dazzled. She held up her hand for a fist pump, “You are SOOO cool, like my best friend,” she said, glancing at her plushy. The little one must've been carrying it since she was a baby.

April sees how the girl lovingly hugs the toy, kneels, and returns her fist pump: “Thanks. I guess you’re one of the few cool people in Queens.”

Suddenly, the girl’s mother pulls her daughter away, frighteningly whispering, “Sarah, don’t touch that Mutie monster!”

April is about to snap at the bigoted mother when she hears the distant sounds of police cars approaching. “Crap,” she hissed. Sarah waved goodbye at April, who waved back, proud of the kid's defiance of her mother's bigotry. April pulled her sisters away, pushing the crowd aside. “Police are here.”

“Oh great,” Annie sighed, checking her watch. “Crud, five minutes left? We don’t have time for their heckling.”

“You’re right,” Mayday nods. “Everything’s under control, and buses will get these passengers to where they’re going. Let’s move—“She pauses when she sees the burnt remains of the droid nearby. Mayday dashes towards it, confusing her sisters.

“What are you doing?” April asks.

“Gathering intel. Better in our hands than the police." Mayday held onto a burnt-up metal skull and a capsule full of nanobots.

“You’re just going to hull around a robot skull around school? I mean, look how damaged it is,” Annie whispers.

“I’ll figure something out. We need intel on who made these things. Since this is the only robot not frozen, a shot in the dark is better than nothing.” With everything gathered, the Spider-Girls swing away. The trio quickly gathered their hidden clothes and backpacks before rushing toward Midtown High, hopefully before the first period ended.

[Later…]

Having just arrived, Mayday poked her head out of the corner and scouts the campus. “See anybody?” Annie whispered. The sisters were all currently tucked in a hidden corner of the east building, the windows to the women’s bathroom a few stories below.

“Not one,” Mayday answered.

“Which means everyone's in class already,” April said.

“Yeeeep," Mayday sighed.

The sisters sneakily wall-crawled down, quietly opened the windows, and leaped into the empty bathrooms. April swiftly transformed into her civilian clothes and peeked into the hallway outside. “Coast is clear,” she whispered. Annie and Mayday rush into their stalls to change.

“So, I’ve been thinking,” April spoke, “how about we say the robots attacked us? The news is saying they've attacked dozens of people. The staff will believe it.”

“Too much suspicion,” Mayday responds, “I mean, all that footage, and yet we’re not seen anywhere?”

“Oh, come on, who will care enough to notice?”

“Sorry, April. Let’s be safe and say our cat got sick and had to be taken to the vet.” Mayday guessed from the silence that her sisters agreed. Shoving her suit into her backpack, she zips up her pants and throws on her jacket until she notices something on her collar. “Ahh, crud. Got a blood stain on my jacket!”

“Hey, you want to say that any louder? You know, so that the whole school could hear ya?” April quipped.

Annie stuffed her suit in her backpack. “Urgh! That’s just great! May's blood is stained on my suit. Now, we've got to use the laundromat tonight, and I'm all out of quarters.”

“Okay, how am I the one not yelling at the top of their lungs?” April asks.

“Sorry,” Mayday whispered. "And leave the washing to me, Annie. I got spare quarters."

"Phew, you're a lifesaver!"

“Anyway, our cover story should suffice. Mom and Dad will say they weren’t home if the school calls."

Annie sighed, “And we promised them we wouldn’t be late today. How will they react now, especially if they discover we withheld bad-guy tech? And god forbid Mom and Dad see this blood.”

“Relax, Annie,” Mayday assured, “I’ll come up with something. If, and I mean, if they call, let me do the talking.”

Annie nods and finishes dressing. Suddenly, a loud plop is heard from Mayday’s stall. “Oy, that’s smart.”

“What?” Annie asked as she stepped out.

“Dropped the freaking robo-skull in the toilet.”

“Huh, still not as weird as Annie hiding a Skrull in the storage closet last year,” April notes.

“Hey, she tried to impersonate me in the middle of the third period. Where else was I supposed to hide her? Still can't believe she and her buddies had the nerve to argue it was a 'prank.'"

"Hey, can't blame the Skurlls for having a weird sense of humor." As Annie fixed her hair and ensured no bruises showed, the sister's spider senses tingled. April peeks out the door to see the source of the disturbance. “Shit. Ms. Pershing’s coming,” April whispers.

“Oy. No wonder our senses are going off. It just had to be one teacher who checks the bathrooms,” Mayday said.

“Yeah, and our backpacks,” Annie said in worry. “Mayday, ditch the robo-head!”

"Easier said than done," Mayday said. She knew Ms. Pershing would check every corner of this restroom for any suspicious item. She will find the skull so long as it is in this room. “Wait…in this room… that’s it!" Mayday busts open her stall door; the head and nanite vial webbed together. “April, the window!" Without a word, April slid open the window. Mayday makes sure not to throw it too far, and when she does, she hears shrubbery rustling on the other side, her intended target. “Nice! Three-pointer.”

A moment later, Ms. Pershing opens the door to find the Parker Sisters standing at attention in the bathroom. Mayday tries not to show her nerves. Annie nervously smiles—April cheekily waves. “Yo, Ms. Perching," she says. "Saaaay, did you get a haircut this summer?”

The middle-aged pale woman, her dark hair tied up in a bun, pinched her brows. “Open your bags, Parkers, and empty your pockets.”

The sisters do as they’re told and open their bags wide. Ms. Perching looks and finds only textbooks, pencils, and paper. Unbeknownst to her, the Parker sisters have their super suits stuffed in a secret bottom compartment. Ms. Perching searches the restrooms until she stops and glances at Mayday. “May Fitzgerald Parker,” she sternly says, pointing at her right cheek and collar. “Is that a bruise, and why is there a blood stain on your jacket?”

'Cruuuud! I didn't check for bruises,' Mayday thought.

April stepped in. “Well, it started when our cat got super sick. Threw up everywhere.”

“Y-yeah,” Annie supports, “and our parents were gone, so we rushed to the nearest vet.”

Ms. Perching asked, "What does that have to do with-?"

“Then suddenly I tripped!" Mayday interrupted. Ms. Perching gave her the stink eye but allowed her to continue, "Yeah, I fell straight on my face the way there. Even nosebleed a bit. Our cat turned out to have had worms, so we had to stay a bit longer. We informed our parents we'd be late. You can verify with them if you wish.”

Perching raised her eyebrow, “Did Mr. Smith see you walk up the gate?”

“He was asleep, like always,” April answered.

Ms.Perching sighed, “Course he was. Then why were you three in the bathroom and not in class?”

The sisters gulped. Not having thought that far ahead, they were forced to improvise. An idea popped into Mayday's head; left with no choice, she stepped forward and forced a nervous blush. “I…because of…my…p-period.”

April barely stopped herself from snickering. Annie stepped forward, backing her sister up by pulling out her tampons. “Y-yeah, but she forgot hers. Good thing April and I were here, right? Haha, phew!” April fought the toughest fight by both not slapping her forehead and not bursting out in laughter.

Perching squints at the three, a doubtful look in her eyes before finally relenting. “You know what I just heard, Parkers? Excuses!” The sisters step back, not wanting to irritate her further. “They might be valid excuses, but still excuses! I swear, ever since you three enrolled, there’s at least one instance every week where one of you is late or scrambling for stuff like you were hiding something. It’s a mystery to me how I haven’t found any drugs on you yet or caught you committing some crime. Especially you, April.”

"Ehh, that's fair," April shrugged.

Despite being irritated by the false accusation, Mayday spoke calmly: “We’re sorry, Ms. Perching. I guess it’s just the old Parker luck, as our family always say.” A bell rang across the school’s sound system, a sign of relief and disappointment for the sisters.

“Looks like that 'luck' just lost you 1^st period,” Perching said, pointing at the door, “To class, now.”

“Uhh…but,” Mayday stutters, thinking of the robo-head outside.

“Now!” Seeing hrt wits had officially ended, the sisters walked into the halls just as kids crowded in. Ms. Perching returned to her professional attitude and said, “Have a pleasant rest of your day, Parkers. Remember, I’m always watching.” She pointed at them before disappearing amidst the crowd of students and faculty.

“Yeeesh! Always watching? Lady needs a life,” April said.

"Hate when she accuses you like that," Annie muttered.

"Hey, more heat on me means less heat on you."

Mayday is the first to step away, whispering, “I’ll get the parts. We’ll meet during lunch. See you later, April, Annie.”

Annie waves goodbye, steadying her nerves, “Okay, switching to student mode. Good luck in class, April.”

“Show them what you’re made of, Annie!"

The Parker sisters split off. Each is about to face new and old challenges this semester in a place almost as tough as crime-fighting itself: high school.

[Meanwhile...]

Amid the busy streets where a recent battle occurred, two figures disguised in civilian clothing look over the icy remains of a once functional battle robot.

“Look like that gearhead’s little toy went haywire,” one of the mysterious figures spoke.

“Those cursed Spider-Girls didn’t help either,” the other cloaked figure hisses angrily. “So what now?”

“The plan remains the same. The most crucial pieces are already in place. Besides, I can do a better job distracting than these toys.”

“Whatever. So long I see some action, I’m ready for any surprises,” she smirks eagerly, a spark rippling from her eyes.

The sound of web-slinging above causes the two to move behind the cover. Above, they see the Ultimate Spider-Man inspecting the scene below. One of the figures sees the other clench their fist before calming her. “In due time,” they say, pulling her further into the shadows, “they will all pay in due time...”

A/N: I hope you all enjoyed this action-pack battle in the skies and below! It was fun trying to make this dynamic, giving each Parker sister a moment to shine. Annie is the most analytical and reliant on tech. April is the powerhouse, using her unique physiology to overpower foes. Mayday is a balance of both, having the training and leadership skills to get the three to work effectively together. Then, culminating in their physically supporting one another to save people was a fun writing moment for me. That’s also something I highlighted, and they are making sure people are protected. It’s too familiar, at least for a while with movies, that the heroes only do a few people saving. I also made it to balance them having fun tech while still relying on traditional spidey gear and tactics. Also, I don’t know if the Parker sisters are mutants. That’s a bit of debate, so I’d like your thoughts about the subject and this chapter.

With all that said...who are these mysterious figures lurking in the shadows? What clues can the Spider-Girls find in the ruined remains of these robots? What awaits our dynamic trio on their first day of high school?

Find out next time in Issue #3 of THE MARVELOUS SPIDER-GIRLS!

Chapter Text

• Earth-919: Annie | Commissioned art by @Karahuset

The bell signals the beginning of a new class period. An elderly science teacher fixed his glasses as he did roll call. “Arianna Gonzalez?”

“Here!”

“Anna-May Watson-Parker?” Silence fills the room. Teens turn their heads to the center of the room, where Annie scribbles on a piece of paper and types on her calculator. “Ms. Parker?”

Annie flinched when the teacher tapped his ruler on her desk. ‘Dang, he moves fast for an old guy,’ Annie smiled awkwardly and raised her hand. The teacher’s eyes squinted before he took the sheet of paper. Annie didn’t stop him but remained nervous.

“This…is an impressive molecular calculation, Ms. Parker. However, I don’t see what formula you’re aiming for. Is there any reason for doing this?”

“Guess I’m eager to learn, that’s all,” Annie answered. In truth, her curiosity was still about what made those killer robots tick. She looked at the nanite’s molecular structure and wondered how they were created. She figured it out by starting some basic calculations about what formulas they used as ingredients to build such a unique alloy.

“I can see that; however, this is my class, so please follow my curriculum, Ms. Parker,” he said firmly before handing back her paper. “Ah, speaking of curriculum. Remember, our class is one of the lucky few selected to teach Krakoan students as part of the school’s foreign exchange program. I expect all of you to be tolerant when they arrive next week.” 

While her ears perked at the mention of mutant students, the quick change of subject eventually caused Annie’s thoughts to wander off, and she noticed other things around her. Though her powers were incredible in every sense of the word, they weren’t without drawbacks, such as her hearing being so sensitive she could hear even the softest whispers. A current example is half the classroom whispering about her.

“Such a try-hard.”

“You saw how stupid smart she is? Well, she’s greedy too. If you want her help, you gotta pay her cold hard cash.”

“See? Last year’s rumors are true. Total showoff.”

Annie was irritated, stopping herself from snapping her pen. Rumors were part of life in Midtown High, and somehow, Annie just had to be a part of said rumors. They could be worse, especially compared to April’s. The difference was that her sister didn’t care about any rumor thrown at her. April knew how to take a punch, but not Annie; she wished she could carry that same carefree attitude. However, something deep inside her refused to let such lies exist, and that the truth was important. It compels her to correct any mistake and, in this case, be defiant of such falsehoods.

Now, if only she did a decent job at doing that. There is a downside to being mild-mannered.

‘I guess it can’t be helped,’ Annie thought, ‘I’ll slip this in as reason number fifteen for why I got no friends: nobody wants to be pals with a girl who can’t debunk a rumor about herself.’ The teacher continued about their new lab, but Annie had long since clocked out. ‘Oh great, I don’t even recognize anyone in this class. Just when I was making good progress with…uh, b-Britney? No, Brianna…okay, maybe not great progress, but we said hi a few times.’

Part of her was tempted to discuss this with her sisters, but that’s the last thing she needed. ‘I know they’ll mean well…okay, Mayday will. April would probably threaten several people. I want my own space to solve my issues. Not to mention the possibility of Mayday sharing this with Mom and Dad.’

She can already hear it now!

“Wow! Talk about having a weak spine! Had to bring in her parents over some silly rumors!”

“See!? That’s why you don’t make friends with little Annie. She can’t take a joke!”

“Urgh, I heard Osborn’s heir was like her only friend. No wonder they split; she must’ve always been a brat.”

Annie’s imagination runs rampant over this nightmare scenario. She tried not to think about it by finishing the last calculations on this strange substance. Her teacher then announces, “…with all that said, grab your things and coats. We’re heading to the Science and Engineering wing.”

‘Finally,’ Annie sighs in relief, ‘I got to take my mind off hero stuff and drama. Be a normal student, Annie, and everything will be fine.’

She throws her lab coat as naturally as her spider suit before grabbing her red pouch. She gasps when her Spidey sense goes off, and Annie dodges a kid trying to shove her. She swipes her bag behind her and rolls her eyes at the culprit. “Albert Arvad, you jerk.”

The blonde-haired, glass-wearing boy carried a smug look on his face as he snickered. Albert, the son of a former supervillain, Will-o-wisp, always tried to frame himself as Annie’s equal, partly because his father was a brilliant scientist, too. She knew that was far from the truth, but his constant arrogance pushed her buttons. She remembers her parents’ advice and tries to calm herself, especially her competitive side.

Albert and his pals stroll past as she raises his hands, “What’s wrong? I didn’t touch you, so no harm, no foul.”

Annie tried not to let others get to her, but smug pricks like Albert she couldn’t stand. ‘Urgh, and the way he always looks down at me. I don’t even want to know his views on women.’ In her distracted thoughts, Annie fails to notice a spider bot falling out of her red pouch until it hovers beside her.

“Gah!” she yelps as its adorable little face brightens, waiting for her orders.

“Ms. Parker, we are all- “said the teacher.

“Yep, right behind you,” Annie said nervously. Luckily, Annie discreetly hid the spider bot behind her back and followed the class. Luckily, she could stuff the spider-bot into her shirt’s pocket. Unluckily, it also got people snickering at her. However, one girl sounded like she giggled, like she wasn’t laughing at her. Annie hoped that was the case as she buttoned up her coat, hiding her little friend.

Arriving at their destination, Annie’s eyes sparkled with glee at how cool these rooms were—how jam-packed they were with Stark and F.F. tech. While she had to refrain from touching anything, they still had neat gadgets in the classroom. Assigned to her station, Annie watched as the teacher passed out a handheld circular gadget for their first learning assignment.

“Students, each of you holds a modified version of the Cell Stimulator,” he said. “We’ll be using this to learn the intricacy of cell division among various lifeforms. For example, next to you is a small water tank containing ten plankton. Now, shoot the device’s ray at the plankton.”

Annie does and gasps upon seeing the plankton multiple tenfold. “Woah, teacher, there’s like a hundred of them now! All healthy like the original ten.”

“Precisely!”

Annie inspects the gadget closer when the hidden Spider-Bot begins to shift beneath her coat. “Stop,” she whispers, “sto-hahaha!” The crawling started to tickle, making her burst into laughter. She gets many kids looking at her weirdly before she slaps her hand over her mouth. There’s an awkward air before everyone returns to listening.

It peaks over her collar, but Annie quickly grabs it and hides it behind her tray of tools. She gets a glance from some students, but they soon turn away. “Please, stay still,” she whispers. She realizes the spider-bot was inspecting the Cell-stimulator, eager to analyze it further. “Okay, but just a peek.” After allowing a quick scan, she had it crawl to her shoulder without anyone seeing it. The bot relays its findings to her ear in its quietest settings. Annie gasped and shoved the bot into her pack. “Teacher?”

“Yes, Ms. Parker?”

“Y-yes, uh, how safe are these devices, sir?”

“Well, if you had been listening two seconds ago, you would know these devices have been modified to be completely ineffective on humans.”

“So totally safe then? What about animals, then?”

“Yes, the device is calibrated before class to- “

“And metal, what about that?” Annie interrupts, a concerned look in her eyes.

The teacher looks confused but answers, “Erm, of course, Ms. Parker. Metals don’t have cells; they’re composed of atoms.”

“Hehe, obviously,” Albert snickers mockingly, along with a few other students.

“I’m not talking about earth metals or transition metals, but semi-organic metals,” Annie clarifies. " The kind of metal where it’s possible to imitate the structure and properties of cells—to the point where it can even copy cell division and is magnified by devices like these?”

The class is silent, staring at Annie, who flinches back, realizing her mistake. ‘Crud, I got too specific and advanced just now. At least my spidey senses aren’t going off.’

“Uh, forget what I just said,” she laughs. Luckily, the class proceeded, and while she got a few looks from classmates, Annie was able to keep her identity safe by the end of the period.

Albert and half of her classmates laughed at her as she left class. “Have you ever thought of being a comedian instead, Parker? You sure know how to make yourself look like a fool.”

“Perhaps the day you finally shut up, which is never, jerk,” Annie said.

“Ooh, that hurt my feelings, Parker.”

“Really? Didn’t know you had any!”

Annie’s face turned red in anger, and she tried to remind herself of her parents’ rule. As much as she wanted to kick Albert in the face right now, she didn’t want to crack his skull. As Albert and his pals walk away, Annie sighs and clears her mind. It’s in this apparent state that she felt something different. She turns, noticing a girl with brown skin and dark hair walking away. Annie notices a note on her backpack.

“Don’t let them get to you. You’re funny and smart! Funny in a good way, I mean!”

Annie blushes at the kind words. She looks back to see the girl already gone. Her cheeks are warm as she smiles, tucking the note into her pocket. Safely away from any eyes, she has her spider-bot transfer the cell stimulator’s data into her phone before making a call.

“Yeah, Annie?” Mayday says over the phone.

“Meet me by our lockers. I got something to share.”

After a quick walk, Annie waves at her sister, standing by the sister’s lockers huddled together. “What’d you find?”

“This,” Annie whispers, holding her phone close to Mayday, which transfers the data.

Mayday scrolls through, checking on a diagram beside it. “Cell-Stimulator…you think this has something to do with those robot’s nanites?”

“I’m pretty certain,” Annie whispers, “At first, I thought the nanites were pure metal, just a bundle of atoms. I think I’ve been looking at this with a missing perspective. The metal could be partly organic, that the robots perhaps weren’t mindless drones but almost alive like you and me.”

Mayday leans against her locker, tapping her chin while processing this. “Sounds like they were run by an advanced Artificial intelligence then.”

“An A.I. whose functions are disturbingly organic, potentially even alive.”

“So, you think it’s similar to the theory of silicon-based lifeform?”

“It’s not alien,” April announces while snacking on chips. Using her symbiote powers to change the colors of her nails, she said, “Trust me. I know a thing about aliens.”

“Where’d you get that?” Mayday questions.

“I persuaded some boys to get me some,” she said sweetly. Her sisters didn’t buy it, and she waved it off, “Kidding, I persuaded the vending machine with a few kicks for them.”

Mayday pinches her brows while Annie shakes her head.

“What? I always snack after a good fight,” she said, lazily tossing the empty bag to the floor. “Anyway, what we fought looked man-made, and the exoskeletons didn’t look like any Kree or whatever alien group’s designs.”

“It could be someone stole alien tech,” Annie posits.

“Perhaps we’re overthinking it,” Mayday said, properly disposing of the discard bag. “What chances are the cell stimulators being incorporated into the bad guy’s tech? That’s how they can get that weird substance to self-replicate so fast. Your notes said how it multiplies plankton tenfold in a second.”

“That’s still a big if,” April said.

“But if true,” Annie said, “it means someone is stealing tech from either here or from the big enterprises like Stark.”

“Either is deeply concerning,” Mayday said before the bell rang, signaling them to get to class.

“Well, we’re still stuck at square one if we don’t know WHO did this,” April said. She opens her locker but coughs when she sees dust and cobwebs. “The hell? I thought the school cleaned these over the summer.”

Annie's eyes squint in confusion. “They do. Mine’s clean.” She blinks in surprise when she sees a note slipped in.

Opening it, she reads: Want to start the new school year with a bang? Then come to this address at seven o’clock for a big party bash. Sincerely, Heather Noble.

The sisters gagged at the mere mention of Heather. The junior student was practically royalty, with her popularity, wealth, and influence both in and outside school. 

“Must’ve slipped in by mistake,” said Annie. “Why would she ever invite someone like me?”

April suddenly had an idea, and a devious grin crossed her lips. She swipes the letter from Annie, saying, “Hey, how about we get some payback for last year’s field trip and crash this party? I know a guy who can hook us up with-”

“No,” Mayday firmly states, crossing her arms.

“Oh, come on! I’m not even saying to use our powers. Besides, I don’t want to be cooped up at home all night, especially since we’re still benched. Right, Annie?”

“Uhh…”

“Powers or no powers, we shouldn’t engage in petty fights,” Mayday said. She opens her locker and is surprised to find a baker’s dozen worth of letters. “Okay, what’s up with our lockers today?”

April opens one, “Day one, and you’re already getting love letters?”

“Wow, from guys and girls,” Annie said after looking at two.

Blushing, Mayday snatches up her letters, “It’s not like I ask for them, April.”

“This coming from the same girl who blows kisses at her fangirls. At least Annie is decent enough not to show off.” April’s phone suddenly rings. She sighs and walks off, “Gotta go.”

Mayday squints while watching April rush through the halls, “What’s got her in a hurry?”

“You know April, she hates unfair situations,” Annie said, walking away. “And I see where she’s coming from.”

Mayday looked at all her love letters and April’s barren locker, which didn’t even have an invite. May frowned and tossed the letters in the trash. ‘I don’t have time for another life anyway,’ she said.

[Later…]

“Whether through academia or pop culture, you all learned that Isaac Newton invented calculus. However, for extra credit, can someone tell me one fact that’s overlooked,” a math teacher asks. The class was so silent that crickets could be heard. Sitting in the far right back of the class, one incredibly silent student had her feet kicked up on her desk. She was absorbed in her phone as if trying to distract herself. “What do you think it is, April Teresa Parker? Given your little scrolling there, you’ll need all the extra credit you can get this year.”

April laughs, “Oh? Singling me out on the first day, teach? That’s unprofessional and worthy of reporting.”

“And who would believe you,” the teacher mumbled beneath his breath, but April heard him. “Just try and answer the question, Parker.”

April rolls her eyes, answering, “Well, it is Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz. Born July 1^st, 1646, he was a renowned mathematician, scientist, and optimist philosopher who was so vital to calculus that Leibniz’s notation is named in honor of him.”

The teacher blinks in surprise, “That’s…exactly it-.”

“He was such a big contributor to Calculus that there was a big old dispute between him and Newton over who deserved the title of ‘inventor of calculus.’ Honestly, I can relate to that Leibniz guy. The man published his findings first, but because Newton’s supporters accused him of plagiarizing, the world eventually remembered Newton over him. Tsk, talk about history being written by the victors.”

April crossed her arms in a huff before noticing the class was staring at her. She feels her phone vibrate in her jacket pocket and quickly raises her hand. “May I excuse myself to the restroom, please?”

April walked out before the teacher could even speak. Roaming the halls, her mind can’t shake off all the praise her sisters keep getting, especially Mayday. She pulls out one of the invitations she swiped from before with the name ‘Mayday Parker’ on it. “Tsk, that hypocrite,” she mutters, tearing the letter to shreds. “Maybe the real reason is that she wants to enjoy that party all by herself. Some leader you are, sister.”

At that moment, April remembers the counseling she received as a child. Despite the lessons and help they gave her, she can’t shake off this feeling. No matter how often people say they’re equals, a part of her doesn’t believe it.

There is no doubt in her mind that she’s the strongest of the three—powers she bet Mayday wishes she could have. Yet despite her contribution, the public only appreciates her once every blue moon.

‘That bigot lady especially pissed me off,’ she thought. ‘People see me as a menace when people like her are the real menace.’ Describing her as a menace was the least offensive word April had heard. There were two words in the English vocabulary that she never wanted to hear: ‘monster’ and ‘clone.’ She’ll tear apart anyone who dares throw that latter term at her. That was an unequivocal promise.

Her sulking is interrupted by a whistle from the staircase. She travels from the third floor to the rooftops, using a hairpin to open the door to meet the only other person she tolerates.

“Yo, I’ve been waiting forever up here,” Stephanie Kim said. A fellow junior with long, dark, straight hair with a streak of blue dye across her hair bangs. She wore dark and blue colored clothes with a red scarf and the trans colors painted across the back of her jacket. Stephanie became acquainted with Annie and her during middle school. Though Annie and Steph don’t talk much now, April and Steph stayed close friends. Simply put, the two had a shared distrust of adults, creeps, and stuck-up, high-class students.

“Hey, I had a lot on my mind this morning. Give me a break,” April said back. However, this was just their way of saying hello. April looked over the sports field with Stephanie when she saw her pulling out a cigarette. She snatched it away and lit it for herself with a small match. “I told you, Idiot, these aren’t good for you.”

“Oh, but they are for you. How?”

“Heh, wouldn’t you like to know,” April chuckled. This was another benefit of her unique physiology. Being half-symbiote meant she didn’t have to worry about the side effects of smoking. “So, how did summer school treat ya?”

“Your tutoring made it bearable. For once, my folks looked proud of my grade. You?”

“The last week of summer was alright. We had a family fun day over in Manhattan. Mom and Annie were thrilled, which is nice. Dad and Mayday chatted a lot, like always.”

“And you?”

April dodges the question with another question, “How’s the shiner on your cheek?”

“The bruise went away last night. It’s worth it for scaring away those drunk rich pricks. I still can’t believe they tried driving that girl home. Idiots would’ve gotten all of them killed.”

April blows smoke, saying, “Alright, let’s get down to business. Did you find any clues on anyone sneaking into school recently?”

“I got the usual suspects,” Stephanie answered, pulling out her phone with a list. “Alex Sytsevich?”

“He’d be good muscle to hire, but he’s a good kid. It isn’t easy to trick him into stealing. Next.”

“Ross Wheele?”

“He would make a good getaway driver. He went to juvie, too, but he’s too stupid to trust info. Next.”

“Natalie Lemelin?”

“Screwbie? You serious?” April chuckles before pausing, pondering the idea further. “She is the best gymnast around here…good enough to sneak past security. She doesn’t give a crap about doing anything illegal.”

“And she’s the anonymous owner of that growing live stream channel, Screwball,” Steph said, “Not many people know she’s that loud chatterbox.”

“Which means she’ll love a little chat if it means gloating about it,” April smiles, tossing away the cig. “Where’s the last place you saw her?”

“I’ve seen her hanging with three athletes over on 23rd street. They look like drug couriers.”

“Good work, Steph,” April congratulated, and the two ran downstairs until they reached the school fences. Making sure no security was watching, the two sneak out of school and reach a bar on the street where Natalie was last spotted. They peeked inside, catching her with three guys walking out the back.

“Be ready and stay behind me,” April whispers to Steph, who already has a bat on her. Sneaking to the back, April recognizes that purple-haired Natalie is wearing trendy sunglasses and fashionista-style clothes. It contrasted the three boys her age who wore jock uniforms not from their school. They were beside a black van, showing off to her the money they make from dealing drugs and the fancy switchblade knives they bought.

April sees Steph was already recording before surprising the four with her announcement, “Say hi to the camera, fellas.”

“Woah, hey! Put those cameras down!” one dealer panicked.

“Yeah,” Natalie shouts, “I’m supposed to be filming, so stop stealing my thunder!”

“W-what?!” the boys exclaim, “you’re filming us holding this stuff?!”

Natalie nodded nonchalantly, tapping on her sunglasses, which had a hidden camera. “You'd be surprised how many of my viewers love seeing this stuff.”

Watching the three boys’ jaws drop was hilarious to April. “I swear. These dealers are getting desperate if they’re picking these losers,” she told Steph, who chuckled. However, things become serious when the leader of the boys grabs Natalie by the wrist and breaks her glasses.

“We have tough friends,” he said before turning to April and Steph. “N-none of you won’t get away with this.”

Seeing the other two approach them, April glares with a confident smirk. ‘Good, I got some steam to blow off,’ she thought. She shoves Steph away for her safety. The boys try grabbing April, but she throws the first punch. The inexperienced teens armed with switchblades stood no chance against April’s fists. Their bruises were so nasty that blood began to stain her knuckles. Within seconds, she had both boys down on the pavement, nearly passed out from the quick beating. ‘Damn, I don’t know how dad did it holding back his punches. I’m barely trying.’

Her spider senses warn her of the last boy charging from behind, knife in hand. She was ready to dodge when Steph stepped in and bashed his leg hard with her bat, causing him to fall hard onto the pavement. Kicking the knife away, Steph kicked him hard in the gut before April pulled her back. “Steph, it’s over. They’re finished.”

Steph huffs, “Shouldn’t I be telling you that?”

April looks at the tiny blood on her knuckles and says, “Well, do as I say, not as I do.”

Natalie squeals, “A real knife and fist brawl. How fun!” She walks up and kicks the leader, angrily saying, “You owe me a five-hundred thousand-viewed video, jerk!”

Scared of all of them, the boys stagger back to their van and drive off.

“Yeah, that’s right, run home to your mamas!” April shouts.

“What cowards!” Natalie sighs. " On second thought, they totally would’ve ruined my viewership.” She casually leans against the wall and asks, “What ruffled your feathers?”

“Every troublemaker in midtown knows that you are down for anything,” Steph said, “Your acrobatics are at the top of the district, good enough to steal something, even.”

“You stole something from the school recently, didn’t you?”

“Oh, how I love to hear my rep grow,” Natalie said, brushing her hair in pride. “Well, if you want to know, I’ll tell ya. The only loyalty I give a damn about is that of my viewers. All I ask is a quick favor.”

April groans, “Don’t tell me; we must subscribe to you. You have three million subscribers, girl.”

“It’ll be three million and two if you say yes. Oh, and if I see that number go down two numbers, I’ll make you regret it.”

Both teens roll their eyes and whip out their phones. “See? Now we’re a part of your ‘screwball’ gang or whatever. Now talk.”

“Hmm, this was almost three months ago, so my memory is a bit fuzzy,” Natalie said, tapping her forehead. “I was leaving summer classes late afternoon, streaming my best gym performance, when a tall girl my age with a crimson red trench coat approached me. She had a German accent, I think. She offered money in exchange for stealing something from a construction site.”

“I suppose it was the science building while it was being built,” Steph said.

“Yep!”

April pulls a picture of the cell stimulator from her phone and asks, “And that thing you stole, did it look like this?”

“Dunno.”

“What do you mean ‘dunno’?”

“She just said to snatch a special black box. I did that, got paid, and she disappeared. I don’t know what was inside.”

April slaps her forehead, “you sure that’s all you know?” When Natalie nods, Steph and April make their way back to school. “Well, at least it’s something.”

Upon sneaking back on campus, Steph asks, “What’s your gain in figuring this case out?”

“Case? Don’t say that like we’re cops,” April said, “Look, Annie noticed one of these devices was missing. She looked concerned, so I thought we'd try looking for the culprit.”

“Heh, you’re a softie sometimes.”

“Shut up.”

“Never. So, I’m guessing it’s dangerous?”

“In the wrong hands, yeah.” April enters one of the buildings with Steph when her spider senses go off. “Uhh, Steph? You go ahead.”

“Oh, sure. See you later then. Remember, baseball practices start Wednesday. Better see you there.”

April waved goodbye until she was sure Steph was gone. She huffs a strand of her hair, saying, “Alright, we’re alone.” Mayday casually walks out from behind the main doors, a look of suspicion in her eyes. “I got some deets on who could’ve done it. A seventeen-year-old girl with a red trench coat and German accent. She hired someone to steal a black box from the science building, most likely a cell stimulator.”

Mayday stays silent, approaching April before snatching her right hand. Raising it between them to reveal the dried blood on her knuckle. “What did you do?”

“Nothing that broke the code,” April said, pulling her fist back.

“Was this unavoidable, or did you just head straight into trouble looking for a fight?”

“Hey, I didn’t get Steph or bystanders hurt. That’s what matters most, right?”

“Don’t dodge the question. April, fighting for us means more than simply holding back. What if one of these people you attack one day ends up in a hospital from a hidden traumatic brain injury? What if they die from it?”

“I just taught some idiot drug dealer kids a lesson they won’t forget, yet you’re treating it like a bad thing.”

“Using your powers recklessly is a bad thing, April. We fight as the Spider-Girls, not as the Parker sisters.”

“God, what is with you and your speeches today?”

“Because I promised to always look after you and Annie,” Mayday answers.

A silence falls between the sisters at the mention of this promise. April glares away, saying, “Well, you ain’t exactly doing a bang-up job, sis.”

“God, April,” May growled. " You can be so...so...!” Mayday stopped and breathed before she escalated. “I don’t want to get into this with you right now. Thanks for getting this info while protecting the school. I’ll admit that I don’t show my appreciation for your efforts as much as I should. Next time, however, please consider the unintended consequences that may come from your actions.”

“Whatever,” April said, shoving a piece of paper into Mayday’s hands. She walks past her, stopping briefly to say, “It’s always the same. I could do as much hero work as you, but you get all the praise, and I’m treated like the problem.”

Mayday looks at her shredded invite for the party—the one everyone got except her twin sister. “Sis,” Mayday says, “you are a hero. No matter what others say…and you’ll always be a hero in my eyes.”

April stops, tilting her head up as if surprised. Her clenched hands relaxed, and she almost looked back. However, she walks away at the last moment, leaving Mayday alone.

[Later…]

A whistle echoes across Midtown High’s gymnasium. Ten players split into two teams and begin their last basketball match. The white team possesses the ball through their best player, Davida Kirby, and her eyes are set on that basket. Her tall stature and years of experience make getting around the opposing side as easy as pie. However, this was not to be, for she failed to notice the last player suddenly standing in her way when she attempted a two-point throw.

Mayday Parker caught the ball mid-air before making a calculated dash to the opposing basket. The opposing team tried to block her, with Davida directly blocking her path. This proved fruitless as Mayday made a great leap and tossed the ball over.

She landed a perfect three-pointer.

The coach blows his whistle and declares, “Team Black are the winners!”

Despite the defeat, the teens laughed and high-fived, calling it a good game. This was Midtown High’s esteemed basketball team, practicing for the upcoming season as part of their P.E. credit. It was a fun but challenging match, and seemingly, no one had it tougher than Mayday. She sat on the floor, exhausted. ‘Wow…,’ she thought, ‘I don’t remember having to hold back that much last year. It’s like forcing myself to go through a vat of molasses.’ Mayday was no stranger to holding back. It was the first thing her father taught her. Yet she feels stronger each passing year of fighting and training as Spider-Girl.

‘If this keeps happening, then even holding back won’t be enough for me to play fair,’ she worried.

She spotted a hand before her and looked up to see it was Davida. “You…look so gross.”

Mayday takes a whiff of herself and gags, “Yeah…and I smell gross too.”

After hitting the showers, the two long-time friends march to the cafeteria for a deserved lunch break. “Gosh, my stomach is dying,” Mayday groans.

“Same, girl. It was fun, tho, getting back into real games with you. Nothing beats the thrill of shots like yours. Speaking off, did you buff up over the summer?”

“Me? As ifffff! You know I’m very peculiar about my weight class.”

“I don’t know, it felt as if you moved faster than last year,” Davida said. She taps her chin as Mayday gets a little nervous. Then her friend pats her back, “Calm down, that’s a good thing. This means that once we play our first match, those other schools’ star athletes better watch out for you.”

“Y-yeah,” Mayday nods, trepidation in her voice.

“Hey,” Davida whispered, “You and your sisters were late for school today. Did it have anything to do with today’s attack?”

“What attack?”

“Seriously? Look!” Davida opened her phone and pulled out her social media.

It was a video shot from the sidewalk in the middle of downtown. Mayday recognizes it as the middle of her sister’s battle. “Oh my god,” the young camerawoman said. Mayday knew that voice quite well. She should’ve known her number one fan would be there. “Guys! Felicity Moon here, and you won’t believe what’s happening right now! Spider-Girl’s team is beating up flying robots! Wow, she caught that guy falling. Hah, isn’t she so dreamy—no, brave! She looks so brave saving others!”

“Hehe, you think it was love at first sight for her? I swear tho, that girl’s is going to get herself killed one day,” Davida said, shaking her head.

“Don’t say that,” Mayday said.

‘But seriously, Felicity, don’t get hurt out there.’

“Anyway, you coming? Courtney texted me that today’s menu is delicious!”

“Wow, that sounds great, but my mom packed me lunch, and I want to start my first homework assignment.”

“Seriously, Mayday? Alright, but don’t starve yourself for some homework.”

Mayday heads down in the opposite direction, waving at fellow juniors and running for her destination. ‘There’s no way. Am I changing so fast for people to notice?’ she thought, remembering her recent discussion with April. ‘Gosh, Mayday, way to sound like a hypocrite. Reprimanding your sister for tapping into her powers while you carelessly still think of playing this year.’ She shakes her head and slows down upon seeing she’s alone.

“Okay, calm down, girl. This only means you must hold yourself back further. It’ll be hard, but it’ll be worth it if it means going pro one day. I’ll see it as special training, yeah, that’s it.”

She checks her surroundings before opening the door to a closed-off science room. She heard from Davida that some rooms were still under maintenance and had her guarantee that technicians wouldn’t work on them until after school. She enters the dark room, walking to the other end to see the robot skull still there.

Mayday quickly connected it to a clean computer and used tools to repair most of its damaged parts. “Hopefully, I’m close enough to see what’s inside your head,” she whispered before throwing on gloves and grabbing her tools.

Sparks fly, and drivers move steadily as Mayday studies this remarkable machinery. ‘Annie was right. Whoever made these custom drivers and machine parts is ridiculously smart. We have faced some clever foes since our careers began, but never one who can build an army.’

She recalls April’s findings and can’t recall any woman who fits the description of her life. “They don’t attend Midtown, that’s for sure. Perhaps she went after our school because the tech had fewer guards. Maybe this lady isn’t even the mastermind but an accomplice to the creator of these.”

Carefully, she reopened the center of the skull and spotted the burnt CPU still inside. To her relief, it was still functional, and she could transfer the survived data into another CPU. With her technical mind and trusty computer, Mayday can copy most of the circuitry and design of the CPU. She pulls off a sheet, unveiling the perfect machine to recover and transfer the data.

She inserts both devices and sees the progress bar appear. It progresses quickly until a loud error blares from the device. She quickly shuts it off and is left confused. “I swear I matched it one for one,” Mayday sighs.

“You ain’t exactly doing a bang-up job.”

“You think I don’t know that, April,” she mutters. She throws away the CPU copy and ponders the source of this roadblock. She spins around in her chair, thinking for a minute, and suddenly snaps her fingers. “A fail-safe lock,” she exclaims, “of course, whoever made this designed it so that any sensitive data is locked from intruders.” She slides over to her computer, carefully inserting the CPU for another scan, and sees the firewall in all its glory. “There you are. Now, how can I break through you?”

Staring at the screen, she considers the alternative of locating a backdoor, but it’s risky. She was a solid hacker, but not only was Annie the best, but who knows how long it’ll take to find this backdoor. “We could be looking at hours, and I feel we don’t have that much time.” Then, a light bulb flickers above her, and she snaps her fingers. “However,…I know someone who could crack this egg.”

She isolates and copies the firewall’s code, masking any other info before rushing to a hidden spot she and another girl knew. She heads to the computer classroom on the third floor and finds another old friend sitting in the back. “Hey, Liv!”

The sixteen-year-old girl, Olivia Macroni, was fixing her short brown hair before her brown eyes beamed up from Mayday’s presence. “Mayday,” she smiled. Leaping from her chair, Olivia hugged her childhood friend, who was now more than twice her size. “It’s been too long, old friend.”

“Liv, it’s been a while. How’s your mom? My dad saw her sneezing a lot in the lab.”

“Yeah. My mom caught the flu.”

“Oh no,” Mayday said, sitting beside Olivia, “she’s taking all the proper precautions, yes?”

“Oh yes. You know how much of a clean freak my mom is. She’s already feeling better.”

“Good. She’s still at home, yes?”

“Of course. She’s probably sharing notes online with your dad as we speak.”

“Hmm, still, it ain’t exactly flu season around these parts.”

Olivia fixes her glasses, “It’s New York, and my mom’s a very busy woman. She probably got it while socializing with friends or something.” Olivia finishes the lunch her mother packed for her before changing subjects, “So, did you uh need anything, Mayday?”

“I do. See, Annie has been beginning to work with my dad more on the experiments they do at the labs. He then challenges her skills by creating this firewall code.” After entering a few keys, Mayday pulled out her laptop and brought up the copied firewall.

Seeing Olivia lean closer to the screen made Mayday slightly nervous. She made sure that no evidence of the robots was apparent, but she also recognized how out of nowhere this question was. Still, she also trusted Olivia with this task and that she wouldn’t connect the dots.

“Huh, certainly looks advanced,” Olivia said.

“Yeah, and Annie was able to find a backdoor to it. The way she did it reminded me of you, and I know you always love a good challenge.”

Olivia chuckled, cleaning her glasses, saying, “You know me too well, old friend.” She cracked her knuckles and began working her digital magic. While working, she said, “So, how’s the family?”

“Things are a little tricky, to say the least,” Mayday admits, “I talked with my dad over the summer about making this year formative for us three. I remember sophomore year for me being so excited, and I want to help Annie find her place as I did.”

“Ah yes, Annie wields a promising mind, but she was never the best at socializing.”

“Especially when she gets competitive or pissed off,” Mayday says, “it’s that quiet side of her which makes it hard to talk to her sometimes. I give her all the space she needs, but I feel like there’s a bubble around her.”

“Great minds do thrive in solitude,” Olivia said.

“And I’m also her sister. I know too well what life is like when cooped up in a shell. I feel like a turtle in more ways than one.”

“And now you feel Annie is doing the same?”

“I think so. Heck, she’s probably been like that since high school started,” Mayday said.

“A turtle is protected in their shell.”

“But the family doesn’t fight their battles alone. They do it together. I think I haven’t been doing my part in helping April and Annie recently.”

“What do you mean?”

“Long story, but the short of it is my sisters are driven to form their own lives while I’m more focused on being just like my mom and dad. I have friends and hobbies, but it’s like walking on ice: I keep making cracks.”

“So, everyone thinks you’re perfect when that’s far from the case.”

“I guess so,” Mayday sighs. “How do I balance being sister April and Annie need? Why do I feel like I’m wearing a mask while walking around school? I can’t just ignore the expectations put upon me either.”

“Geez, even a therapist would have difficulty answering that.”

“Sorry that I’m spilling all this to you.”

“Hey, you trust me enough to share this baggage. I appreciate that, Mayday.”

Mayday smiles at her friend. “Back on the subject, I got my sisters wrapped up in other businesses only I’m obsessed with. I didn’t even ask them how their day was going or if anyone was picking on them.”

“And?”

“And…perhaps I should stop letting fear drive me today, grow a backbone, and remind myself to be their sister first.”

“Interesting conclusion. And…done,” Olivia said, folding her arms with a prideful smile upon finding the backdoor.

“Hoo-boy, you sure are fast,” Mayday chuckles, taking the encryption code created by Olivia.

“Also, if you ask me, I find that taking charge but standing your ground is also a viable option.”

“Hmm?”

“You’re the coolest, strongest, and smartest of your sisters. Doesn’t your strong character justify helping people be more like you, even if they don’t see it? It’s like science. Its principle and integrity are all that matter. Anyone else who laughs or argues is just white noise.”

“You believe that?”

“I mean, wouldn’t April be better respected if she was more responsible like you? Wouldn’t Annie be better off if she followed your advice on socializing?”

“From a certain point of view, sure,” Mayday shrugs, “You’re right on one thing. I have a responsibility, but that shouldn’t be at the cost of making my sisters into people they’re not. They want to branch out independently, so I’ll encourage and help whenever possible.”

Olivia raises an eyebrow, a look of doubt in her eyes, until she smiles. “Correct answer!” Mayday squinted back at Olivia, who said, “What? I play devil’s advocate to challenge you.”

“Thanks,” Mayday giggles, the two doing a quick fist pump. "I’ll be seeing you, Liv.”

Mayday stares at the driver, coming across a split in the hallway. To the right was the cafeteria where her sisters would likely be, and to the left was the possible key to discovering who did this. She can’t shake her mind off the potential vision that could endanger her family. Then again, that’s if it was even a vision. “I… can’t take that risk,” said, taking a left, “I’ll find who you are, and I’ll make time later for them.”

‘Stop it!’

A voice rang across Mayday’s mind. It was Annie, but she wasn’t talking to her directly. Whatever was going on, her emotions were extreme enough to escape her thoughts. Mayday’s spider-sense may not have been tingling, but she felt compelled to turn back and rush to the cafeteria. She quickly texted April that something was happening in the cafeteria involving Annie before blitzing through the empty halls.

‘Faster, May,’ she thought, ‘you gotta hurry!’

[Meanwhile…]

Midtown High’s massive and pristine cafeteria housed hundreds of students within its glass walls. A building whose state seemingly reflects the high standards and quality Midtown is known for. Inside, however, reveals the ugly truth. A crowd of teens forms around an intensifying scene.

Annie Parker defensively stands in front of two students. Junior Jimmy Yama has a bruise on his arm, and a sophomore transfer has her lunch stained across her face and clothes. Annie isn’t facing off against random bullying. She is challenging five of the top dogs in Midtown.

Brad Miller, Midtown’s golden football champ, and Maurice “Moose” Mansfield, Midtown’s most formidable football player, were next to them. Eugene Thompson Jr., son of a prominent league sports trainer, was next to them. Simone DeSantos is an esteemed student and head of the student council. Finally, Heather Noble is the most influential and wealthiest kid in school.

Annie didn’t need a vision to know this wouldn’t end well. ‘Crud. I should’ve texted April when I had the chance. No backup this time, Annie.’

“Leave them alone,” Annie demanded.

“What? I was only getting her settled into life here,” Heather said innocently.

“By trashing her clothes?!”

“She tripped.” Heather turns to the growing crowd and asks, “Everyone saw her trip, right?”

Annie hears their murmurs, and practically all of them nod in agreement while others stay silent. It disgusted her. “And you! What’s Jimmy ever done to you?”

“That’s none of your business, little Annie,” Maurice answered.

“You heard him,” Eugene said, “so unless you want to join his shitlist, you best stand aside.”

Mayday busts through the main doors and spots her sister. ‘Come on, Annie. Calm down,’ she thought, hopeful that her sister was listening.

Annie grits her teeth at his threat. Trying not to clench her hands while remembering her family’s words. She lowers her head, and the five teens laugh at her.

“See? Little Annie doesn’t have it in her,” Brad said.

“It’s okay, Annie,” Jimmy said, offering some kind words. “Just help this girl out of here. This is between me and him anyway.”

“Yeah, it is,” Maurice said, cracking his knuckles as he walked past Annie.

Mayday rushed to the scene but was blocked by the crowd. As she tried to squeeze through, everyone gasped to see the nearly six-foot-tall Maurice trip into a discarded food tray.

Annie was the culprit.

Maurice quickly gets up, and Eugene steps in front of Annie, who still has her head down. The whole crowd is quiet. Shock is still present across their faces.

“Gene, Moose, easy there,” Brad said, “May and April could be-. “

He’s interrupted by Heather, who whispers, “I want to see where this goes.”

“You bug,” Gene said threateningly, “suddenly think you’re as tough as your sisters now, Little Annie?”

Mayday breaks out of her shock the moment he sees Gene shove Annie. She pushes aside rows of teens, even if it requires her to not hold back.

The words, ‘Don’tdoit! Don’tdoit! Don’tdoit!’ repeated in Annie’s head.

It stops the second Eugene shoves her harder. Shouting to her face, “You know, you’ve been overdue for a tough reminder on—”

POW!

A fast right hook hits Gene’s left cheek. This knocked the wind out of him and made him fly five feet back. The crowd gasped upon realizing Gene was utterly knocked out. Even Heather was shocked at this development.

Annie, her fist ready to punch, stood dumbfounded to see Mayday suddenly beside her and be the one to deck Eugene. Her blue and green eyes glared at the teen who had made the severe mistake of laying a finger on her little sister. Mayday glanced at Annie; her eyes softened with present worry for her. Annie nodded, relaxing her hands and cooling down her temper.

At this moment, Maurice grabs a tray and strikes Mayday’s head with it. He’s stopped when a hand grabs the back of his jersey shirt, and all his momentum stops, nearly making his trip. “Nuh-huh,” April said, holding his shirt. Before he could respond, she stomped on his foot before punching him in the face. His toughness prevented him from passing out, but he wasn’t getting up soon. April twists her wrist proudly, “Nobody messes with Mayday except me.”

Mayday thinks to her, ‘Was the foot stomp necessary?’

‘What’s that? Didn’t hear ya over you breaking the rules.’

A look of shame spreads across Mayday’s face. She protected her sister but at the cost of looking like a total hypocrite. ‘Time to defuse this,’ she thought before confronting Heather.

“Well, well, well, we meet again, Parker sisters,” Heather said, trying to hide a nervous sweat on her brow. “I see you didn’t skip arm day over the summer.”

“Heather, I’ll be straight with you. Back off from Annie and Jimmy, and leave transfer students alone. I haven’t heard rave reviews about you as the school’s tour guide.”

“You’re seriously asking that of me while my friends lie on the floor beaten and bruised?”

“Oh please,” April said, “your callout posts and smear campaigns hurt people more than we ever could.”

“That’s a bogus claim!”

“Uh-huh, sure. Then I guess this is bogus too,” April said, pulling out her phone and sending Heather a private email. The blonde teen opened the mail, and horror filled her eyes.

“What is it?” Simone asks.

“Nothing!” Heather shouts, shutting off her phone, “April you—!”

“You want the school to know a little secret about you?”

Mayday and Annie looked confused and concerned, feeling this threat was going too far. Mayday especially was ready to step in when Heather approached the sisters. “You three better watch your backs. Especially you, May. I won’t forget this.”

Heather snaps her fingers, and her group leaves, waking Eugene up and dragging him away.

“Heather,” Mayday said, pulling out her torn party invite and handing it to her. “Consider this my answer to your invite.”

April and Annie chuckle at May’s last defiant act. Heather’s group storms out of the cafeteria. Mayday helps her friend Jimmy up as the crowd disperses, “Been a while, Jimmy.”

“Heh, hey Mayday. I wished we met again in a better situation.”

Annie hands the transfer teen a unique bottle. “Here, it’s something my mom gave me. It’s stain remover spray, which is super effective too.”

The transfer student smiles, “Thanks. Annie, right?”

“What my friends and family call me,” she said before taking notice of her transfer student’s hair. “Are you one of my classmates?”

The teen blushes and looks at her phone. “Oh, uhh, parents are calling. I have to go!” She takes the spray before walking away quickly.

“Y-yeah,” Annie said, waving and smiling. ‘Man…she had pretty eyes.’

April grinned at Annie, ‘I know what you are,’ she thought.

The scene was soon broken up by Ms. Perching and other teachers, who arrived conveniently after Heather’s group left. Perching glared at the sisters, asking, “Who did this?”

Mayday bit her lip, thinking of what to say before making the only choice she found was responsible. “It was me,” she said, “it was all me.”

She glances back to see Annie, and April steps up to say something, but she gently raises her hand. ‘I got this,’ she told them through their unique spider-sense.

“Was it now? “Well, May Fitzgerald Parker, I’m sure your parents will be proud to know their daughter will be receiving detention on her first day,” Perching declared. “After school, you’re staying here for two hours.”

‘Two hours?! It’d be practically evening when she gets out,’ Annie thought.

“And don’t even think about skipping. If I find you gone, then you’re spending this Saturday here. Understood?”

Mayday nods, fully accepting her punishment.

“Go to the principal office. I think he’ll want a quick chat concerning a certain sport.”

The sisters gasped, Mayday’s face filled with worry, but she accepted what was coming and followed Perching out of the cafeteria.

April and Annie can only watch as their sister takes all the heat from this.

[Later…]

Annie sits nervously outside the principal’s office while April leans against the wall. April noticed they’d been there for over ten minutes as Annie stared at her shoes. A look of guilt as if anticipating Mayday’s sports career going down the drain because of her.

It was so quiet that the sisters was surprised to see Mayday leave the office. They watched Mayday sigh and say, “I’m still on the team.”

Annie and April share a look of relief, knowing how important and dear sport is to their sister.

“But something tells me they’ll be expecting more of me this year,” Mayday continued, sitting beside Annie. “Yeah… that’s what I need…more expectations.”

Annie and April share a look, and April sits beside Mayday. “Welp…our first day could’ve gone better,” Mayday said.

“You can say that again,” Annie and April said simultaneously. The sister shares a laugh.

Mayday turns to her little sister, “Annie…are you okay? Are you okay, Annie?”

“God, now you’re stealing Dad’s jokes,” Annie chuckled. “I think my day could’ve been better…but at least I could find a new potential friend.”

“It’s good you didn’t swing at Gene,” April said, “I may not be looked highly by others, for good and bad reasons, but it helps to know you ain’t getting on others’ shitlist.”

“April,” Mayday said, “you’re right. It’s not fair that you do as much work and yet none of the attention. If anything, I wish we could share that more. I’m sorry if I act more as a captain than I do as a sister sometimes. Am I putting too many expectations on you two?”

Annie and April sat back, thinking for a while.

“It feels that way,” Annie said.

“But really, you’re only being responsible,” April admits.

“Yeah. You can be both. You succeed in being both. Especially as Spider-Girl.”

“Thanks. I’ll do my part in helping to make this year different for both sides of our lives.”

“Here, here,” Annie and April said.

The school bell rings, signaling that the last two periods are about to start.

“April, go to room C-230. Use this. It will automatically take you to the digital backdoor.”

“On it,” she said, snatching the drive.

“Well, guess I’ll see you two later,” Mayday said, waving goodbye as Annie and April went to finish the day.

‘You know,…this day could’ve gone worse,’ the sisters thought simultaneously.

They each suddenly receive a notification about the latest headline from the Daily Bugle by J. Jonah Jameson.

“Spider-Girls terrorize New York once again! Train catastrophe narrowly stopped by the brave crew!”  

“Oh, come on!” the sisters shout. 

[Meanwhile...]

A figure in a cloak stands on a rooftop, looking through thier binoculars at this evening’s target. 

Everything was almost set.

“Hey, Doc,” the figure said to a communicator built into her suit. "The Party's about to start. Where are you?”

There’s static on the other end, which worries the cloaked figure. They have a few tinheads they can afford to lose, but the Doc was a valuable piece of this plan.

A signal is picked up, and a female voice with a German accent comes through. “I’m making the last preparation for my gear.”

“Good. For a moment, I thought you were made.”

“No, no. I assure you nobody suspects me or the plan. Is everyone in position?”

“We’re just waiting for you. Don’t want you to miss the fireworks.”

“I’ll be there shortly. Remember, leave the machine to me, and we need him alive. He’s the key to knowing where he may be holed up, and the machine will draw those Spider-Girls straight here.”

“Of course, Doc. Anything to squash those bugs.” The figure looks up to the tower housing thier target. “By the end, there’ll be nothing here but ashes and rubble!”

A/N: I hope you all enjoyed it! This is a longer chapter and took a lot of work to get right! I took characters from May’s & Annie’s comics while mixing with some side O.C.s. Some characters are related to past Spidey antagonists, while others are related to civilian supporting characters. Screwball was fun to adapt here. I hope I wrote the civilian side of Mayday, April, and Annie as compelling and distinctive. 

Now, with that said, we’re approaching the end of the build-up to this impending threat! Who could these dastardly figures possibly be? What compels them to work together and form such a risky plan? Could the Spider-Girls realize this plan in time to save the day? 

Find out next time in Issue #4 of THE MARVELOUS SPIDER-GIRLS!

Chapter Text

In a busy part of southern Queens, a man hurriedly fixes his hair before grabbing his employee ID. “Sorry, I’m on my way,” he said over the phone. "My mother had an emergency…yeah, she’s safe in the hospital now. He’d say I should stay with her, but my mom assured me she was fine. I’ll be there in fifteen.”

He hangs up the phone and opens his apartment door. What he saw on the other side was like looking at a mirror. A man who looked exactly like him creepily smiles and pulls out a tranquilizer gun. The dart strikes his chest, and the effects of the drugs do quick work in knocking him out. The imposter’s iris glowed as it dragged the man to a nearby chair and stole his I.D.

The imposter spoke in a robotic voice. [Target tranquilized, creator]

“Excellent, that makes it lucky number seven,” its creator's voice crackles, “Go and join your fellow actors; help ensure I put on the greatest performance this city has ever seen!”

The android follows its creator’s will and heads to the employee’s work: Parker Foundations.

[Meanwhile...]

There lies an antique chest in the attic of the Parker residency. It was covered in cobwebs, but its design and the state of its wood material remain strong. Engraved on the front of the lock was the nameplate of its original owner: Benjamin Franklin "Ben" Parker

This was one of the items Peter inherited after his uncle passed away. Since that day, it has been the primary storage place for his alter ego, Spider-Man.

The chest remains locked where the suit of the wall-crawling hero has remained since that fateful night.

The night Peter Parker passed down the mantle and focused on more significant responsibilities.

“Peter?”

He snaps out of his thoughts when his wife calls his name. “Yes, MJ?”

“Curtis and others are waiting,” Mary Jane said, pointing to the two doors to the lab room. They sat in one of the recreational areas, his notes in his hands while MJ’s script rested in hers.

“Oh right, thank you, dear.”

She stops him by grabbing his hand tenderly. “You have been drifting off all day.”

“It’s just tonight’s event.”

“No, it isn’t,” she said worriedly.

A lab assistant walks out the doors, asking, “Doctor Parker, sir?”

Mary Jane sighs and grabs his other hand. “We’ll discuss this after. Good luck,” she said.

“Thanks,” Peter smiles. He kisses her cheek before entering the large lab.

Nearly two dozen scientists and technicians manned its leading and upper-floor platforms. All worked together to ensure maintenance was kept up and the probability of success was as close to a hundred percent as possible. The large gadget in question was a large metallic sphere, fifty feet tall, with its tip nearly touching the lab's ceiling. It was split open, completely hollow inside. Both halves of the sphere were attached to poles on opposing ends. It sat on a square-shaped platform about sixty feet wide with tall, crooked pillars on the corner edges. At both ends of the platform were two consoles with large pipes connected to the pillars.

It may look imposing now, but once this gadget was powered, it was the safest contraption he could’ve devised. Peter walks down the steps, noticed by his co-leader of this project and longtime friend, Dr. Curtis Conners.

“Peter,” he smiled, extending his prosthetic right arm as the two shook hands. He squints and points at Peter’s head, “Hey…is that grey I’m seeing?” Peter knew he was joking, but a part of him couldn’t help but peek at his hair strands. Curtis chuckles, pointing at his greying hair, “Don’t worry, Pete, you’re not like me yet.”

“You’re in a good mood today, Curtis.”

“Well, I’ve been working with our latest members earlier, and I suppose seeing their ingenuity has left me quite optimistic.”

“Glad to hear the team on Project 27 has your approval. Any updates for tonight?”

“Yes, it’s two things. We’ve been notified that the grant committee is already coming, and the coffee machine here is in dire need of repair.”

Peter spots the machine in the corner of the room where a quick rest area resides. “I see. This question was given immediate attention, “Peter said, walking with Curtis to the machine.

“Honestly, Aiden and I looked over this twice and can’t see what’s wrong.”

“I see what’s wrong,” Peter said after just a glance. “Here, this is a little trick my Aunt May taught me.” Peter carefully grabs the machine and slaps his hand on it three times. He steps back a moment and grabs a cup. With the press of a button, fresh coffee poured out.

“Blunt but effective,” Curtis smiled.

“Helped save her from buying any new ones. Made paying rent easier.”

“And look at how far you’ve come, Peter,” Curtis said, looking up at the massive machine and the resources at their disposal. “Now we’re building the very future of this city.”

“That is if nothing goes wrong,” Peter said cautiously.

“Peter, you are in a room filled with some of the top minds in the city,” Curtis said reassuringly. “People you helped, people who believe in you because you helped made them believe themselves.”

“You always did give some good pep talks,” Peter said, nodding in thanks. “How’s William doing?”

“He’s still assigned to East Asia. Thanks to the cooperation and aid of Wakanda scientists, he and his team made big progress with their latest experiment. Hopefully, he’ll fly back to the States sooner than expected.”

“Wakanda scientists. I’m sure he has some fun stories to share about that.”

A scientist approaches them, “Sirs. We’re ready for the test.”

“Thanks, Dr. Chang,” Peter said.

“Peter, this test is very last minute,” Curtis said, “the previous five tests were already greatly successful.”

“And what’s wrong with six?”

“Nothing, I suppose,” Curtis said, “alright. I’m heading up, and then it’s your word to begin.”

Peter walks to the left console connected to the gadget’s platform while Curtis attends to the console connected to the opposing end. The other scientists attend their workstations, gauging every aspect of the machine as Curtis pulls out a unique key. “Ready, Peter?”

Peter pulls out the only copy of the key and nods, “Let’s light this candle.”

Both men insert the keys and twist them. Instantly, the consoles power up and activate the machine.

A low-tone hum intensified as the pillars began to vibrate. A chain reaction is initiated when the surge of energy crackles from the pillars to the open sphere's center. A gust of wind was felt as Peter and the others watched in awe at a small glowing dot appearing and now hovering in the sphere. The fine-tuning use of atoms by the advanced circuitry of the pillars has caused a ball of energy to appear, essentially a mini sun. They watch as this sun begins to grow, and the second phase of the process begins as the two massive domes begin to close inward. Peter marvels as the containment sphere slams shut while a steady flow of electricity crackles from the four pillars and into the sphere.

“Curtis,” he said, “what’s the reading?”

Curtis checks with another scientist and smiles. “Exactly like last time. Your containment field successfully stabilizes the fusion reaction. It’s now perpetuating fusion power and converting that to pure electricity! All without one ounce of carbon or radioactive waste!”

Peter marvels at his team’s achievement, “a perpetual, toxic-waste free fusion reactor…one that can last multiple lifetimes…” he whispered to himself. He can already see it. A new and affordable form of city-wide power system, offering constant free energy to all who live there. No longer should people worry about electricity bills or power outages. Once upon a time, he and his aunt May constantly faced these problems, living in a poorer neighborhood and suffering outages. Meanwhile, the wealthy neighborhoods get all the energy they want.

That won’t happen anymore. Peter believes people have a right to energy to power their livelihoods, especially when such energy is limitless and cheaper.

“Umm…”

‘Uh-oh,’ Peter thought. He turns to Curtis, who scratches the side of his head.

“This is…peculiar.”

“Wait? What is?”

“Well, Peter, I-I don’t know if I should even call this a problem.”

“But it’s new, isn’t it?”

“It is,” Curtis admits, pointing to a bump in the screen, “you see this here? That’s a flicker of fusion energy suddenly raising its intended stabilized rate three times. It’s only for two seconds but repeats itself every minute.”

“How did we not notice this before? I thought we nailed this whole sequence down to the digit.”

“I guess that’s the thing about theoretical physics, Peter. Theory only takes you so far,” Curtis said. He sees a look of concern grow in Peter’s expression, a look any person who knows Peter long enough knew what it meant. He’s considering the worst possible scenario.

“What if this is a sign of a problem?”

“Peter.”

“If we could overlook a miscalibration of this reactor, what’s to say other city engineers won’t do the same and cause a city-wide implosion?!”

“Peter,” Curtis said, “or perhaps this is just a blip of energy.” He pointed to the machine, which was humming and functioning as intended. “I understand your concern, especially with such tremendous power. It’s reassuring to see you take such responsibility seriously. Peter, you’ve applied every additional safety measure to this device. Any other inventor would’ve brushed those off to generate more power, but not you.”

Peter nods, “Maybe…still, let’s follow the routine. Curt, shut off the gadget. Email my brother our results. I want his last peer review, and I trust his final judgment.”

“Of course, Peter,” Curtis smiles, following Peter’s lead and shutting the machine down.

Unbeknownst to them was a scientist standing on the upper-level deck. She stared at them with a subtle blue glow within her pupil.

“Wonderful, ain’t it?” One of the scientists spoke to her.

“Yes,” she smiled, “forgive me, but I got to leave early. My father texted me, and I should attend to it.”

“The experiment’s over, so yeah, go ahead.”

The scientist exists in the room. Once alone, the android reveals itself as its eyes glow blue, signaling that it’s relaying its recorded info to its creator.

[Later…]

Mary Jane stood on the 30th-floor balcony, staring at the sunset in the distance. She memorized her lines a dozen times; she should be nailing them as usual, but one thing in her mind kept coming up. Peter steps out to the balcony and joins his wife, looking at the sunset with her. Amidst the many honks and noise in the air, the couple could spot a particular pair of cars driving up to the entrance. “They’re already driving up,” Mary Jane said, pulling out a pair of binoculars.

“Did Mayor Cage’s committee grow in numbers since last time?”

Mary Jane looks again and nods. “More people to impress,” she says. “Oh, lovely. Third-party investors and other city’s energy representatives are also arriving early. You always did know how to get other people’s attention, Petey.”

“It’s a blessing and a curse,” Peter chuckles.

Mary Jane smiles briefly before leaning closer to Peter, “Something happened in there. That’s why you’re out here getting fresh air.”

“An anomaly occurred,” Peter answered, “one that could potentially signify a risk to destabilization to the machine.”

“Any word from Ben yet?”

“He’s still looking through it,” he said. As always, Peter opened himself more the longer he was with Mary Jane, trusting any advice she could share. “Over a thousand of my workers and volunteer careers rest on this going right. How could I guarantee their financial security if we don’t get this grant?”

“You always found workarounds, Peter, even in the toughest situations,” Mary Jane said, “but this event isn’t your only concern, is it?”

Peter grips the rail, “The girls never fought those kinds of enemies before. They narrowly stopped a catastrophe, and I’m…so, so proud of them but also so scared of this getting worse.”

“The people who’d hurt our family and friends are gone, Peter.”

“And they’re slowly being replaced by new ones.”

“AIM and Empire Unlimited are troubling, but their operations are being observed and contained. Any person walking these streets will tell you they never felt safer.” Mary Jane remembers her shock at Miles's report and the pictures of that train. She could barely look at videos where her girls were nearly blasted by lasers or stabbed by blades. “I get it thought,” she admits to Peter, “it all looks so fragile… Is that why I saw you up in the attic last week? Because I don’t think you were only getting rid of cobwebs.”

Peter remained silent, a sight MJ rarely sees from him. “Peter…how long have you been thinking of going back?”

Her husband takes a breath and answers, “For a while… I don’t know what spurred it. Maybe it was a dream or something. Would it be right to do if I ever did, Red?”

“Our lives have changed so much, Petey. Passing that mask down is a part of it,” she said, “I believe that because I trust you’re doing the right thing and that it was the best for our family at the time. You were fully dedicated to being the father they needed. That made me more than happy, Tiger, I was proud of the man I married. The world was given more heroes than ever before. I believe you when you saw it as a sign to…to take a rest we long deserved.”

“Yeah…I don’t regret making that change,” Peter said, caressing his wife’s hand while the warm breeze of the afternoon wind brushed their faces. “I guess today was a big reminder that seeing our children out there fighting like we did…it still makes me afraid. Now, I’m afraid of the past catching up to us, to our children.”

“I worry what’s out there for them too, Peter, but I trust our girls to always look out for each other.”

Peter smiles lovingly, kisses his wife, and says, “And that’s why you’re a spectacular mom.”

“Well, it definitely helps having my tiger right beside me,” she said while brushing a lock of her red hair before gracefully brushing Peter's hair, twirling a lock of his hair.

Before they could share another kiss, a cough drew their attention to Miles zipping down from a web. “Uhm, am I interrupting, Mr. and Mrs. Parker?”

“We’re just chatting, Miles,” Mary Jane chuckles.

Miles lands and hands Peter a phone. “It’s Ben,” he says. " He called me directly.”

“The moment of truth,” Peter told them and answered the call, “Hey, bro.”

“Hey brother,” Ben’s similar yet distinct voice replied, “about the results, uhm, I wish I had better news to share.”

[Meanwhile…in the depths of Parker Foundations]

Small critters feel a chill in the air in the depths of the building. They scurry away when an intangible white ghost with glowing eyes phases from the sewers and into the dark basement. Her white hood in this form shrouded not only her face but made her utterly invisible to all mortals. She floats further up, exploring several floors until she spots her target. It was a woman in a suit, a member of the grant committee, and she made a reasonable effort to get a clear look on her face.

As planned, the woman begins to feel a stomach problem, perhaps from a coffee shop with a tasteless herb. The trickster ghost follows the woman to the bathroom. After peeking outside to see no one nearby, she floats behind the woman, now washing her hands. The ghost raises her hands, touches her face, and tears it off to make herself corporal again. The target washes her face and stands up to see an orange-hooded woman behind her.

In a panic, she spins around and looks at this mysterious figure. Her face is powdered chalk white, with dark lips, a black domino mask, and glowing yellow eyes. She has deep red hair, a bright orange hood connected to her black and orange suit, and two jack-o-lantern pins. This trickster woman looks like something straight from a Halloween tale. The intruder reaches into her purple purse. The committee member is about to scream until the infiltrator raises her hand and blows yellow sleeping dust to her face.

The magic dust caused the committee member to fall asleep instantly. She’s then dragged into one of the stalls, and the trickster reaches into her bag to pull out a human mask. Putting it on, her body looks and sounds exactly like the committee member. Locking the door behind her, the trickster walks out in her disguise and spots a scientist approaching her. Recognizing that face, she pulls out a particular hard drive and subtly hands it to the scientist as they pass each other.

“Angela, I see that coffee didn’t agree with you,” one committee member said to the disguised trickster.

“Urgh, just been one of those days for me,” the trickster said. She devilishly smiles as she blends in with the group that heads to the presentation stage.

[Meanwhile…]

The scientist holding a driver climbs the stairs to the main security control room. His eyes glow blue upon spotting a particularly high-ranking guard. “Excuse me, but I wish to speak to the captain,” the scientist says.

“I’ll be a second,” the captain said, joining the scientist in a quiet spot.

Alone, the two androids follow their next directive and exchange the driver for the captain. Their performances continue to trick the others as the captain sees the scientist off and enters the main security room, where three other guards are posted.

“So, are you and Doctor Abrams a thing or…” one of the guards asks until he turns around and is struck by his taser gun. The android imposter was fast enough to knock out the other two guards, all without making a noise that alerted those posted outside. The android follows its next command and activates this room's last line of defense. The doors to the hall outside shut, startling the several guards outside. Small turrets appear outside the walls and ceiling, firing static pulses, finally stunning the guards out cold.

[Security Room secured, creator. You may now enter.]

In a moment, a cloud of smoke appears and swirls across the control room. A crackle of laughter echoes as a shadow appears within the green mist. Once the clouds dissipate, this shadow emerges as a tall, menacing figure donning a green cape and a dome helmet. She stops crackling and gazes at her new toys, saying, “Ahh, magnifico. I will admit, Parker spares no expense in getting top-of-the-line tools to protect his people.”

She applauds her android’s performance, grabs the driver, and has her android posted outside. She takes the main seat, feeling the control before activating the communicator on her left gauntlet. “The maestro has secured the stage’s controls,” said reports, using codenames. “My actors report that the trickster is heading to Parker’s demonstration stage.”

“Wunderbar,” one voice spoke, “and you have my little virus ready?”

“Indeed. It appears you were correct, doctor. Only someone with the captain’s DNA could activate emergency protocols.”

“Of course, I’m correct. Remember, the system is only vulnerable when it enters reboot mode. Wait for the signal before entering my virus. It will override the security systems and give you all the control you wish over the building.”

“So, like any good actor, I wait for my cue, Doctor.”

[Outside...]

Miles felt that ever-so-familiar tingling at the back of his head. He sat atop the building’s roof, peering out to the city block he had combed twice over the past hour. “Nothing…yet something’s coming,” he whispered to himself. He activated his earpiece and contacted his old mentor. “Peter, you feel this?”

“I did, and now I feel more assured of what I’m about to do next.”

Miles knew what he meant the moment Peter finished his talk with Ben. It was a choice that would have heavy consequences, but more and more, he was beginning to believe Peter’s gut worry was right. If only he had Mayday’s more attuned Spider-sense, then he could at least better pinpoint where a potential threat is. For now, he’d have to do it the old-fashioned way, and he’d start by swinging back inside the building to see if security had anything to report.

“If they do,” he thought, “then the attack may not be coming from outside but inside.”

[Inside…]

Peter and MJ pull Curtis into the observation room and examine the massive device. MJ locks the door and closes the shutters to ensure total privacy. Curtis catches on and asks, “Peter, did Spider-Man detect something outside?”

“Not yet, but he felt his senses tingling just now. I felt it too; I still feel it itching the back of my mind, but I can’t tell what or where it is.”

“Not only that, but Peter got a call back from Ben,” Mary Jane said, “he agrees that the gadget is working mostly fine, but this anomaly troubles him too. He warned that it isn’t a malfunction we should worry about but tempering.”

Curtis’s worry grows, “but we have built several safety mechanisms. The team made sure that not just anyone could tamper with this machine. Even if you were to smash the control to bits, the reactor will still be able to power down and be unusable to them.”

“There are great minds out there that could still bypass them,” Peter said. “Ben believes that someone who possesses such intellect over fusion technology could theoretically amplify this anomaly until it causes a dangerous chain reaction and…boom, goes a whole city.”

Curtis thought it over and believed this scenario was possible, but its chances were also absurdly slim. Still, with Peter and Miles's spider senses going off, it suddenly felt like those chances just went up.

“Curtis,” Mary Jane said, “Peter thinks it is best to stop this presentation together.”

“I…I see where you’re coming from, Peter, but couldn’t we inform the people up there of the potential danger?”

“I wouldn’t be exactly keeping my connections to Spider-Man and other Spider-heroes a secret if I do,” Peter said, “not only would it also cause a panic, but we’d still get a rejection over fears of our security system seemingly failing.”

“At this point, Curtis,” Mary Jane said, “it’s looking increasingly like a lose-lose scenario.”

“But the best we could do is ensure the wrong hands don’t handle this device and get as many people out of this potential hazard zone,” Peter said.

Curtis takes off his glasses and pinches his brow before nodding in agreement. “If you feel that is safer, Peter, I’ll do my best to help. We strategized emergency plans in case the grant failed anyway.” Curtis proceeds to leave the room to inform the team of the news.

Peter sits down, his expression clear of discouragement. “I should’ve stopped this entire,” he says. “I should’ve believed in Annie’s warning more. If I canceled the event, maybe I could’ve talked with the committee and gotten a reschedule. Instead, I wanted to get this grant and show that my team’s invention can work.”

“You were committed to helping the world as quickly as possible, tiger.”

“So quickly, I didn’t expect a wrench in the gear.”

“But we do now,” Mary Jane said, taking his hand and pulling him out of his chair. “Now come on, Pete, you know there’s no problem we can’t solve. Let’s ensure these people are safe first, spot for further danger, and figure the rest out later.”

Peter nods, fixing his suit, before realizing MJ is joining him. “What?” she says, fixing her dress. “I’m used to giving impromptu speeches.”

Peter chuckles, “Thanks. I knew I should’ve taken more of your acting lessons. Feel like I’m about to go out naked.”

“Remember, just be as honest as you can out there.” The two hold hands as they leave the room, heading to the platform that’ll lift them straight to the middle of the demonstration stage. Mary Jane puts on her best smile for the soon-to-be disappointed crowd, “Ready?”

With a steady breath, Peter nods and kisses his wife’s hand, “I love you, MJ.”

“I love you too, Pete,” she said proudly. Both are ready to face this issue together.

Both try to retain their smiles as the crowd applauds their arrival. Peter raises his hands as they proceed to stop. Stepping forward, he begins, “Everyone, may I please have your attention…”

[Back on the roof...]

“Are you sure the captain is confident on this, man?” Spider-Man asks one of the guards.

“If he said the coast is clear, then the coast is clear, Spider-Man,” the guard replied as they spoke in one of the lobbies.

Spider-Man puts his hands on his waist, thinking this isn’t making sense as the tingling in his head continues. “Maybe I should go down and talk- “Spider-Man said before a chill ran down his spine, an intense signal from his spider senses. This time, he could faintly feel where this was coming from, but it also signified immediate and deadly danger was approaching. He runs to one of the large windows and webslings up to the roof of the building, his eyes scanning for the source of this disturbance.

“Where are you,” he whispered, squinting his eyes. As evening approached, the sky turned darker with each passing minute. Then he spotted a contrast to the night sky: a flying purple dot in the distance. It was whizzing across the sky at a fast speed and was approaching the building.

“Rogue figure spotted,” he shouts into his earpiece connected to Peter’s and MJ’s. Before continuing, he blinks and suddenly sees the purple figure vanish. He leaps to the edge of the building, but still can get a visual of the rogue flyer. Nonetheless, his spider senses were still blaring, and he continued speaking, “Lost visual. Engage emergency security protocols, and I’ll- “

ZAP! CRACKLE! ZAP!

Spider-Man felt the whole building tremble ever so slightly as an enormous wave of electricity rippled the entire electrical system. He saw strands of electricity burst and snap out of parts of the roof. Looking down, he saw the lights flicker until everything went dark. “I saw this before,” he muttered, “but…it can’t be.” He stepped down to guard the civilians and ensure everyone evacuated the building.

He fires a web to suspend himself and aims for a window straight for the presentation room when his tingling intensifies. He turns his head, momentarily seeing nothing until he sees a purple fly inches from his face. He was suddenly thrown several feet, his jaw rippling from pain as if he had just been punched in the face. Spider-Man quickly recovers and slings onto the side of the building when the power suddenly turns back on. Spider-Man switches channels to security, “activate all protocols. Ensure all civilians evacuate this building and- “

“Sorry, Spidey,” a new and unfamiliar voice says through his communications, “but this building is ours now.”

Miles sees all the blast shields in the building activated, sealing off every window and door. Spider-Man leaps to a nearby window but is punched again by his incredible tiny foe, stopping his only shot of getting inside the building. However, he could track where this tiny stranger was and fired his webs. One of them snags the assailant with a small web ball before his opponent grows into the size of a human person. “She has Pym particles,” Spider-Man deduced and got a clear look at his foe. She wore an advanced purple and black suit of armor while her yellow bug-like eyes glowed against the night sky. Her method of flying was a pair of glowing pink wings, like that of a beetle’s wings.

He swings after his foe up toward the roof of the building. “Just a warning, when you lose this fight, the Wasp will talk sternly with you about stealing her gimmick. Oh, and for stealing the Pym particles, too.”

As both reach the roof, he fires his webbing, which lands on her back. Catching her, he uses his weight to slam her down to the roof, quickly firing multiple webs to restrain her. He kneels beside her and demands, “You’re this Beetle’s successor I’ve been tracking. With those particles, it’s no wonder you suddenly went undetected. Now, you’ll tell me who’s your partner and how to get me back inside this building.”

“P-part…ners,” the Beetle mumbled.

“What?”

“Heh, I think you mean partners, Spider-Man.”

Spider-Man senses a tingle and narrowly avoids an influential strand of electricity. He sees a blue humanoid figure made of electricity from exposed circuitry pieces. A bright flash shoots out as the figure fully forms, revealing a woman wearing a whole-body green and yellow colored suit. The strands of electricity coursing through her fists and the infamous light bolts across her mask meant only one thing to Spider-Man: Electro's return.

“First Beetle and now Electro,” he said, “shot in the dark, but the lady inside is Mysterio, isn’t it?”

“Actually,” Beetle grunts, using her suit’s repulsor gloves to break free, “you’re right on the money, Spider-Man.”

“Here has a reward,” Electro shouts, firing a blast of lightning.

The two new supervillains battle it out against Spider-Man, who can hold his own. However, with every passing second he’s fighting out here, everyone inside is in danger from Mysterio’s control over the building. He builds energy in his hands as he dodges a punch from Beetle. He discharges a ball of electricity straight at her and flings her across the rooftop. Spider-Man dashes to leap down, but Electro’s continued lightning shots block his path. She showed great skill with her powerful lighting, and unless a pool of water were nearby, Spider-Man wouldn’t be defeating her as quickly as she wanted.

The Beetle recovers and floats beside Electro. “Oh, I’m going to make you pay for that, Spider-Man.”

“Usually, I’d say something quippy to that,” Spider-Man said as his fingers rippled with electricity, “but I need to help those people inside.”

He lunges forward and continues his battle.

[Shortly Before…]

“Lost visual. Engage emergency security protocols,” Miles said through their earpieces.

“What do you mean no,” one of the grant committee members asked.

“Is there a critical danger to this machine you only learned about?” 

Mary Jane quickly tries to calm them down and tells them about a sudden emergency. However, Peter can barely hear her as his Spider-sense kicks into high gear. He senses the danger from outside but also feels something much closer. An audible wave of electricity ripples across the building, causing light sources to flicker before frantically. Peter grabs Mary Jane’s hand just as it turns pitch black.

Screams erupt amongst the crowd just before the power comes back on. This was a momentary rest. Then, the next thing they knew, the main doors to the auditorium slammed shut, and steel walls slammed over all the windows.

Mary Jane quickly calls Curtis and the others, “Curtis, don’t let anyone in that lab. Curtis? Curtis, do you hear me?!”

Meanwhile, Peter stared on in horror at the crowd. While everyone else in the crowd was too scared to notice, he saw an orange-and-black-clothed woman suddenly standing in the middle of the crowd. She smirked at Peter as she unveiled six smooth red balls in her hands and threw them across the room. “MJ, hold your breath!” Peter shouted, grabbing her wrist with a watch that was secretly a personal energy shield.

He’s stopped when the trickster’s hand grabs his wrist, lunging him over, and smashes him into the stage’s floorboard. “Peter!” MJ shouts, whipping out her stun gun, and fires at the assailant. She lands two shots, nearly knocking the trickster over until she quickly dons a wolf mask and transforms into a hulking werewolf. Another stun blast was ineffective; the werewolf raised her claws to slash at her, but Peter shoved MJ out of the way.

He hisses in pain as his back is slashed, and he falls to the floor. “Peter!” MJ yelled, quickly tapping her watch. However, rather than activating her shield, she pressed a small red button, which caused her watch to blink a bright red. MJ’s defense weapon was knocked out of her hands before the werewolf gripped her neck. The powerful being restrained Peter and MJ; most attendees had passed out from the green gas filling the room.

“MJ…” Peter said, reaching out to her before both passed out from the green gas.

[Now…]

Spider-Man is punched squared across the face by the mini-Beetle, a small cost to avoiding Electro’s strikes. Landing on his feet, he throws a web trap below Electro, and a tangle of webs restrains her. Beetle returns to average size and fires a barrage of pulse blasts at Spider-Man, but he backflips away from each blast and blinds her sight with a web to her mask. “Now or never,” he told himself, running for the roof's edge when his spider senses tingled. He skids to a halt but is caught off guard by seeing four metallic tentacles springing upward.

The liquid metal arms move incredibly fast enough to restrain Spider-Man’s limbs and slam him into the ground. He can barely move as the user of these six arms rises above and reveals herself. She wore a crimson-red leather trench coat with an advanced suit beneath it. She wore long-sleeved black gloves with red fingertips. Her square-like shades masked her eyes, and her deep red hair was tied in a ponytail.

“Are you beginning to see what’s happening, Spider-Man?” she said with a subtle German accent.

Spider-Man grabs one of the tentacles and sends a ripple of static. The liquid metal goes frantic, and he narrowly frees himself. He’s allowed only a moment’s breath before a ball of fire grazes his arm; he turns to see the new Mysterio hovering in the air.

“I don’t believe he does. Why don’t we show him?” Mysterio said, blasting another fireball at Spider-Man. He dodges, using his webbing to do so. He feels a chill before an orange-hooded woman appears out of thin air with a ghost mask. She quickly switches to Frankenstein's mask, becoming the literary monster before restraining Spider-Man. He shook her off him but is blasted square in the chest by Beetle’s repulsors.

“Told you I'll make you pay,” Beetle said.

Spider-Man was cornered, and his enemies closed in. He swung punches at some of them, trying to swing his way out of the tight corner, but one of the metal tentacles grabbed him by the throat, and Electro electrocuted him. Spider-Man felt this burning intensify until he was thrown to the floor. The four-fingered tentacles morph into a giant fist and slam at Spider-Man until he is nearly unconscious.

“Just had to make sure,” the redhead young woman said. She picks up Spider-Man with her tentacles as the five re-enter the auditorium, where a dazed Peter and MJ lie, unable to move. “Mysterio, you are sure the security droids secured the other floors?”

“I have eyes everywhere, Doctor. Not one guard stands against us. The building is totally under my control.”

“Mys…terio…?” Peter mumbles, his vision hazy from the green gas. He sees five shadowy figures approach him and gasp in terror. “No…no, you…you’re all gone.” He subtly realizes at that moment that what he is inhaling is a fear toxin whose side effects include hallucinations. He was petrified to see some of his oldest adversaries return.

“Peace has made you weak, Spider-Man,” the illusion of Quintin Beck’s Mysterio spoke.

“Oh, and you have a family now,” the illusion of Hobgoblin said. " Good. Killing them will make it all the more fun watching you suffer!”

“I…won’t let you…” Peter mumbled.

“Haha! How? You’re out of shape, old man,” an illusion of Max Dillion’s Electro said.

“And out of time,” the illusion of Otto Octavius, “it was all only a matter of time until your world would come crashing down, Peter.”

“No…I’ll…”

“You’ll what, Petey?” a high-pitched voice echoes in Peter’s head. He’s stunned, speechless at the sight of the Green Goblin, even if it is all just in his head. “I vowed to destroy everything you ever loved, and today, you’ll see that you could’ve done nothing to stop me. I may not have lived to see it, but I’ll savor it after you join us down here, Petey!”

Peters snapped out of his delusions with a slap across the face. He shakes his head and finds himself lifted by liquid metal tentacles.

“I think your formula was a little too strong, dome head,” Electro said.

“Watch your tongue,” Mysterio warned.

Peter shakes off the last fear gas effects and sees the real group. “Who…are you?”

“I’m the Beetle, Lady Beetle, and we have plans for you tonight.”

“Indeed. I, the daughter of Mysterio, have used my awesome power over magic and technology to ensure no one outside will stop us.”

“So, you better get yourself comfortable,” Electro spoke, “If you do any funny business, then prepare to know what a million volts by the new and recharged Electro feels like!”

“You…won’t get anything out of me…if you hurt them,” Peter said, glancing at Miles and MJ.

“Their fates are entirely up to you, not us,” the orange-hooded woman said. "That is a promise. Be forewarned: any promise made by the mischievous Hallows’ Eve forbodes ruin and even death.”

“What do you all want from me?”

“It’s rather straightforward, Doctor Peter,” the last group member said calmly, lowering Peter’s eye level. “It’s truly an honor to finally meet you face to face. I am Doctor Carolyn Trainer, but you may call me Doctor Octopus.”

“Really? Since when did they start handing out doctorates to teenagers?”

“What can I say? I was born into a line of geniuses,” she said, “and today, we, the Sinister Syndicate, will initiate a new era for this city. Starting with your destruction.”

“So that’s it? You just came here to kill me?”

“In due time, Doctor Peter. All in due time,” Doc Ock said, “before that, may I ask you a few personal questions?”

Doc Ock pulls Peter closer to her, as she looks at him contemptuously. “You’re deeply tied to the Amazing Spider-Man, aren’t you, Peter B. Parker?”

A.N: Done! First, I'm retconning some minor things in classic comic book fashion, so I'll delete Issue# 0, an issue that I was always open to change. It's not radical changes; everything from Issue #1 to now remains canon. 

I hope you like this version of the Sinister Syndicate! To clarify, the lineup is Janice Lincoln as Beetle II, Francine Frye as Electro II, Misty Beck as Mysterio II, Carolyn Trainer as Doc Ock II, and finally, Hallows' Eve, whose Identity I won't give away just yet. I picked this line of supervillains because they're all primarily recent and follow the trend of inheriting the mantles of those before them. For Janice, I added a bit more to her arsenal to make her more formidable, which ties to my ideas for her character later on. Francine, I'm considering taking inspiration from Livewire in powers and personality, which even the comics Electro II support. Misty as a character is an intriguing concept that got shelved waaaay too early in the comics. Carolyn will see the most radical changes to her comic counterpart.

So yes, I hope you also enjoyed this chapter's Peter, MJ, and Miles parts. Those were especially tricky to get right, especially in ensuring the characters didn't feel potentially OOC. Also, the switching of POVs wasn't confusing. I wanted to show the systematic way the villains got the jump on our heroes, how, even with preparations, they genuinely got the rug pulled from under them. 

Now, with that said, what will this dastardly Syndicate do next? Is Peter Parker's identity finally exposed? Is there still time for the Spider-Girls to save the day, or will this day mark the first victory for the Sinister Syndicate?!

Find out next time in Issue #5 of THE MARVELOUS SPIDER-GIRLS!

Chapter Text

Midtown High’s last bell rang, and droves of teens left either for home or for the hottest nightlife scenes. Two sisters, April and Annie, quickly march out of Midtown and divide duties. Annie quickly snatches the necessary items for their work before resting on top of the roof of a small business building. She pulls out her laptop, plugs in the drive with the encryption to bypass the strange droid’s firewall, and essentially lets it do the work for her.

It would take a few minutes, so Annie was left waiting. “Late on everything,” she mumbled, pacing back and forth, “she can outrun a freaking car, so what’s taking her?”

The sound of a web splat draws Annie’s attention, and April swings up to the roof with half of the assignment: fast food. Unsurprisingly, spending most of the lunch dealing with bullies took away time to eat, and they were starving, especially April.

“You ate my fries!” Annie gasped.

“Hey, you’re the one who told me to get food. By now, you should know the risks of assigning me food pick-up,” April said, already munching on one of her two burgers.

“You…are right,” Annie sighs.

As they indulge in their late lunch, watching the sunset on that rooftop, Annie blurts out a seemingly random question. “How long do you see yourself doing this? The family business?”

April stops mid-bite of her burger, blinking in surprise at Annie’s left-field question. “What is this? School counseling?”

“I’m serious.”

“Uhhh…probably for a long while, especially with my whole half-shapeshifting alien thing.”

“But not forever,” Annie said, twirling her fingers and barely touching her second burger. “I asked this question to Mayday after we became superheroes. She told me that being a hero was one of her dreams and wanted to do this forever. After today, I believe she still wants that.”

“But…? Where’s this going, Annie?”

“Nowhere,” she said and continued eating.

April shakes her head, “Nuh-uh, you ain’t deflecting me. What’s up? Thinking of throwing in the towel?”

“No!” Annie said so quickly she nearly choked on her food. She swallows and continues, “Nonono, I didn’t mean—”

“If you want a talk about this, Annie—”

“I don’t and don’t EVER mention this to Mayday or Mom and Dad. They’d probably freak out or something. Besides, I would never ditch you two.”

“Then why bring it up?”

With the palm of her hand covering her eyes, Annie sighs. “I don’t know. I like having options for my future.” She leans back, glancing away as if trying to avoid something.

“Hey, I’m no snitch,” April reassured.

“I know,” Annie smiles, “I guess, for as fun the past two years were, it did nothing to help my social life. Remember the school newspaper team from last year?”

 “Yeah, they got popular. They even won an award for their local journalism work.”

“I was supposed to be a part of that,” Annie shares with remorse, “I tried to keep up with them, but every other week, there was a vision of a murder, accident, or whatever. I couldn’t ignore any of them, so I kept ditching. They kicked me out barely a month later.”

“It comes with the job,” April said bluntly. “But I get it.”

“Maybe I should ask Mayday for advice. What doesn’t she know, right?”

“More than you think,” April said dismissively.

“Seriously? She got girls fawning over her while I’m stuck with fanboys.”

“That doubly sucks with you being a lesbian and all.”

“Exactly!” Annie said. She slumps her head and says, “Along the way, maybe she can teach me more pointers on how to be a better hero. Like, is saving people not enough for people in this city?”

“For some, apparently not,” April sighs, eating the last of her food.

“Well…I want to help change that,” Annie vowed as she took a big bite of her burger. Chomping down the last meal, she continued, “This recent case with these robots and a mysterious lady could be our chance to remind people that we’re true heroes. Might even help re-balance my life, make it more efficient.”

“We’re already real heroes, Annie. No matter what jerks online or on the streets say,” April said, standing up. “I find this peacetime boring at times. And yeah, not feeling appreciated sucks. However, I don’t see myself changing my future yet because this job gives me the one thing I want: freedom.”

“Really? In what way?”

“Like, when I swing into action,” April said, closing her eyes as she remembered her previous adventures, “the excitement building up in your stomach while charging in with all my strength and passion. That’s an experience only the superhero life can give.”

Annie ponders April’s perspective while standing beside her sister. “When I spring into action, I feel my adrenaline rising and my heart pumping like crazy. My mind’s suddenly in it yet I can barely focus. Like even from the slightest of distractions. So, I’ve been feeling more anxious than thrilled for a while. And my visions don’t exactly help.”

“Once upon a time, Mayday felt the same way.”

“Seriously?”

“Straight from the horse’s mouth,” April smiled, “Eventually, she learned from Dad to quell her fear. After that, she was ready for anything.”

“And…when do you think I’ll be ready? Will it even change my mind about the future?”

April gives her typical answer and shrugs. A beep from Annie’s laptop tells them they’ve bypassed the firewall. The sisters run over and search for any clues about this mysterious creator.

April asks, “See anything? I see a bunch of files.”

“They’re mainly combat parameters,” Annie said. From the corner of her eye, she spots one peculiar file in the droid’s surviving memory banks. She clicks on it and uncovers a grainy video feed. She spots a date at the corner of the recording. “This was recorded last night,” she said.

The sisters squinted and saw the dimly lit room in the video but soon saw a figure emerge from the shadows.

“Test number zero-twenty-three,” a young woman’s voice said in the recording, “all systems are functioning, though their lack of personalities is disappointing.”

Annie and April look closer when the figure emerges from the shadows to inspect the recording droid. To their shock, they see a large glass dome that is all too familiar. “Mysterio!?” they both exclaim.

“I’m noticing an anomaly with my droids and your nanites, doctor.” Mysterio continued, “Are you certain this test will make them fully compatible?”

The sisters are dead silent when two large metallic tendrils appear onscreen. The metal arms lower a figure wearing a crimson trench coat. The second the sisters heard this doctor speak, they immediately recognized this as the same young woman who hired Natalie to steal that Cell-Stimulator.

“Don’t underestimate my tech,” Carolyn said with a German accent. "These should be ready for tomorrow’s event. If you encounter any problems, send a droid to drive the batch to my lair.”

“My actors are always pristine,” Mysterio growled, “but…I will consider your offer.”

“I know you will,” the doctor said before her metal arms carried her back to the shadows.

Before more can be learned, the video abruptly ends.

“That’s all. The rest is corrupted data. What event could they—?”

Annie pauses upon hearing a familiar beeping noise. On her right wrist was a unique watch given by their mother, one that blared a warning that a member of thier family was in danger.

“No,” April said with a shudder. A yellow hologram hovered over their watches and pointed to where their parents were in danger: the Parker Foundations building on the far south side of Queens.   

“Dad’s work,” Annie quivered.

“Mom’s there too,” April said. Although she often doesn’t show fear, thinking it makes her weak, April does not hide how terrified she is.

“Do you think they know Dad is—”

“No way,” April whispered, “we all made sure the world only knew a lie: that Spider-Man vanished. No, they must be after the demonstration experiment.”

“Notify the others for backup,” Annie said, webbing her school supplies.

“Seriously?”

Annie dashes behind the cover to change into her suit. “This is our parents, April. Call uh M-miles!”

“He’s supposed to be keeping Manhattan safe tonight.”

“Aunt Jessica?”

“Still in Canada helping out the X-Men.”

“Cindy?”

“On assignment with the Agents of Atlas.”

“Shoot,” Annie hissed as she donned her red mask. “Oh! What about Uncle Ben?”

“He…might be available,” April said. She quickly shapeshifts herself into her Wild-Spider attire and shoots a web to a nearby building. “Call him and follow me. We gotta bust our great leader out of detention first.”

With little time to lose, Wild-Spider and Spiderling swung and leaped to Midtown High as fast as they could. By the time they reached the building, Mayday was holed up in, they found the empty room she was supposed to be held in. Well, except for one furious Mrs. Perching pacing about.

“Up here,” Mayday said, revealing herself in her suit and standing on the roof.

“Of course,” April said, though less sarcastically than usual, “I thought she confiscated all your stuff in there.”

“She did. Luckily, my spider sense tingled in time to pinpoint our watches going off. I finished suiting up just as you two got here. What’s the situ—"

“I got him!” Annie said, tossing the phone to Mayday.

Their uncle, Ben Reilly Parker's, voice echoed from the device. “Hello? Girls, are you all there?”

“We are, Uncle Ben,” Mayday said. "We have an emergency at Dad’s work, likely a supervillain attack. We’re about to intercept it. Can you provide support?”

“Peter’s work—? Oh no…”

“What?”

“I spoke with your father about a potential problem with his experiment, a problem that can become catastrophic if put in the wrong hands.”

“Do I want to know how bad?”

“Probably not. Janine and I are still in upstate New York. It’ll take two hours before I even hit the Bronx. Mayday…it’s up to you and your sisters,” Ben said, a serious concern in his tone but also an aura of confidence. “We’ll notify the authorities of the situation, but the rest will be in your hands.”

“O-okay,” Mayday said, hiding her anxious tone from her sisters.

“Mayday, this is what you all trained for, now be the leader they need.”

Mayday nods and ends the call. “We’re moving out,” she said. Walking past her sisters, Annie grabs her wrist. “What did he say?” Annie asks.

Knowing they were on a time limit, Mayday gives it to her straight. “We’re going in alone.”

“I knew it,” April mumbled.

Annie's expression turns to shock, then quickly turns to fear. Her hand quivered when she let go of Mayday. She’s grabbed by the shoulders, Mayday telling her, “Annie, I know you never fought a battle like this before, but you must stay focused. Whoever these people are, they will kill you if given the chance. Stay close to us, and act. Don’t think.”

Annie nodded, but her body still felt frozen in place.

“Hey,” April said, holding Annie’s hand, “you ready for this?”

Annie takes a steady breath, feeling her heart simmer down and retaining her nerves. “Yeah…for Mom and Dad.”

Mayday pats Annie on the shoulder and dashes off. “Let’s go!” She swings across the air, her sister's right behind her. The sisters book it as fast as they can toward the Parker Foundation. Though Mayday retains a stoic front, her spider senses scream great danger in that building. But her resolve doesn’t waver for the sake of her sisters and the mission.

“What’s the situation?”

“Red Coat woman is some new Doc Ock. She has the tentacles and everything,” April said. "A lady Mysterio is her partner. They’ve been planning this attack for days, if not weeks.”

“We couldn’t contact Mom or Dad,” Annie said. " This group likely took over the whole building." Spiderling suddenly stops. A familiar sharp pain strikes her head, indicating another Spider-Vision is hitting her. “Gah!!” she screams, receiving the vision mid-swing. The headache was so great that she couldn’t focus on web-swinging, and she began to fall at a twenty-story height.

“Spiderling!” April shouts. Both she and Spider-Girl were quick to dive after her. Luckily, they snatch her before she collides with the traffic below and carry her to a nearby rooftop.

“Annie, talk to me,” Spider-Girl whispered, hugging her sister until the Vision eventually subsided.

“I…saw a terrible explosion,” Spiderling pants, almost overwhelmed at what she saw. “It vaporized everything. Dad…Mom…Miles…everything in within a three-mile radius.”

“Thousands of people dead…” Spider-Girl said.

“Tens of thousands,” Spiderling said, “and we’re the only ones who make it on time. We’re the three figures in my first vision.”

“And what happens to us?” Wild-Spider asks.

With some trepidation, Spiderling answers with a shake of her head.

The three heroes are silent when they realize the true magnitude of this mission and the human cost if they fail tonight. The sisters all sense it. They feel immense weight—the fate of the Parker Family, other heroes, and thousands of civilians rests in their hands.

Spider-Girl stands up, her composure calm and determined. “Well? What are we waiting for?” she told her sisters, “The day isn’t going to save itself, and I refuse to let a single person die tonight.” She fires her web and swings off into the night, straight to the fire of Doc Ock’s diabolical scheme.

Wild-Spider nods, “not the first time we’ve swung straight into death,” she said. Firing a web off the top of her hand, she swings after Spider-Girl, telling herself, “And I'd rather kick the bucket than let Mom die.”

Spiderling takes a breath, the horrible imagery of their potential deaths still seared into her mind. It scared her…but it also motivated the hell out of her. “I can do anything…we can do anything,” she whispers, pushing herself to move. Spiderling stands up, and she aims her web-shooter, “You’re a Spider-Girl too, Annie. Act like it!” She fires and soars across the New York skyline, soon swinging beside her sisters. With their extraordinary powers, the Spider-Girls race against time. All their hearts were fueled with a fiery determination as they charged into their greatest battle yet.

[Meanwhile…]

Peter has been in many tough spots throughout his life. This predicament was up there.

His first concern is his wife and Miles. Taking a moment, he glances at them and sees it isn’t good. Mary Jane was barely conscious after inhaling the fear gas, her fingers occasionally twitching as she underwent a nightmare like he did.

Miles wasn’t doing any better with most of his body enveloped by that liquid metal from the new Doc Ock. She detached the portion holding Miles to the floor, regrowing the metallic limb while the split portion kept Miles trapped like a spider in a fly trap.

As for himself, a collection of legacy villains of some of his oldest foes had him by the neck and seemed to know something about his identity.

“Your silence is futile, Dr. Parker,” Doc Ock said, “we already know your old secret.”

Peter grits his teeth, cautiously asking, “What old secret? I have more than you expect.”

“Stop stalling!” Doc Ock shouts, slamming Peter against the wooden stage.

‘Ben’s right; stress jokes will be the death of me,’ Peter thought, retaining his deviant composure even after he was sure that attack cracked one of his lower ribs.

“You think time will hide your secret? We know it, Doctor Parker. We know you are Spider-Man—”

‘No!’ Peter thought.

“Oldest ally,” Lady Beetle said, interrupting Doc Ock.

“Ah! Don’t ruin this for me, Beetle!” Doc Ock whined. “We agreed I would interrogate him.”

“Then interrogate a little faster, for crying out loud,” Electro groaned, “I’m falling asleep here.”

In their brief bickering, Peter would feel relieved if his loved ones weren’t still in a life-or-death situation.

“But you heard her,” Doc Ock continued, “What do you know about Spider-Man?!”

“You…” Peter struggled to say, “You'll need to be more specific. You mean that Spider-Man, or the other Spider-Man or—”

“The original, you old fool!” Doc Ock shouted, “The one that’s red, white, and blue. The one that defeated my predecessor. The one who disappeared off the face of the earth!”

“And what makes you think I know anything about him?”

“Not only were you the first to document his existence, but you also helped several wall crawlers throughout your career, and a reliable source said that you were with him the night he vanished.”

“I think your source is a little dubious, Doc. I don’t know more than you do,”

Doc Ock begins to vibrate with frustration. Still, her voice seemingly retains composure, and she pulls away, “Is that so…?” One of her arms suddenly shoots out, shattering the tall window to its left. She hoists Mary Jane up in the air but her ankle and holds her out the window.

“No!” Peter shouts in a panic. Trying to use all his strength to break out of Doc Ock’s grip, but to no avail.

“DO YOU REMEMBER NOW, PETER?!” Doc Ock roared, catching even some of her teammates off guard. “IS IT ALL COMING BACK TO YOU NOW?! IT BETTER, FOR YOUR WIFE’S SAKE!”

“Leave her out of this!” Peter said defiantly, his face simmering angrily, “If you do anything to my MJ, you get nothing from me. Nothing!”

Beetle grabs Doc Ock’s shoulder and whispers to her, “Ease it down. Don’t ruin your catch by rushing things. There’s still part two of the plan, remember?”

Doc Ock huffs in annoyance and drops Mary Jane beside Miles.

Miles shakes his head, his vision clearing up when he sees his two friends in the grasp of these supervillains. His eyes widened when Mary Jane opened her eyes. Upon fully waking up from her nightmare, M.J. flinched at the sight of the Syndicate. They don't notice, and she quickly remains still, her long red hair covering her eyes.

“Shhh,” Miles said as quietly as possible, seeing their attention was still square on Peter.

Mary Jane nods slightly and lets Miles focus on generating electricity across his body. With everything but his hands, head, and feet covered in this thick, heavy metal goo, Miles reasoned that electricity generated by his core body might be enough to short-circuit and explode the metal off him. He knows it’s a slower process, likely requiring three minutes, but he had no other options. As for how he’ll deal with the five superpowered villains once he’s freed, he was still working on that.

‘Keep them talking, Tiger,’ Mary Jane thought, ‘help is on the way.’

Doc Ock brushes her hair as she tries to cool off. “Mysterio, bring it up,” she ordered.

Peter sees Mysterio press a button on her right gauntlet and speak a command into it. In a few moments, the floor on the far back side of the stage slides open and unveils the fusion reactor. Besides it was an unconscious Curt Conners, struck by a tranquilizer dart by one of his assistants.

“Dr. Semper works for you?” Peter questioned.

“Bah! Her acting would be nothing compared to my actors,” Mysterio boasts as the robot-copycat eyes glow blue.

Doc Ock approaches the machine and can’t help but be impressed by its design. It can indeed be a significant step forward for free, clean energy. A grin grows across her face while four of her six arms attach to crucial components of the machine. She injects nanobots into the machine, millions of cell-sized bots working together to reprogram and restructure parts of the reactor systems. “With just a little tinkering, I will transform this machine into the source of your downfall, Dr. Parker.”

Seeing several of the reactor’s safety mechanisms disabled, Peter is baffled by the madness before him. “You’re insane,” he says. " You keep meddling with it, and you could destroy all of Queens!”

“Us, insane? Give us a little credit, Parker,” Electro said.

“Indeed,” Mysterio said, “what’s the point of a performance if our audience is dead?”

“Exactly. All we’re going to do is have it destroy everyone and everything you love,” Hallows’ Eve said with a vicious grin.

“Correct,” Doc Ock said proudly. “I’ll destabilize the fusion core at its minimal levels, reducing the blast radius to a measly three miles. We need only a swatter to kill the insolent fly that is your industry, Parker, not a hammer.”

“Besides, we can’t build a new criminal empire out of sand,” Beetle said.

“Oh sure, you all sound like such saints,” Peter said sarcastically, “Killing a few thousand people isn’t a hammer to you? I’ll rephrase my earlier comment. You are all completely insane!”

“Call us whatever you want,” Mysterio said, “All that matters is that the destruction of your legacy will show all the heroes in New York that their time will soon be over!”

“We’re tired of being bullied by those holier-than-thou idiots,” Electro growled, “They’re not as tough as they think they are, and tonight is proof of that!”

“And there is nothing these heroes can do to stop what’s coming,” Hallows’ Eve said ominously.

Peter is suddenly lifted into the air by Doc Ock's tentacles. The young villain glared at him with contempt. “Above all else,” she said, “this glorious blast will ruin your family’s reputation. Sure, we’ll pull the trigger, but who made the gun in the first place? People will never forgive you, Parker, and I can’t wait to see your Spider-friends suffer from this.”

From what Peter can tell from Doc Ock’s progress, she’ll convert the reactor into a bomb within minutes. Time was running out, and Peter struggled to find a solution to this dire predicament. What happened next instilled great pride and anxiety in Peter. A great tingling tickled the back of his head, and he knew Miles felt it, too. However, this wasn’t a signal of danger. Quite the opposite, this signal was that help was on the way.

‘Heh, that’s our girls,’ Peter thought. He glanced at his wife, smirking when he saw she was awake and smiling with him. He saw the family emergency watch still flashing on her wrist. ‘God, I love her!’

Mysterio is the first of the syndicate to be alerted with her dome helmet blinking red. “What is this?”

“What is what?” Electro asked.

“The building’s security cameras are picking up three signatures approaching quickly,” Mysterio said, her dome helmet now glowing blue when she sent out a few drones.

The Beetle asks, “Is it police choppers?”

“Can’t be. We made sure they’re none the wiser,” Eve said.

Mysterio sharply gasps, “My…my drones. They were wiped out so fast! I only caught sight of three blurs!”

Doc Ock sneered and raised her arms in a battle stance. “They’re here.”

A spectacular explosion of glass erupts from the whole left side of the room, causing the syndicate members to dash to the opposing side of the venue. Amidst the broken glass debris, three shadowy figures leap across the air, landing in fighting positions. The dust clears, and the Syndicate gasps in shock upon seeing that the Spider-Girls have arrived. They can see in the Spider-Girl's eyes that their actions struck a nerve. The superhero trio glared at them in such a way that if looks could kill, then they would all be evaporated.

The trio quickly spots their parents in these villains’ clutches, thankful they’re alive. Spider-Girl catches sight of Miles. He looks back and gives the ‘ready’ signal.

“Ain’t this a surprise!” Wild-Spider smirked, “It seems the legion of losers has returned.”

“Grrr!” Mysterio growled, “The Spider-Girls are here already?!”

“We like to be fashionably early, fishbowl,” Spider-Girl quipped.

“This wasn’t part of the plan,” Electro hissed to Lady Beetle.

“Sorry, battery head,” Spiderling said, “but your audience ain’t look like they were having fun.”

Doc Ock’s tentacles step forward. She fixes a particular glare at Spider-Girl, her fist shaking with utter hate. “Excellent,” she said with a devious smirk, “the deaths of four web-heads will make us into legends!”

“Better make that zero, Doc,” Spider-Girl said. She gestured with her hand, and Miles discharged a surge of bioelectricity from his body. Metal goo splattered across the room, catching the Syndicate off guard as the four heroes sprang to the attack.

Miles fires two webs, snagging onto Electro’s and Mysterio’s backs, and flings them through the windows behind him with his spider strength. “I got them!” he told the Spider-Girls before swinging out the window to keep the two villains busy.

Doc Ock is briefly distracted by Miles’s attack, leaving an opening for Spider-Girl to leap forward and grab her dad to free him. Before Ock can retaliate, Wild-Spider tackles her. The two tumble across the stage, the sudden struggle allowing Spider-Girl to yank her dad from Ock’s grasp.

“Clever trick!” Hallows’ Eve taunted. With a snap of her fingers, a magic broom poofs into existence. She hopped on and flew up with incredible speed. With a wicked smile, she pulls out a smooth red metallic bomb. “Here’s your treat!” she crackles, throwing it to the space between her dad and the knocked-out crowd of people.

However, a web snatched it mid-air and flung it out of the room, where it exploded safely outside. Eve, briefly surprised, reacts too late as Spiderling leaps from behind and grabs Eve in an arm lock. “Mind if we take this outside?” Spiderling said, forcefully steering the broom to fly them outside the room.

Spider-Girl shifts her focus to the last member but finds no sign of Lady Beetle. She sees her mother getting up before spotting Doc Ock toss Wild-Spider off her. She quickly asks her father, “Are you hurt?”

“My back’s pretty slashed up,” Peter groaned.

“Go to your wife and stay back,” she said, dashing up to the stage to help Wild-Spider.

“Spider-Girl! Beetle shrunk down!” MJ warned her daughter.

Spider-Girl’s spider senses tingled; she knew exactly where the threat was coming from, but she didn’t expect it to be an invisible punch. She notices Beetle flying around her, but just as quickly, she’s kicked in the gut, throwing her down to the bleachers. Beetle reverts to standard size and fires her repulsor blasters, but Spider-Girl quickly backflips and fires her webs. She nearly catches Beetle, but the villain shrinks down, avoiding the webs entirely. ‘Follow your advice, girl,’ she tells herself, leaping up to the stage, expecting Beetle to keep her from aiding her sister.

Before she lands, Spider-Girl’s senses go off. In this split moment, she allows her instincts to defend herself. Her natural reflexes pinpointed the attack from behind, and she swats away the Beetle with the back of her hand. ‘There!’ Spider-Girl thought, but her actions happened faster than she thought. She sees the Beetle revert to normal and crash out the window, narrowly grabbing the edge.

“GAAH!” Wild-Spider screamed as she was snatched by Doc Ock and thrown across the room.

“Freak of nature,” Ock mumbled.

Furious at the remark, Spider-Girl screams, “HEY!” and shoots two webs to rip out four chairs and fling them at Doc Ock. The six-armed menace could deflect them with her mechanical limbs, but this left her wide open for Spider-Girl to lung after her, landing a hard right punch. Surprisingly, this superpowered punch barely fazed the teenage octopus. She smirked at Spider-Girl before grabbing her neck.

“Wha—?!” Spider-Girl gasped, struggling to breathe from Ock’s intense, superhuman grip. A strength that was equal to Spider-Girl’s!

“My predecessor was truly amazing,” Doc Ock proclaimed, “but I am SUPERIOR! Both in mind and body!”

Spider-Girl feels her windpipe about to snap until she thrusts both her legs at Ock’s abdomen, kicking herself off the Doc’s death grip. While Spider-Girl gasps for air, Doc Ock orders the copycat droid to activate a dome shield around the fusion reactor. The android tosses the portal shield before Spider-Girl’s web snags the android towards her. She destroys the droid with one swift punch.

“You're too laaaate,” Doc Ock mocked, the shield generator activating and enveloping the reactor in a blue energy dome. "In fifteen minutes, Spider-Girl, my nanobots will turn this reactor into a terrifying bomb, and your insolent team will be vaporized into nothing!”

“Fifteen minutes, eh? Guess we’ll have to kick your ass in ten then!”

Doc Ock springs two tentacles at Spider-Girl, but they’re both stopped when two thick organic appendages stretch out and grab them. Ock sees these were Wild-Spider’s arms, expanded thanks to her symbiote powers. “Let go!” Ock protested, trying to yank back her tentacles.

Spider-Girl leaps back, standing beside her sister, and fires webbing at Doc Ock’s two other arms. With their combined strengths, the sisters could overpower Ock’s strength, throwing her outside in a tremendous crash.

Using her six tentacles to latch onto the side of the building, Ock growled, “Insects! Let’s see how tough you are while I have Parker's throat in my grasp!”

“Hey, Doctor Calamari!” Spiderling shouts. She was swinging down towards the surprised Ock, using her strength and momentum to land a kick to Ock's head. Doc Ock falls several stories before catching herself with her tentacles.

“Grrr!! Calamari’s squid, you fool!” Doc Ock shouts, chasing after Spiderling, who regroups upward with Miles.

Meanwhile, the two sisters catch their breaths, Spider-Girl saying, “Phew, since when did this become a defenestration party?”

Usually, Wild-Spider would mock her sister for the bad joke, but she was too busy running to her mom and hugging her. “Are you okay?” she asked.

“We’re fine, thanks to all of you,” Mary Jane said proudly.

“We need to evacuate everybody,” Peter groaned. MJ helped him stand up.

“That’s going to be tricky, Tiger. Mysterio took control of the building’s security systems, and people outside don’t know what’s happening.”

“Uncle Ben notified emergency services. They’ll be here shortly,” Mayday informed them.

MJ asks, “And what about the drones still swarming about?”

Mayday ponders that dilemma. She considers their capabilities against this Syndicate and compares it to their speed and agility in dismantling the building’s security systems. After a moment, she answers, “Miles will disable Mysterio’s control while you lead the evacuation efforts.”

“And we’ll handle these super-jerks,” April said, anxious to continue the fight.

“We still have the bomb to worry about,” Peter said. He points to a reactor encased in a sphere of red energy generated by a hexagonal device lying on the fusion reactor’s platform. “That’s an ion shield; the only way to deactivate it is by destroying that generator.”

“Or an EMP blast,” Mayday murmured, pondering the chance of that working. She turns to her parents, “We’ll think of something. Get Curt and everybody else out of this room. Meet up with Miles two floors down. He’ll guard your escape to the streets.”

“I’m not leaving this building until everyone is out,” Peter said. Immediately, he stumbles from the pain of his wounds.

"Dad, a-are you okay? Has your healing not kicked in yet?"

"Uhh, n-no, no, it did, sweetie," Peter reassured, hiding the pain rippling across his lower back. "I-I'm okay, just haven't been this hurt in a while."

“Your father will be fine,” MJ said. April noticed her mother's quick response, which sounded like she was trying to change the subject away from Peter's powers. MJ turned to her husband and said, “We'll save everyone, Petey, and I’ll be there with you the whole way. But the second this pain becomes too much for you, I’m carrying you out of here myself. Got it?”

The family noticed a flash of light above, quickly followed by a loud boom. “We’re moving out,” Spider-Girl tells her sister.

“Wait,” Mary Jane said, grabbing them by their shoulders. “Go get’em, Hotshots,” Peter and MJ said proudly.  

The words of encouragement invigorate the sisters, who swing into action, wall-crawling several floors and leaping up to find Ultimate Spider-Man and Spiderling amidst an intense battle against the Syndicate.

Spiderling’s agility and speed help her avoid several strikes from Doc Ock and Hallow’s Eve. Meanwhile, Spider-Man sees through Mysterio’s illusion of a dragon and fires an impact web at one of her gauntlets, controlling her illusions. Electro and Beetle attempt to blast him from a distance, but Spider-Man seemingly disappears.

“Where’d he go?!” Electro shouts, unaware that he’s sneakily using his camouflage ability.

Beetle flies around to find him but is suddenly grabbed by a web and flung towards Electro, hitting her and knocking the two down to the floor.

“Spider-Man! Behind you!” Spider-Girl warns, jumping into action to help him while Wild-Spider aids Spiderling. She spotted Mysterio hovering in the air and attempted to flank Spider-Man the second he reappeared. Spider-Girl quickly tackles Mysterio from behind, but the illusionist soon vanishes in a cloud of green smoke.

She lands beside Spider-Man, who says, “Everyone downstairs good?”

“They’re fine. I need you to help them evacuate by destroying Mysterio’s control over the building.”

Spider-Man is briefly hesitant, knowing how quickly the Syndicate can take down even a seasoned hero like himself. However, even though the Spider-Girls weren’t veteran heroes like him, their teamwork and coordination were unmatched. It might just be the factor that could beat the Syndicate. He nods and pats Spider-Girl, “Leave it to me. Any ideas for the bomb?”

“Still figuring that out.”

“Yeah, me too. Good luck,” Spider-Man shouts, leaping down to Peter and MJ’s location.

Electro and Beetle fly up into the air, firing at Spider-Girl. She retreats and regroups with her sisters. The sinister syndicate soon surrounds the Spider-Girls. The sisters huddle together as tension hangs over who will throw the first punch, them or the syndicate.

Spider-Girl whispers, “How are you doing Spiderling?”

“I’m on an adrenaline high and not dead yet. So, I think I’m good. Wild-Spider, how about you?”

“Oh, the usual,” she chuckles, forming her limbs into blades, “I’m ready to crack some skulls.”

“Usually, I wouldn’t approve of that statement, but right now, it seems appropriate,” Spider-Girl said, entering a fighting stance as she glared at the syndicate. “We got a time limit of fourteen minutes, girls. Spiderling, your tech can match Mysterio’s, but don’t fall for her tricks. Wild-Spider, you can overpower Electro and Beetle, but watch out for anything. I got Ock and Eve. Got it?”

“Got it!” Spiderling and Wild-Spider answered.

“Spider-Girls, attack!”

Electro attempts to fire a blast at Spider-Girl but is stopped when Wild-Spider uses her strength to lunge a steep panel at her, hitting her abdomen. Wild-Spider dashes to the falling Electro until the Beetle punches her in miniaturized form. Wild-Spider quickly recovers, swinging her blades at Beetle, who switches sizes quickly while firing repulsor blasts. Wild’s spider-sense quickly deduces Beetle’s next attack. She forms her right arm into a sledgehammer and knocks the Beetle off her just in time to dodge another of Electro’s blasts.

Mysterio summons forth a swarm of drones, using her illusion magic to double their numbers. However, spider-bots cling onto some and neutralize them with their high-voltage tasers. Spiderling enters by firing web-stingers that shred parts of Mysterio’s suit and pierce her shoulder. The illusionist is unfazed and flies off, but Spiderling switches to her wingsuit form and chases after her.

Spider-Girl dodges one of Doc Ock’s arms and springs into action by webbing two of Ock’s tentacles. She avoids a bomb from Hallows’ Eve before kicking Ock’s head, making Ock stumble across the roof. Spider-Girl uses her fast reflexes to fire a web and snag Eve off her flying broom. She slams her to the ground and fires webs quickly to entrap her. Her Spider-senses tingled, and Spider-Girl somersaulted away from two of Ock’s tentacles. However, instead of usual claws, Spider-Girl saw the nanobots had morphed the ends of those tentacles into axe-like weapons.

“Your efforts are vain, Spider-Girl! Tonight shall be the end of ALL my enemies!” Doc Ock declares. She was lunging attack after attack at her nemesis.

Spider-Girl swiftly dodges the barrage, firing a web to snag a metal crate and lunging it at her attacker. The object smashes into Ock, shattering it to pieces, and Spider-Girl fires an impact web to retrain Ock’s physical arms.

Spider-Girl defies Ock’s words, saying, “Never! Because so long as we’re together, us Spider-Girls are unbeatable!” She charges forward, holding nothing but as she lunges up and uppercuts Doc Ock. “Face it, Ock! You’ve just met your match!”

A/N: Sorry for the longer-than-average wait. I went on a much-needed family trip and had a very great time. I have also been re-writing large dialogue chunks and adding some other additions. I hope you like the shoutouts to other wall-crawling heroes. Also, yes, Hallows' Eve is NOT Janine Godbe. I'm playing around with Eve's powers and identity while keeping an air of mystery about her. Also, I hope you liked the action flow. I wanted everyone to be playing a part in this climatic moment. 

With all that said...can the Spider-Girls stand against the Sinister Syndicate? Can they do so in time to prevent an even greater catastrophe?! Find out in the next issue of THE MARVELOUS SPIDER-GIRLS!

Chapter Text

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.

News teams 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 a glimpse 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. They watched with tenacity the sheer power, spectacle, and danger of this battle, which was almost hypnotic. Even from the ground, they could 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 perimeter and ensuring no falling debris struck 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 was more severe than he thought. His boy would already be getting civilians out by now, but instead, he saw electricity intensify on the roof and fires spread 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, we got 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 worry for his 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.”

[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 in 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 is 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 is held hostage by several of Mysterio’s hijacked drones. The drones quickly turn to fire at the hostages. “Everyone, run!” Spider-Girl shouts while webbing several of their turrets and drawing all the drones' 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 are gone. Now, Carolyn is 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 her 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, forcing 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!” 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 chance at 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 toss Doc Ock 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, as this heroine had her work cut out for her 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 as if she could reach the bottom if she climbed down.

But she could figure out a way out even with the limited time; the problem was that the frequent lightning bolts from this ‘storm’ weren’t helping. 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 everything in its path. Spiderling noticed her senses weren’t tingling this time. “I call your bluff, bubblehead!” She 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's 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 pulled out a bomb, but Mysterio stopped 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. 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… going to…!’

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 can be faintly 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, it didn’t mean it 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 leapt and dodged blasts from the hovering Electro. She snatched onto small boulders with her webs and smashed 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. Beetle shrank and regrew randomly, barely staying aflight, and her remaining repulsor blast fired 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 for 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."

Miles shouts, "Wait-!" but Spider-Girl cuts off her comms, heading straight for Carolyn.

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. Help me defuse the device. We both know there's little time 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. A scientist like him should've put two and two together. Then again, senseless heroism does cloud 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 won't rest until the Parkers and all of you spiders are crushed under my boot! 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 by answering this simple question: What do you think is the best part about converting a reactor this advance into an anti-matter bomb?"

Spider-Girl knew the answer, but she almost dared not say it, but she had to. "It...it's unfixable. It's too destabilized...nothing can stop it. Your 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 your friends cowardly run away. Why stay anyway, Spider-Girl? To appeal to my humanity? To prove to the world your little heroics ideals? That may have been the old way, but this is a new world, and soon, it will see it's a lie. Look around you; your peace was destroyed in just a single night by just five people."

"Didn't think you needed the reminder, but you're stuck with me too, Doc."

"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 Richard 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.

[Elsewhere...]

"MAYDAY!" the whole Parker family cried. Peter and MJ practically had to be held back by April. At that moment, she made a silent promise to 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 undisputable that Carolyn Trainer's bomb was going to 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 Foundations 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. 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 the warm, loving sight. He squatted beside Peter and said, "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! 

Chapter Text

Part 1: The Visitor

The past twelve hours have been such a hectic time for the Spider-Family that it’s been a blur.

For their parents, Peter and MJ felt as if they’d just talked to half of the Queens. After the battle, a swarm of reporters, photographers, and cops began questioning any witnesses and hostages they could get their hands on. Miles and Peter knew from experience that these groups, especially the cops, wouldn’t let the Spider-Girls go until they squeezed out every bit of their information. Now, it didn’t feel like the time and place to answer questions, especially from a police force that often demands too much info from the Spider-Girls. Besides, the sisters were quite hurt from the battle, and it pained their parents to see them like that.

Mayday led Annie and April out the back way. Miles handled the crowds while M.J. helped Peter get to a hospital.

The sister soon arrived at the H.E.A.R.T. Clinic and met Dr. Elias Wirthman. A renowned doctor and longtime friend of the superhero community, he reassured the sisters that their identities would be protected. After a lengthy check-up and patching up of several wounds, Doctor Wirthman assured the sisters nothing serious was broken and that it would be best if they let their wounds heal in the ward. The bandaged-up sisters thus spent the night resting on hospital beds, though Mayday frequently kept her eyes on the news.

By the time she fell asleep, she was barely able to get any sleep. The fires of that night surrounded her, and Carolyn Trainer's venomous words echoed in her dream: ‘Because I can! Because I won’t rest until the Parkers and your spider friends are crushed under my boot!’

“Mayday!”

“Wuhh,” she mumbled. The morning sun's rays peeked through the blinds as May shot out of bed, reeling from the dream.

‘Weird. She’s freaked out about something,’ April thought.

Mayday soon realized she and her sisters were safe. They're better than safe. April and Annie were joyous over their quick recovery.

“Finally, you’re awake and looking tougher than before. Ah-ha, it looks like we’re back in business!” April boasted, leaping out of bed and ripping off her bandages.

“Yeah,” said Annie, “and the doctor didn’t even use Krakoan medicine to do it. Freaky, we’re all better after just a night’s rest.”

“Yeah, it’s freakin’ awesome!”

Mayday doesn’t say a word as she checks her phone. There still been little word from their mother of their father’s condition. ‘Weird. Mom said Dad’s condition is still steady, but shouldn’t he be better than steady? I know Dad got pretty banged up too, but—’

“Hey! Check out our adoring fans,” April said. The sisters check out their socials and a string of witnesses of last night’s attack.

A man shared his account, “I could barely keep myself together staring up at the tower. My husband worked there for years, and nothing like this happened. If it wasn’t for Spider-Man and the Spider-Girls, I… couldn’t imagine going on without my Brian…thank you.”

A woman in their socials said, “I was a kid the last time I saw anything like this. I’ll admit, I never saw the Spider-Girls as anything special, a trio of delinquents, but…after last night, I think they’re truly spectacular.”

One elderly man spoke in the news, “I was trapped at gunpoint alongside my co-workers. I was paralyzed as if I was on the verge of another heart attack. Then Spider-Girl came and destroyed them in seconds. I’ve got to see my grandchildren this morning because of those brave girls.”

Mayday smiled when she saw Felicity Moon’s socials blow up over her praise of the Spider-Girls. “I hope yesterday convinced people that the Spider-Girls truly are the most amazing team on this side of New York! Did you see how incredible Spiderling looked gliding across the air? How ferocious Wild-Spider was kicking ass? How brave and stunning Spider-Girl was fighting that six-armed creep; what an idol!”

Mayday smiles from the kind words and thousands of upvotes garnering the post. “Your girlfriend enjoyed last night’s show?” April teased while looking at her sister’s phone.

“She’s not my girlfriend. I hardly even know her,” Mayday snaps back, her cheeks flushed.

“Oooh, I see. Mayday's hiding a lover from us,” April said with a sly smirk. “Remind me again, who’s the bad girl of this family?” April’s antics stopped when Annie showed them the public’s not-so-savory comments.

“If this is the best these new heroes can do, then I’m moving out of this city,” one old woman argued.

“That blast shattered all the windows of my complex, and my renters were spooked,” a landlord yelled. “I’ll have to raise rent to pay off damages; that or bill the Spider-Girls for damages!”

“My business was barely holding on,” a store owner said. “After last night? No customer is going to wanna set foot in this neighborhood! Might as well hang up close shop, courtesy of the Spider-freaks.”

“I’ll tell ya, if the real Spider-Man were still here, he would’ve stopped the whole thing from happening.”

Comments like these came with the territory, but they still hurt to hear. “Urgh, come on. I don’t know how Dad dealt with this ridicule by himself,” Annie sighed.

A nurse broke up their doom scrolling when she knocked on the closed doors. “Spider-Girls, are your masks on so I can come in?”

“Yes, why? I told Doctor Wirthman we’d be leaving by the morning,” said May.

“You have a visitor.”

The sisters were confused as they opened the door and immediately beamed excitedly when they saw a familiar red and blue costumed hero. “Did someone order some burgers for three heroes?”

“Spider-Man!” the sister exclaimed in joy at the surprise meeting. The sisters thanked the nurse before closing the soundproof doors, taking off their masks and hugging their uncle Ben Parker.

Years ago, he was known as Ben Reilly or The Scarlet Spider, Peter Parker’s brother and Janine Godbe’s husband. When Ben and Janine’s son was born, they agreed to adopt the Parker family name and now live in Manhattan with their son, Richard Parker. Alongside Miles, the two share the Spider-Man mantle, with Ben’s full title being the Sensational Spider-Man. The two have been fantastic crime-fighting partners ever since. Ben’s suit is the third model of his scarlet pattern design, the only significant difference being that the spider symbol is now over his heart.

The sisters sat down on their beds, munching on their delicious meals. May asked, “So, Uncle Ben, how did you know we were here?”

“After Janine and I got back to the city, we got a call from your mother about what hospital she and Peter were at.”

Annie asks with some concern, “How are Mom and Dad doing?”

“Your pop’s okay, but I’d be lying if I said he was in good shape last night,” Ben said honestly. “Erm, but don’t worry! Like you, he’s recovering fast.”

“Well…as long as he’s getting better,” said May with lingering worry.

“As for your mom, man, sometimes I forget how strong that woman is,” Ben said, smiling. “For most of the night, she had to deal with the press trying to storm inside for questions, dealing with vendors and business reps offering deals that would put your family in debt to those snakes, and barely getting a whiff of sleep because of…everything.”

Her uncle’s account sickened April. It’s infuriating to hear those corpo-swines trying to use her mom like that and all the tabloids not leaving her alone. April would tear them apart if it weren’t for their code. May and Annie quietly understood their sisters’ frustration. “How’s she now?”

“Janine is by her side as we speak.”

May asks, “And how’s Miles doing out there?”

“Miles texted that he, Silk, and the champions are noticing a stark increase in criminal activity this morning. At this rate, today’s going to be a busy day.”  

“No doubt the Syndicate’s actions are the root of this,” May said.

“We’ll have to wait and see about that, Mayday. I also got some good news and bad news.”

“Lay it on us,” sighed April.

“Bad news is the authorities have no files on this Carolyn Trainer. We got some leads on who the rest might be, but this new Doc Ock, it’s like she suddenly appeared in this world.”

Annie asked, “Would it be a stretch to theorize she came from another dimension?”

“Erm, I guess not. It's probably best we take this one step at a time,” Ben advised.

“We?”

Ben dons his mask. “That’s the good news. We’re going out on patrol to help the others. If this Syndicate is already making its move, we could catch some leads on their new plans.”

Annie leaped out of her bed in excitement, “Really?”

“That’s perfect. Let’s go right now,” May said quickly, almost as if she was rushing to get out of bed.

He checks his watch before opening the room’s window. “Come on, we’ll swing by your parents before we begin patrol.”

A check-up on their parents got the sisters on their feet and donned their masks. Ben takes the lead, and four swiftly swing through the morning New York air. “Hey,” Ben said, getting their attention, “I knew you three could do it. You always did your best when working together.”

Their uncle’s words brought the Parker sisters a warm sense of accomplishment.

“And it helped to have such an awesome teacher,” Ben boasts, much to the sister’s amusement.

Part 2: The Secret

Orange sunlight illuminates the quiet hospital room where Mary Jane lies sleeping. Aside from a warm jacket Janine had given her, she was still wearing last night’s dress. The bags under her eyes and her unkempt hair highlighted this woman’s exhaustion. She snorted beside her husband’s bed, staying beside him for most of the night before finally getting some sleep. Mary Jane was usually a heavy sleeper, but last night’s events made her so jumpy that a mere door closing awakened her.

“Mmm…h-huh? Wha—?!” M.J. mumbled, rubbing her eyes to see it was only Janine.

The fellow redhead carried some drinks and snacks from the vending machines below. “I'm sorry I woke you,” she whispered.

But M.J. is thankful, smiling warmly as she took some snacks. Janine sat close beside her. It always helped to have friends around, especially during tough times. Since they first met, the two have become best friends.

“Ben just told me he’s about to meet the girls,” Janine informed, “the doctor said they’re practically back in tip-top shape.”

“Thank goodness,” she said with utter relief that her children were healthy and safe again. However, it also reinforced how worrying it was that Peter had still not woken up. Despite the injuries, Peter, ever since the old days, would always assure them that he could sleep off any injury. Now? There were moments last night, as she watched over him, that she worried his condition could turn severe or worse.

Though that worst-case scenario had passed, M.J. was still anxious over one thing: the state of Peter’s powers. She knew what was happening, more or less. This anxiousness wasn’t over how this happened but over when Peter and she should share the truth with the others, especially their children.

“Something’s gnawing at you,” Janine said suddenly. M.J. figured she would. “We’re family. You can talk to us.”

‘I know,’ she thought, ‘but the last thing we want is to worry everyone further.’ The room’s television suddenly played the latest news commentary segment on last night’s attack. After sympathies were expressed, the first wave of opinions was quite…critical.

“What was such a dangerous device doing in a non-profit organization anyway?” One commentator spoke. “How could Mayor Cage be wasting taxpayer money subsidizing a company so clearly making tech that’s a danger to the very public funding them?!”

“All I will say,” the co-commenter responded, “is a word of advice to the Parkers: gather up all Chapter Seven forms, put up a ‘For Sale’ sign at your doors, and get out of New York.”

Janine turned the T.V. off with a scowl across her face. Tired, M.J. pinched the bridge of her brow, “This is exactly how they thought it would go. They never forgive him even if it was the Syndicate’s fault.”

“But there’s also good people here to help you,” Janine refutes, comforting M.J. with a small hug.

A comforting silence from this hug filled the room, away from the noise. Out of this silence, a small stir. M.J. and Janine gasp upon catching Peter’s groggy eyes finally opening. Though the pain of his wounds still ripples across his body, all that fades for a moment when he sees his M.J. “Huh… didn’t know angels had red hair too,” he mumbled.

“You stop,” M.J. chuckled, slapping his shoulder before sharing a tender kiss.

“How—?”

“The girls are healthy and safe.”

“Good, good,” Peter sighs, relieved. “And the Syndicate?”

“One’s captured, but that’s about it leads,” Janine informed, “she hasn’t even spoken a word to the police or Dr. Kakfa. Got any clue who these people are?”

“Not one. 

“Doc Ock?”

M.J. shakes her head. " Not even a photo. Jefferson said it’s like she didn’t even exist ‘until now. Pete, do you recall Octavius having a kid or apprentice before?”

“No, never,” Pete responded. “I mean…there was a time he seemed to love someone truly, but he died shortly after. It’s too short for there to be a kid. I don’t—” He takes a breath after feeling his anxiety rising. Now wasn’t the time to meander on the unknown details. He must focus on the now, which means his family. “If these kids are anything like their predecessors, they’ve gone underground for now. In the meantime, I think the girls should too.”

“They nearly killed you, Peter, in the most explosively and dangerous way imaginable. I don’t think now’s the time to bench the girls.” Janine said.

“She’s right, Pete. Whether they’re underground or not, the fact is that they’re not going away. They want this city. Want our friends dead, our families destroyed, all of it. We saw what they’re capable of. They’re stronger and faster than any of your old foes. And the only reason no one died that night was because of our daughters.”

“I know…”

M.J. nods, “I’m worried too, Petey. I have never seen them hurt like that. But they need our support, not our hesitance.”

“You’re right. Of course, you’re right. It’s just—” Peter stops when a sharp pain courses through his body. “I wished I didn’t feel this powerless…when these maniacs are out there after our children.”

“Spider-Man taught them everything they need to know, Tiger. It was what got them through last night. As we said long ago, we don’t need Spider-Man for you to be the father they need.”

“Is that why they’re going away then!” It was a sudden outburst, not at M.J. but at himself. It was supposed to be a thought, but the lingering painful sensation and his powerlessness in the face of evil last night turned this thought into words—words that Janine heard loud and clear.

Her eyes wide with shock, she whispered, “Your powers…are fading?”

M.J. sighed, tenderly brushing her thumb against Peter’s cheek. Peter doesn’t linger on his slipup; it was something they had to share one day. He nods to M.J., who proceeds to turn to Janine. “They are. They have been for nearly two years.”

“Two…years?!”

“Right after we finished training the girls,” Peter muttered, “but even before that, my powers would fluctuate sometimes, especially when I was deeply stressed or in a bad place.”

Janine’s thoughts were racing from the radical new information. Sure, Peter had hung up the mantle for over a decade, but she had never thought it had something like this would ever happen. “But I don’t get it. Ben’s stronger than ever. Sure, a bit slower on the swinging, and he has bad days, but never once did his power fade.”

“We know,” Peter said. “It made us realize it’s not a viral attack or something to distort our genetic structures. It’s just me.”

Janine couldn’t believe it. This family was open about everything except for this. Then again, Janine hid secrets her whole life up until she met Ben. She knew the pain of feeling like you’re compelled to bear the weight of a pain even if you want to scream about it. “So those wounds of yours… could’ve killed you?”

“Not all my powers are gone,” Peter clarified.

“His spider-sense is still working,” M.J. said, “slower but working. His stamina and strength too, but he lost wall-crawling entirely, and his durability nearly is too.”

“Now it hurts even to sit up like this.” Peter’s hand quivers as he raises it. His eyes squint when his wife’s face turns blurry. The tingling, his sixth sense, was barely tangible. The one time it was gone entirely, he didn’t know how to describe it, but it was like having a phantom limb. “I don't know how much longer I'll have them. Perhaps two years...or two months? Either way, Spider-Man will vanish...maybe for good.”

Seeing the distant look in his eye, Mary Jane embraces him but not too tightly, not wanting to hurt him.

“God…Pete, MJ, I’m sorry you’re going through this. When are you planning to tell the girls?”

The couple share a look of hesitation. M.J. spoke, “well…”

“Wait,” Peter interrupted when his spider-sense goes off. “The girls are here?”

“Ben must’ve brought them,” Janine said. Hearing footsteps outside, she sat down. “Act normal,” she said. “Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me. Just know the girls deserve to know.”

The two consider Janine’s words when Ben and the trio, don their civilian clothes, burst into the room.

“Mom! Dad!” the sister cheered, running up and embracing thier parents.

“Your timing’s impeccable as always, Ben,” Janine complimented. 

“Well, you know how eager I am with reunions.” Ben smiled, but it waned slightly when he noticed a slight nervousness in Janine’s eyes. “Was everything okay on your front?”

“Yes,” she whispered. Suddenly, her phone began to ring. She takes Ben’s hand and pulls him to the hallway. “Ben, M.J., and Pete told me something important, but I can’t share it until they’re okay with it.”

“Oh,” Ben whispered, glancing at Peter through the glass. “Well, I guess it isn’t something urgent, yeah?”

“Not exactly, but it is sensitive information.”

“Right, okay.”

The ringing continued, and Janine hovered her hand over the answer button. “I’m letting you know because you’re my husband, so we can coordinate on not worrying others, especially thier daughters. Pete will tell you in due time.”

“Wait, what’s there to worry about?” Ben paused and thought of what Janine told him. “You know what? You’re right.” He gestures to the family, “If it’s this sensitive to them, I will respect it and wait. Thanks for letting me know, Janine.”

“Of course, Ben,” Janine smiled. They kiss before she answers the call, walking somewhere quieter. 

Back inside, the Parker family quickly caught up with outside developments and how each of them was doing. 

“Yeah, we’ve been hearing both ridicule and praise all morning,” Mayday said. 

“The important part is no one is dead. You three know how great you did out there, but stay on your toes with this Syndicate. They made it clear how dangerous they can be.”

“I just wish this wasn’t still affecting you. Even now, we see people in the lobby, businessmen types. I’m guessing they’re waiting for Dad?”

“I’ve mostly been trying to ignore them,” M.J. groaned, “but we can’t avoid them forever. They’re here to discuss insurance, liability, and damages we must pay.”

Few things scared the sisters, and money problems were one of them. “What, why?! It’s the Syndicate’s fault, wasn’t it?” Annie exclaimed, tensed and worried. “Are we gonna be okay?”

“Chill, Annie,” April said, pulling her sister back. “But she’s right, it’s bull we have to pay for anything. Those jerks are the ones who vaporized a building.”

“You’d be right, April,” Peter said. “Our supervillain insurance would cover practically everything if not for the fact they used my tech against us and the whole city block.”

“And since the city didn’t update the old clause,” M.J. added, “that would technically make your father’s work liable for damages, partially at least.”

“That’s ridiculous!”

“It’s still the law, Annie,” M.J. said calmly.

“Doesn’t mean it’s right!” 

While Annie freaked out about this, Mayday couldn’t shake the memories of Doc Ock. Every word she uttered was filled with pure spite: To her, her father, and her whole family. Carolyn and the Syndicate’s actions were already hurting her family in more ways than one. And it’ll only continue so long as they’re out there. Even though she wanted to scream like Annie at this unfairness, she was the eldest sister. She can’t act like that now; she has to be stronger from now on.

“This could affect our home,” Annie continued until she and May noticed April standing up and storming towards the door.

“Hey,” May called out, grabbing April’s hand, “and where are you going?”

“To tell these suits to leave us the hell alone, that’s what!”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“At least I’m not just staring at the floor like you were.”

“You know we can’t punch our way out of this.”

“Then what should we do? Stand by, and these leeches squeeze our family dry? We aren’t rich; this could seriously make us homeless.”

“Quiet! All of you!” M.J.’s tone may not have been that loud, but she was firm enough to get the sisters to stop and sit back down. Both Peter and M.J. sighed, frustrated but ready to face the problem. M.J. spoke, “Annie, April, I know you’re both scared, but your father and I will handle this. I faced similar leeches for years in Hollywood. I know how to talk to these kinds of people.”

“Oh yeah, she can,” Peter smirks, trying to bring some levity to the room.

“But what about Dad’s work?” April asked.

“Yeah, that building was the only one he had, and it was a rental,” Annie added. “Where’s everyone supposed to continue their research?”

“It’ll be hard,” Peter admits, “but I’ll try my best to help my people continue to help others. I refuse to let any of them go jobless because of me.” The one thing he doesn’t share is the possibility that some, if not most, have already decided to quit. He couldn’t blame them if they did, but it would further doom the organization. Man, he did not feel like filling out those chapter seven forms.

“It’s okay to worry, but I want you three to stay focused,” M.J. said, holding Peter’s hand. “You already have enough baggage to deal with yourselves. Let us deal with ours, and we’ll figure something out together.”

The sisters, in their ways, still felt worried about all this. But once their parents were committed to a plan, they followed it. Besides, they had faced financial hardship before; if anyone knew how to solve money problems, it was them. 

“Okay, mom, dad. I’ll try to stay focused,” Annie murmured.

“This is still stupid...but fine,” April spat.

“I’ll go back to the Bugle soon, then,” May said. " Perhaps some photos of the Syndicate will convince J.J. to give me an early bonus.”

Janine and Ben suddenly re-enter the room. “Sorry if I’m cutting this short,” Janine said, holding up her phone, “but the captured Syndicate member wants to talk to Spider-Girl.”

“Why me?"

“She didn’t say,” Ben said.

May reached into her bag for her mask and donned it. “Then it’s time for me to go.”

“She’s hold up in Ravencroft. Follow my car,” Janine said before walking out of the room.

Mayday was already wearing her web-shooters. She decides to change once she gets there before opening the window. 

“May,” Annie called out, “take this. She might recognize what it is.” Her sister hands her the broken Eve mask in her pouch.

“I’ll be back.”

“If we find anything on our patrol, we’ll let you know,” Ben said.

“It sounds like we each have our plans today,” Peter said. " Let’s meet back at our house. I think pizza will help cool off everyone’s nerves.”

“I'm Looking forward to it, Dad,” Mayday smiled as she swung away. Just as Mayday saw Janine take off to Ravencroft, she waved goodbye to Ben, April, and Annie as they swung to their patrol route.

“Good luck, Spider-Girls! Spider-Man!” M.J. shouts out the window, her husband leaning beside her.

“So...” he said,” to get wishful thinking out of the way, is there any chance the grant committee would be open for another talk?” M.J. sweetly smiles before shaking her head. “Yeah, didn’t think so.”

Part 3: The Patient

Mayday would be lying if she said she said she’s not bummed out. Patrolling with her uncle was always great, but following their most significant lead was more critical. ‘She’s acting pretty odd, but she’s still a sick villain who attacked my family,’ she thought. A resentment grows in her heart at the mere thought of Eve’s cackle. Laughter and mania that was disturbingly similar to one of her father’s greatest foes. ‘Hopefully, through her, we can get vital info on exactly who these people are, their operations, everything.’

Spider-Girl followed Janine’s car as they crossed the Bronx and into Westchester County. Just beyond the county line, Janine worked at the famed facility. Dr. Ashley Kafka, a fifty-five-year-old African American woman and renowned psychologist, was the boss waiting for her. Beyond the main freeways and into the small patch of woodlands was a gothic-styled building: Ravencroft Institute. Merely describing the atmosphere such a place held would give anyone the creeps. After a quick change in the woods, Spider-Girl swung down to where Janine met Kafka at the main entrance.

“What’s the situation, Doc?”

“Spider-Girl, you made it. It’s best if I show you myself,” Ashley Kafka said.

The three roam together in a dimly lit hall through one of the oldest sections of Ravencroft. Compared to the renovated areas, the cobwebs and cracks on the walls further highlighted how ancient this place felt to Spider-Girl. They cut across Infirmary Ward Z, where some of the most ‘difficult’ patients would be housed for their safety. During her father’s time, they would call the people here utterly insane.

Spider-Girl kept her focus on the doctors, but upon seeing a familiar room number, morbid curiosity pushed her to peek through the thick glass window. ‘Same place as always,’ she thought as she witnessed the infamous Cletus Kassidy confined to the same heavy restraints he’d been stuck in for over a decade. His confinement partly thanks to her other uncle, Kaine Parker, the current Scarlet Spider. Since that day, Cletus’s brain has remained a vegetable, and the carnage symbiote was scorched off the face of the earth. At least, that’s what she’s been told.

Nonetheless, Cletus’s frozen, crazed smile beneath that muzzle continued to unnerve her.

“Keep up,” Janine reminds her.

Spider-Girl does, and soon they reach the holding area the newest patient is in. They stand in a room parallel to a holding room, looking through a one-way mirror. It was here that the patient, a young blonde woman, sat nervously, her head down low on the table. Confused, anxious, and muttering to herself. Spider-Girl instantly knew what Annie meant by how strange this woman was. Her facial structure and voice sounded completely different from the Hallows’ Eve she fought. “Even now, Eve’s faking it?”

“This isn’t an act,” said Kafka. “From what I and others psycho-analyzed, her mannerisms are utterly genuine.”

“But that doesn’t make sense; Eve was a crazy, laughing manic when we fought.”

“Please refrain from using that language in my facility, Spider-Girl.”

“Okay, okay.” She almost didn’t want to look at the frightened patient. The longer she did, the more her heart sympathized with this bomb-throwing supervillain. “Anything I should know about her?”

“Her name is Clare Robertson,” Kafka explained. “Residency: Empire City Occupation: waitress at a nightclub. She has a history of P.P.D., constant stress, and P.T.S.D. from years of being with an abusive boyfriend.”

“God,” Janine muttered.

Now Spider-Girl felt like a jerk. “And her criminal history, Doc?”

“Besides a speeding ticket, not a whiff. From what her previous therapist was able to share, Ms. Robertson’s personality and actions aren’t compatible with her violent participation in last night’s attack. Even an extreme case of D.I.D. wouldn’t explain such a shift.” Kafka turns to Spider-Girl, “Tell me, how precisely did she act last night?”

Recalling the manic cackling and almost sadistic glee, Spider-Girl could only describe Eve with one word: mad. Then again, none of these words correlated with the whimpering woman in the other room. Spider-Girl leaves the two doctors, twists the heavy handle, and faces the patient directly. “You wanted to see me?”

“Spider-Girl!” Clare sighed, “Oh, thank goodness. Please, tell them I don’t belong here. I’ve constantly seen online all the good you do for people; what a good person you are. Please convince them that I’m innocent!” 

“I know you are,” Spider-Girl said calmly, though subtly doubtful. “It’s why you’re here and not in some cold, lonely prison cell. People like Dr. Kafka are here to help you through difficult times like this.”

“Nonono, t-they think I’m crazy. That I’m a killer, a mask freak...erm, no offense.”

“None taken, and nobody’s saying you’re a killer, Clare.” Spider-Girl squints at Clare, tuning her spider-sense to her. It was a subtle technique, one Ben and her father taught her. It wasn’t perfect, but she could guess if someone was lying through a bit of concentration. So far, there is not even a whiff of doubt in Clare’s words, especially when she says she’s innocent: “Would it be okay to ask a few questions about last night?”

"W-w-why?"

‘Woah, she’s shivering even more now. Better be gentle,’ Spider-Girl thought. “So that I can better defend your name.” Clare anxiously bit her nails, her left leg quivering like a wet dog. “Clare,” Spider-Girl said softly, reaching out to hold Clare’s gently. “This can help you. However, I understand if it’s too soon; I’m anxious just thinking about it.”

“Really? You’re a hero; you don’t get anxious.”

“I wish that were the case, but the truth is that I nearly lost my team last night to selfish, spiteful people. I don’t show this side because I know people like you and rely on my image, which gives them courage against dangerous people.”

Clare slowly stops biting her nails, glancing at the mirror. “No one’s watching, right?”

Spider-Girl waves at the window, signaling the doctors to move to another room. “No. Trust me, it’s just us.”

Clare takes a deep breath. “Okay...all I remember from last night was explosions, screaming, and laughing. Oh, that damn laughing.”

Spider-Girl reached out her senses and yet felt nothing. ‘She’s...still telling the truth?!’ Confused, she scratched her head and asked, “Erm, you don’t remember any of your actions? I saw you flying on a broom and throwing bombs.”

“Yeah, I saw the footage, but I swear that wasn’t me. If it were, I’d remember some of it, right? But I don’t. I last remember being punched across the face by some redhead.”

‘Yeah, that was Annie’s doing. Thankfully, her punch didn’t break this woman’s jaw.’ Spider-Girl cleared her throat and continued, “Not even the name Carolyn Trainer ring any bells?”

“Not one bit.”

Spider-Girl kept her spider-sense tuned to the patient while she listened, searching for any signals that the woman was lying, but not a lick of it was a lie. Not a lie the woman knew about, at least  ‘Perhaps the mask could’ve sent a signal to her brain to wipe any memory linking her to the Syndicate?” she asked herself. ‘No, because the mask would have some whiff of tech, but it doesn’t.’ Spider-Girl takes out the broken Eve mask and shows it to Clare.

The patient proceeds to tense up. Spider-Girl asks, “You recognize this?”

“Y-yes...but also no.”

“What do you mean?”

“See, the first memory I recall clearing was going to bed. It was another long, tireless day, and I only wanted to lie under my sheets. However, whenever I closed my eyes in the dark, I kept seeing this face, its piercing yellow eyes and fire behind it. The kind of thing to keep you awake, yet I still fell asleep...as if I was compelled to...and I’ve been dreaming ever since  Until last night, the night I woke up.”

“Does the name Hallows’ Eve sound familiar to you, consciously or not?”

“No.”

“When did this memory take place?”

“June 2nd, I think,” she answered. Spider-Girl’s eyes shoot open in shock, a reflex Clare notices. “What’s wrong?”

“What’s-  Clare, how long do you think has passed?”

“A-a-a a few days, a week at most, I didn’t get a chance to check. Why was it so chilly outside for June?”

Spider-Girl clenches her fist. She had to say it; there was no easy way to. As gently as she could, she said, “Clare, it’s the first week of September.” 

The dawning realization struck her like a truck. Three months, all of summer, she was this...thing. All that time was lost in the blink of an eye. Clare trembled as she hugged herself, breathing rapidly in panic. “Oh god...nononono,” she shuddered. “M-my rent was due  M-m-my cat was home...all alone for...for...!”

Spider-Girl eased herself in to hug the poor woman. Clare clutched her arms and bawled on Spider-Girl’s shoulder. ‘Regardless of how she was set up, I now see Clare as innocent. And yet, I’ve gone in believing she was as evil as Carolyn. I saw her scared in the news, and yet still I...’ she thought. The anger in Spider-Girl’s heart had been replaced by shame.

“Spider-Girl...”

“Yes, Clare?”

“I...I don’t want to be in this room anymore... I’m going to throw up...”

“Okay, okay, I’ll take you to the nearest restroom,” Spider-Girl said gently. She escorted the woman out, pondering what kind of entity would do this to a person. Just who are these people?

Right after they left, Janine and Kafka entered the room. “I knew it,” Kafka said, “I may not agree with Spider-Girl on everything, but I trust her judgment. If she thinks she’s innocent, Clare had nothing to do with the attack. I’ll inform the police of this development after the kid leaves. Help Clare find her belongings and a good lawyer. I’ll do my best to get her all the help she needs.”

“Thank you, Ashley. Clare needs help, not a jail cell,” Janine said. She walked over to the table where the broken Eve mask lay. She picked up the eerie-looking thing, her face mirrored by its smooth, white surface. “What do you think, Ash?”

“We’re dealing with a viral infection that created a split persona in Clare. One akin to Malcolm McBride’s Carrion or Osborn’s Goblin personas. What eludes me is, so far, her blood tests show no foreign substance flowing through her system. Is the strain perhaps on a micro-cellular level?

“I know we’re women of science, Ash, but this all screams supernatural.”

“Is that what Ben and Peter think?”

“It’s the only logical choice, right?”

“I suppose. Then again, the supernatural doesn’t run on logic. Whoever or whatever this Hallows’ Eve is, she seems to run on the opposite of logic: chaos.” 

“I guess. Why do you think that is?”

Kafka shrugs, “How should I know? Magic is outside my expertise. Perhaps it's best to find yourselves a magician or something.” She proceeds to attend to other matters, leaving Janine alone.

“It wouldn’t be a bad idea,” Janine muttered, “if our local sorcerer wasn’t preoccupied at the moment.” Janine stared at the mask until its dull eyes briefly shone yellow. She gasped, dropping the mask, causing it to shatter into dust. Catching her breath, Janine sighed, “Well, that’s just great.”

Part 4: The Bar

The past day has been hectic for the Syndicate. Those blasted heroes, especially the Spider-Girls, were crawling across the city, forcing the Syndicate to rendezvous elsewhere.

The dusty, underground bar has undoubtedly seen its better days. What was once THE place for supervillains to socialize and share stories of their latest scores was now practically empty. Now, things were about to change as Beetle and Mysterio arrived at the flights of stairs.

“Here it is,” the 23-year-old Janice Lincoln coughed. Static stings her face before she finally tore off her damaged mask. Bruises and soot coated her brown face and even her dark hair needed serious untangling. “It’s so barren now I almost can’t imagine that my dad used to come here.”

“I can, though he was quite the social type like yours,” Misty Beck said. She removed her dome helmet, which now had a big hole, courtesy of Spiderling. Besides a cut on her pale brow, the twenty-two-year-old looked okay despite the past battle. “Pah,” she coughed. " Well, I do believe this could’ve gone much better.”

Janice takes a sharp breath. “Cool it, Janice. Remember you’re the leader. Ahem, Misty, let’s focus on tonight's positives with everyone. Well, everyone except Eve, who you forgot to get.”

“I told you; she was too far away, and I didn’t want to risk us being chased by those Spider-Girls once my illusion faded. The holographic tech for my new Life Model Decoys still needs work. You know how hard it is to program holograms. To make them physically tangible?”

“Misty, technical problems are between you and Carolyn. Unless you wish to share legal trouble, I can’t help you. Now, thanks to your slipup, we’re down to four members. We can’t keep the Syndicate alive like this.” Janice and Misty entered the bar to find a bartender still tending to the establishment. “Uh, hello?”

“Heya,” greeted the dark-haired woman in her thirties. She wore red-shaded sunglasses, ripped jeans, and a white collared shirt with a red tie. Tattoos riddled across her muscular arms and hands, though that latter was trickier to tell due to her black gloves.

“I...we thought this was-”

“Abandoned. Yeah, that’s what those heroes thought, too. Come on in, and don’t worry about paying. After last night, it’s on the house.”

“Ooookay, but who are you?”

“Delilah. That’s all you need to know about me. You want what your friend’s here having?”

Janice and Misty turn, her jaws dropping when they see those familiar yellow eyes again.

“Another drink, cutey,” the one and only Hallows’ Eve requested. She casually sat at the bar without even a scratch on her. “Oh, hello, girls. How does it feel to be New York’s most wanted now?” As she casually sipped her martini, Eve watched the news rerun footage on the bar’s widescreen T.V.

Misty and Janice stood flabbergasted. “But…you were—”

“Left behind? Ahaha! Nothing can get rid of me that easily.”

“How?” Misty asked, “I last saw you in the clutches of those Spider-Girls. How could you have possibly escaped?”

“Did I escape?” At first, the pair thought this was some joke, but then the rerun repeated how the heroes captured one syndicate member. They stare in astonishment at a woman named Clare, who was wearing Eve’s distinct costume last night. She looks utterly scared and confused. Misty looks back at Eve, “But…what are you?”

Eve winks with a devilish grin, “A girl gotta have her secrets, eh?”

Janice pinches her brow and sits at the bar. “You know what? Fine, I don’t care. I’m in too much pain to deal with this. Delilah, wine, now  Misty, sit. Remember, positive attitude.”

The three enjoyed their drinks and fixed their gaze on the T.V. until it suddenly began to turn static. Then, the lights were flickering, and the air cooled. “She’s here,” Eve said. With a loud bang, nineteen-year-old Francine Frye kicked open the door and released a sizzling electric discharge. Her costume was torn and burnt. Her brown, side-cut hair was smoking while her eyes were crackling with static. She stomped over to the bar and spoke bitterly, “Vodka. The whole bottle.”

Delilah casually grabs her best Vodka while Francine snacks on complimentary fries.

Eve slides over to her with a teasing smile. “So, how does it feel to be famous?”

Static shot out of Francine’s eyes as she glared at Eve. The trickster slowly slid back. Francine snatched her fresh bottle. “I’m not even fucking asking how you’re here,” she said before chugging the Vodka. “How?  We rolled in with the most incredible powers ever seen and walked out limping. Next time I see those Spider-Girls, I’m frying them till they’re ash.”

“Hey, we showed the city we meant business, didn’t we?” Janice argued. “Whatever damage we took tonight is nothing our base’s facilities can’t patch up—all for free. So, stop complaining, Ms. Frye.”

Francine stays silent. In this country, a job with free healthcare was nothing to sneeze at. “Guh, whatever. Hey, where’s the oh-so-brilliant kid doctor?”

Six metallic arms broke apart the door a second later, carrying the seventeen-year-old Carolyn Trainer inside. “Oh, come on,” Janice sighed at the broken door, “add it to my bill.”

Rather than sit at the bar, Carolyn morphed her arms into a chair to sit on and watch the widescreen closely. It appears she took the time alone to patch herself up, though her bandaged nose still looked pretty bloody. Francine walks up to her with a packet of ice, “Hey, I think you want this.” Carolyn winces in anger. She clutches her hand over a bruised rib by Wild-Spider, her right cheek still swollen from Spiderling’s flurry of punches, and her broken nose thanks to Spider-Girl. It infuriated Carolyn, and that anger caused her to give Francine the stink eye and snatch the ice out of her hands.

Francine scoffs at such juvenile behavior from someone so brilliant. “Hey Janice,” she said, “did the runt give you this attitude when you found her?”

“No, in fact, she did not.”

“Well, kid,” Francine said, “care to explain why your anti-whatever failed to kill a single spider-freak?”

“She massively slowed down the particle chain reaction,” Carolyn mumbled, “the freezing effect was accelerated by the machine’s instability, quickly reaching near absolute zero. How she did with so little time and equipment is beyond me…and nothing should be beyond me.”

“Except for Spider-Girl,” Eve mocked. " I guess you’re not the only wunderkind around the block. If I were you, I'd get used to being second best.”

In a fit of rage, Carolyn sprang a tentacle at Eve, snatching her throat and slamming her against the wall. “Just keep talking, clown. See what happens!”

Janice and Misty spring up to stop them. “Nuh uh uh,” Eve warned as she pulled out a pumpkin bomb powerful enough to incinerate the whole bar. Everyone froze; even Carolyn was taken aback. “Let’s not get boom-y now. Doc.”

“That’s enough. Let her go, Carolyn,” Janice yelled.

Carolyn did and spotted Eve’s shoes in disdain. “You’re a lunatic.”

“Takes one to know one,” Eve retorted, smoothly going back to drinking her martini like nothing happened.

“Shut it, Eve,” Misty groaned.

“Carolyn, drink this water and cool off,” Janice ordered. A disgruntled Carolyn took a seat, her nanite tentacles shrinking and disappearing underneath her torn trench coat. Janice handed the Doc water and whispered, “I recruited a genius, not a brat, did I not?”

“Yes.”

“Then act like a scientist, and don’t pick fights that are not worth your time. Please don’t make my job of keeping this Syndicate together harder than needed. Got it?”

Carolyn smiled and raised her water, “Of course, I wouldn’t be here without you. It’s the least I can do.” Janice accepted the answer and hopped over the bar to face the Syndicate.

“So, what now?” Francine asks.

“Now, we seize on this opportunity,” Janice declared, “We build off the foundation we made and begin the first phase of assimilating this city’s underworld to our Syndicate. Slash and burn the land, you know. Then regrow it and reclaim it as ours.”

“Raising hell sounds fun,” Francine smiled. “I'm calling dibs on plastering my face on every screen of Empire City.”

“Oooh, I call dibs on Times Square. Just imagine me on Broadway; I could put on a show that is to die for.”

“Baby steps, ladies, but I like the enthusiasm.”

“Where do the Spider-Girls fit into this plan?” Carolyn asks.

“For now, we focus on establishing a stronghold across New York  From Queens and Manhattan to Staten Island and Empire City.”

“I agree, we made our point,” Misty said. “I think my late father would’ve praised what we did tonight. Far as I care, I’m satisfied with revenge—”

Doc Ock’s fist angrily punches through the wooden bar. “Well, I’m not!”

“Carolyn,” Janice spoke as if scolding a small child. “See it this way. Wouldn’t building a stronger syndicate bolster your odds of thwarting the Spider-Girls?”

“Yes,” Carolyn muttered.

“We’ll have those heroes spread thin,” Janice vowed. “Alone, we can’t stand against them. Together, they can’t stand against us. After exterminating those spiders, the Parkers will be left wide open for you to do whatever you want, like locating your elusive Spider-Man.”

Carolyn’s face scrunched, eager to do the deed now. However, the rational part of her knew the long con would be in her favor rather than seeking quick success. “Fine, but we can’t underestimate those Spider-Girls.”

“Of course. Last night was a close victory, but still a victory that should be celebrated. We made this city’s heroes tremble for the first time in years, no, decades!”

“Hear, hear!” the Syndicate chanted.

“We’ll be facing many enemies, both heroes and rival villains, but if we can give the Spider-Girls a run for their money, we can beat anybody.”

“I’ll raise a cup to that,” Francine said, “kicking ass and scoring big cash. I’m ready anytime!”

“To last night’s victory and the many more to come.”

“Cheers!”

After they all take a big swig, Janice slams down her glass with a wide grin. “Now, ladies, it’s time to make it big in this city.”

Part 5: The Promise

Nothing. Nada. Zip.

Despite Cindy's, Miles's, Ms. Marvel’s, and other available champions’ help, they found no further leads on this Syndicate. None of the crooks they busted today knew anything about them. Mayday, of course, has taken the liberty to keep scouring while Annie and April rest at home. It’s been nearly an hour since she left, and the sisters have only now welcomed their parents back. Both were exhausted from dealing with public and private matters. The sisters wouldn’t be surprised if their parents were already asleep despite it barely being evening. 

“I can’t believe we’re stuck on square one on this,” Annie sighed as she paced back and forth across the living room. She had had little to do since Mayday left. She usually tries to distract herself with a gadget on her workbench, but the Syndicate can’t leave her mind. 

“Welp... whatcha gonna do?” April shrugged as she lay on the couch. 

“This doesn’t bother you?”

“Course it does. I want nothing more than to beat them up, but if we got nothing, we got nothing. Just wait; we’ll run into these jerks sooner or later.”

“I like to do so with a plan,” Annie asserted.

“Sometimes we aren’t afforded a plan, Annie. We only need to be ready for anything, especially out on the field.”

“But they’re not just after the Spider-Girls. They want our family dead, April!” Annie shouted, frantic, “T-they could attack when we’re gone or...” April stops her upon grabbing her shoulder and shaking her.

“If they did, they would’ve attacked the hospital or laid siege to our home right now. But they’re not, so chill out!” April’s outburst snapped Annie out of her small panic. She stepped back and continued, “I get it. This job wasn’t this scary before, but don’t let it get to you.”

“Okay...” Annie said. She took a breath and sat beside her sister. “You’re right... Let’s just be glad we’re home. I wish Mom and Dad weren’t so burnt out.” She hugs her knees, looking to the side, asking, “You think Dad’s work will stay afloat?”

“I don’t know,” April sighed.

A light ring echoes across the room; someone is at the door. April gets it and immediately smells the pizza outside. “Pizza time,” Ben smiled, carrying several pizza boxes for the whole family. Beside him was Janine, still in her work clothes. Behind them were thier only son and the sister’s favorite cousin.

“Hey, Annie! Little Richie is here!” 

The boy was but a week younger than Annie. He had his mother’s short, orange hair and his father’s blue eyes. He wore what he typically dons: a red hoodie with a fabulous pair of black jeans. His expression was also what he normally had when he heard that old nickname: annoyed. “How long are you three gonna keep calling me that?”

April wraps her arm around his neck with a cheeking grin, “Who knows? Maybe when you grow up, we’ll change it to something better like...big rich!”

“Doesn’t sound better.” The family lets themselves in, with Annie and April taking the time to give a welcome. “Ugh. “Hey, Annie. How’s Midtown treating you?” He asked while giving her a quick hug.

“Well, I nearly got in a fight. So, you know, pretty good. How’s Visions Acadamy?”

“It’s so normal that I almost wished I got in a fight so that it spices things up, at least. Still, my first day was pretty cool until I heard about, erm, you know.”

“Yeah...” Annie mumbled, brushing the side of her hair. She thought that night would stay with her for a long while. Still, there was no reason to worry Richard. Besides, they must keep the natural order of things by being the tough, cool older cousins they are. “Well, we showed them not to mess with up! Did you see how quickly they hightailed it after we smacked them around?”

“From what the news captured, you three did look pretty badass.”

“Hell yeah, we were,” April said, already munching on a pizza slice. “And thier will be plenty more of it if they even think of messing with our family again.”

“Glad to see you in brighter moods,” Janine said, standing in the kitchen with Ben and April. “Where’s your parents?”

“In thier room. Came home tired.”

“And Mayday?” Ben asks.

“Out on the field,” Annie answered.

“Still? I thought I told her to return with you two after we combed the city?”

“She promised to return soon, but that was over an hour ago.”

Ben sighs, “always the most persistent.”

“Tell me about it,” April said as she finished her slice.

“What about Mayday?” Peter yawned as he and Mary Jane entered the room. Their hair was ruffled, and their clothes wrinkled after a much-needed nap.

“She still out as Spider-Girl even though I told her to return,” Ben reiterated.

“She’s just committed, Ben,” Janine defended. “After meeting the patient, Mayday hadn’t said a thing, but I could see she was angry." 

“Yeah, she called us about that update,” Peter said. “First the attack, and now stealing three months of a woman’s life? I always warned her what evil is capable of, but she has never seen it with her own eyes until now. “

“How are you feeling, April, Annie?” M.J. asks.

“Better,” Annie answered. “It got pretty intense at points, but I’ll live.”

“I’m fine,” April spoke, “wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle.”

“Good. That’s good. I worry sometimes. If Mayday knows when to take a breath with these things.” 

Right on cue, April, Ben, Annie, and Peter’s spider senses go off. It is not an alert but a notification. “She back,” Ben said.

“But not through the main door,” Peter notes.

“She’s on the roof,” April sighed. She takes one of the boxes before grabbing Annie. “Come on.”

While everyone else chows down on their pizzas, April and Annie go out the back and wallcrawl to the roof. As expected, Mayday sat there, her mask still on and her head on her knees. Her sisters sit beside her, eating thier slices.

“Here,” April said, handing Mayday her pizza. When she didn’t take it, April began waving it. Thank you, April,” she impersonated. "Now it’s your cue to take the plate.”

“Mayday, what’s wrong?”

Mayday pinches her brow, sighing in frustration. “That glare she gave me,” she whispered.

“Who’s?” Annie asked.

“Carolyn’s...I saw that glare even in my dream. Fire all around me, your bodies burning within them reflected off those green eyes. She’s never going to stop. And I couldn’t stop thinking about it all day."

“That’s why you’ve been tense,” said April.

“I should’ve seen it earlier,” Mayday said, frustrated. She walks off, nearly stomping her foot into the roof tiling. “I mean, it was obvious. Their drones attacked us, and I held Carolyn’s nanites in my hands. As a leader, I should’ve seen the writing on the wall. If I had been more proactive and contacted the others, maybe Dad’s work wouldn’t have been destroyed. Maybe all those people wouldn’t have been hurt, and half the city wouldn’t be criticizing our name right now.”

“Maybe...but we didn’t,” said April, a tinge of shame in her voice. She saw a bit of it in Annie, but May? May looked as if she had a truck of shame on her shoulder. Responsibility. What an unforgiving thing. Especially to people who uphold it, like May. April stands, facing her twin, “Hey, it’s over. Move on, be done with it. You do nobody any good sulking up here. And I know how it feels, letting the past get to you and mess with your head. So toughen up and focus on the now, sis.”

With every word April said, Mayday straightened up, that previously weight feeling lighter. She nods, “You’re right...”

“Wow, you two agree on something. How rare,” Annie commented.

“Hey,” said April.

“April, Annie, “said Mayday, now facing her sisters. “We’ve been fighting crime and saving lives for almost two years. I’m proud of those times and you of two, but now we must change gears. We're up against at least four people out there who want us dead and to make this city their own, regardless of how many people they hurt. And when there’s even one of these guys, more will be coming, each stronger than the last. We can’t let them overwhelm us again. To endanger innocent lives again.”

April and Annie’s ears are fixated on Mayday’s words of conviction. “We won’t,” said Annie. “We’ve beaten them once; we can do that again.”

“I know, but to do so, we must treat the past two years as training. Now, we get ready for the next level. Ready for more intense battles, more lives to save, more hazards to stop, and more plans we put a stop to.” Mayday grabbed and took off her mask, looking at her sister with blue and green eyes. “It’ll only be tougher from here, but we can...no, we must succeed for the sake of innocents, our friends and family. From now on, I promise I’ll be there for you two anytime. Mask or no mask.”

Annie smiled warmly, reminded again why she trusted Mayday’s leadership and looked up to her. April, unsurprisingly, claps loudly. "Wow. I think even Lincoln would be jealous of your speeches.” It was sarcastic, sure, but one not of mockery but of respect. Mayday may not have consistently earned it, but when she did, April would follow her into battle anytime.

“Seriously, Mayday, that was very nice,” Annie complimented.

Mayday shyly smiles at the kind words. She looks down at her mask, a symbol to many and a legacy to her—a legacy of responsibility and great expectations. She holds out her hand, clenching the mask. “So...”

“So...? “

Mayday breathes, “You two feel ready to take this new responsibility?”

“Did you even need to ask?” Annie reached into her bag, pulling out her red domino mask. She places her mask and hand on top of Mayday’s. “The future’s scarier than ever, and I may still be just Spiderling..., but I’d face it rather than run from it. Who knows? Maybe when this ends, I’ll be heroes like you two!”

They look to April, and the teen rolls her eyes. “Uh, duh!” And like that, she morphs her mask into her hand and plops her hand on top of her sisters. However, April thought, ‘Maybe if people see what monsters look like, I can finally prove to people I’m not one of them...’

Mayday smiles gently, “Thank you." Mayday knows she can always rely on her sister no matter what happens next. “Hey," she said, grabbing thier shoulders, "I love you guys.”

“Aww!" Annie smiled, pulling herself in for a hug. "I love you too!”

April rolled her eyes before being pulled into the group hug. “Yeah, yeah, I love you morons too."

After savoring the warm embrace, Mayday pulls back and plops down on the roof. “Okay, I feel better," she said, content. "Hand my slice.”

“Oops, sorry, I finished it.”

“What?! April!”

“Not my fault you’re a slowpoke."

“And that’s why we bring a spare box,” Annie chuckled, whipping out another pizza box.

On the front porch, M.J. and Peter look on, having heard most of thier daughter's conversation. Their problems washed away at that moment at the sound of their daughter's conviction and resilience. She snuggles up to her husband, asking, “Still not sure if they’ll be okay out there?”

Peter chuckled and heard their daughters share a laugh, too. Nothing sounded so wonderful than thier laughter. “Naw. I trust they know what to do.”

And so, two loving parents proudly look to thier daughters above. As the crescent moon casts itself high into the night sky, the sisters look out to the world that’ll forever remind their family that great power must also come with great responsibility! Will they be perfect for their renewed purpose? No, they probably never will. However, that’s okay because these teens will always be eager to face their destinies.

Look out, evil-doers, because this world is a Spider-Girls world! 

A/N: That's right, readers, this isn't the end! Trying to keep things up while leaving open avenues for future conflicts and story arcs was tough. I wanted to include more hints for future arcs, but I didn't want this 'final' chapter to feel meandering. I will share one character I have plans with: Andrea Benton.

I loved writing the Parker family, from the sisters to Ben's family. Janine, Ben, and their son Richard were especially surprisingly fun to write this chapter. Mayday, too, was incredibly cool here. It was fitting to end mainly on her POV since that was where we began this story. Anyway, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all! I hope you enjoyed this opening arc and my love letter to these characters.

Stay tuned to the eventual return of the Marvelous Spider-Girls! 

Chapter Text

As far as I can remember, all I wanted was a place to belong…

Does someone ever honestly remember their first vivid memory? For a long time, April thought she did.

[12 years ago | Winter 2001]

Five-year-old April clenched the fabric of that hospital bed, waking up to an awful headache pounding her skull. She tugged at the bandages wrapped around her curly black hair as she opened her eyes that fateful day. While the rest of that day wasn’t so vivid afterward, April would never forget the pure nostalgia she felt in that hospital room. She often ignored the men and women in white coats who asked her questions because she couldn’t shake the familiarity of those walls. It felt as if she was reliving another life that wasn’t hers, yet it was.

Like all things, that feeling would fade in due time. Soon after, many tall, looming people dressed in white would enter in and out of her room. Men in blue with gold on their chests and weapons on their buckles would sometimes enter. She never felt comfortable with them around. So many faces went by her that they all blurred together, each looking annoyed. The feeling was mutual, as they asked many stupid, annoying questions. It was annoying because she had no memories of her life before waking up, and they thought repeating the same questions would miraculously make her remember.

For days, over and over, it was nothing but:

“What’s your name?”

“Where’s your parents?”

“Where did you come from?”

“Where’s your parents, kid?!”

“How’d you get that bump on your head?”

“Where’s your dang parents, kid?!”

Then, one day, one of those men in white came in with the biggest needle she’d ever seen. “Blood…test…” she foggily remembered him saying. Whatever else he said was forgotten the second that needle was aimed at her arm. She didn’t understand why, but the needle inflicted some primal fear that if she didn’t act, then she’d be hurt or worse. She swatted it away, making it shatter into tiny pieces. She didn’t know how, but the thin glass of the needle must’ve cut the man’s hand because she saw blood and heard the man’s screams. After that, she believed she made those people angry because soon after, they seemingly had discarded her on the front steps of some plain, grey building.

A sign on top of it said: N.Y.C. Foster Care.

She didn’t know it then, but this place was her new home and would be for many weeks. Nothing around her made sense at the time. One day, she was at this clinical facility; the next, adults handed her spare clothes and told her to sleep in a bed away from other children. She didn’t understand it then, but she felt like something precious was missing the first night there. Feeling a hole left in her heart, she started to cry.

Forming a routine in such a place was easy, but it didn’t make it easier being there. Their rooms were often musky and hot, the bathrooms were run down, and the playground was barely big enough for them. Everything there felt gross! The only things that kept her attention were the toys she loved to break and these colorful-looking books. She didn’t care much about the words, but the pictures of superheroes and villains clashing were exciting. Sadly, whenever she tried imitating these poses, the kids pointed and laughed while the adults said she had a ‘violence problem.’ Each day, people dared to call her a problem child for complaining, yelling, throwing her fists, etc. Maybe she did it to feel seen by others. Either way, it scares away every kid around her and has every adult call her odd.

Odd. That must’ve been the adults’ favorite word since they quickly stapled it onto her. Especially the times she was called up and presented to random adults. Sometimes, they gave a fake smile; most of the time, they just looked annoyed.

“What an odd child…”

“Her…odd qualities are not what we’re looking for…”

“We don’t want our kids near her, what with her…odd behavior…”

The adults working there either looked sad for her or annoyed. Either way, they did little to help her with the other kids. Instead of ‘odd,’ the kids were much more straightforward and colorful with their language. Little freak, no-name, scary, you name it, and she probably heard it. That’s how life was for the first month, and whereas before she cried in her sleep, now a cold apathy filled her sleepy eyes.

What was the point of trying if everything was either scary to her or scared of her? She was five years old, and even the dark was scary…until the night the white spider came. She was under her bed covers, illuminated by the moonlight when she heard loud thumps around the walls and a white spider crawl by. For some reason, she was the only one who saw him. The only one to hear his snarls. All everyone saw was claw marks outside. The adults said he was fake; the kids feared the spider, but she saw the spider was her friend.

However, he only showed up a few times, and they have yet to talk. But he never annoyed, talked down to, or even scared her. He even helped her. One time, one of the adults yelled at her and threw her into a closet until bedtime.

That same night, the white spider visited this adult, waking everyone up with the adult’s cries of terror. He was found a blubbering, nervous wreck tied up in white webbing. For many, the spider strikes fear, but for her, it gives her courage. One day, she proudly proclaimed, ‘If any kid is scared of me again, it’s because I want them to be!’

However, there was also something familiar about the spider.

Around that same time, even her dreams became more pleasant. She no longer felt alone; now, she felt safe with a lady with beautiful red hair and emerald eyes hugging her while a brown-haired man looked so proud of her. She didn’t recall their names, which did little to help the adults find them, but she knew, deep down, that these people were the precious thing she was missing.

Then, three months to the day she woke up with no memories, she was called up for the last time.

“Child,” the adult said, “we’d like you to meet Mr. and Mrs. Parker.”

It was like a dream come true. Mary Jane and Peter stared in surprise at her while she stared in shock; they were real. Then, watching those bright red locks shine against the morning sunlight, something clicked in the small girl’s mind, and it all came flooding back to her. Those hospital walls were so familiar because they reminded her of the room she was born in. She dreamt of a woman with red hair because those were the same locks that brushed her tiny nose moments after birth, her mother’s hair! And that look of pride from the man beside her was her father!

Her small hand grasps M.J.’s red hair, causing her emerald eyes to tear up.

“M.J.,” said Peter in awe of the sight, “is it true? Is she really…?”

The child began to tear up soon after, leaping into M.J.’s arms. After three long months, she finally knew what a loving hug was like. “Mommy…daddy…!” she sobbed. Indeed, those three months did a number on the young girl because soon after, she was practically about to pass out from exhaustion. She heard her parents talk to the staff quickly before walking back to the car with her. As she closed her eyes, a larger black and white figure watched over them from the roof. ‘Fri…end…?’ the girl thought before falling asleep in her mother’s embrace.

After reawakening in a high-tech-looking medical room, she clung to M.J. She instinctively trusted her. She was slightly more ambivalent to Peter, especially toward the doctor who tended to her, Curt Conners. After M.J. got her some comfy, dark blue clothes, she was told she’d undergo some quick tests. At first, the tests were simple and went well since M.J. reassured her the whole way. It felt natural to Mrs. Parker, sure. After all, they already had two daughters, but caring for this child was as if she were caring for Mayday.

Things got messy when Curt tried to take blood samples and X-ray tests. It scared the child, causing her to thrash and cry, and made it all the worse when a car alarm outside made her shut her ears as if it hurt her. Only M.J. was someone she trusted enough to go through the blood test. Both Peter and Curt quickly got the results, confusing them even further. Reluctantly, she was left alone in the children’s playroom while M.J. talked to Peter and Curt in the room next door.

The child lay on that soft carpet, a sense of loneliness returning as none of the toys interested her. She caught the muffled sounds of the adults' conversation in the deafening silence. She barely caught glimpses of what they were saying.

“I don’t know what she is,” Curt’s muffled voice echoed. “Everything says she’s yours.”

“...you saying...?” Peter’s said.

“My god, he was right...” M.J. gasped.

“...concerned...could be...” said Curt.

“What, dangerous? How could you, Curt?!” M.J.’s yelled.

“No! Of course not, it’s just…”

Her husband agreed. “...only a kid...our kid!”

“...sorry... only worried because… she’s not normal.”

‘Not...normal,’ the child thought. She heard similar words for months, yet even now, they make her feel like the tiniest, insignificant being on earth. A sorrowful look fills her eyes, imagining her mother leaving this room without looking at her. ‘Why would she... I’m odd, a freak, not normal...’ It felt like hours had passed for her, agonizingly waiting for what would come next. Where will she go if they do leave her? Her mind hurts trying to remember who else could look after her. Some memories were more explicit, while others were still very blurry. She still couldn’t remember how she ended up alone in that hospital.

After a long, grueling wait, the doorknob jiggles. Afraid, she curls up into a ball and shuts her eyes, unable to bear the sight of her parents leaving. “Are you sure?” Curt asked.

“I have never been more sure in my life, Curt,” M.J. said without a single doubt in her voice.

“Trust us, we’ve thought about it long and hard. This is the only answer for her and the only responsible thing to do,” Peter said.

Curt glanced at the lonely child before nodding. “...okay, I trust you’re doing the right thing here.”

The child flinches when M.J. kneels beside her, brushing her hand on her curly black hair. She hated goodbyes. She hated them with passion. Now, her mother sounded ready to say goodbye, maybe forever. ‘Why?!’ she thought, ‘I...I thought she’d love me! They all hate me for not being-’

“Let’s go home...April,” M.J. said in such a comforting tone. 

She gasps, tears welling up from her mother’s words. “A-April?” she muttered. Something about that felt so…right. Yes, she was April!

M.J. nods, “It’s your name after the month we found you.”

“F-found?”

M.J. smiled as she picked April up, untangling bits of her messy hair. “Yes, April. We...we were separated after you were born. For so long, I thought you were gone forever...until today.” April didn’t quite understand. Her memory was still blurry. And yet, the sincere look in her mother’s eyes was enough for April to believe her. Hoo-boy, did she quickly grow to love the sound of that name!

“We’re so sorry, April,” Peter said as he kneeled beside her. "But all that matters is that you’re safe now, away from bad people. We want to do our best to give you a better life from now on—a real life.” 

April couldn’t hold back the tears from those words and clung to her parents. She was going home, a real home! A place where it’s just her and her parents. Something about that instilled pure joy in her. She wouldn’t let go as they began the drive back home. She would only start to calm down when her new home appeared in the distance. Sitting on her mother’s lap on that sunny day, stopping in front of that colorful house, April smiled for the first time.

“We’re home. Your home,” M.J. said—words of pure bliss to April’s ears. However, as she stepped outside, her parents stopped her and grabbed her attention. “April, listen to us. You’re not our only child.”

“Eh?” April tilts her head in confusion.

“Two girls are inside. They’re our daughters.”

April’s eyes widen with shock, then fear. “Wha-? N-no! I’m your daughter! Me!”

“Yes, you are, and you’ll always be from now till forever,” M.J. reassured. “But these girls are our daughters too, and your sisters.”

“S-sisters?” April mumbled nervously.

“Yes, and they’re the sweetest sisters you could ask for, April. We promise you that.”

April didn’t know how to feel. Her memories only showed herself; there was only one baby that day, and she knew it. She didn’t know there would be other kids. Were they going to hate her secretly? Try to kick her out? Take all the affection for themselves? Every thought April had was worse than the last, frightening her further. In response to such thoughts, April clung to and hid behind her mother’s leg.

“It’s okay to be shy, but you don’t need to be afraid. They’re your sisters, April,” M.J. said calmly. "They would never be scared of you.” April nervously walked behind her parents as they approached the tall door. The oak door creaked open, and the children’s laughter echoed inside. This should have brought her comfort and ease, but she only felt more alone.

“Mayday!” Peter called.

“Annie! We’re home,” M.J. said. “Would you come here, please? It’s important.” 

April cowers upon hearing tiny footsteps running towards them. Then, a voice like hers spoke. This girl was so energized she jumped with joy, “What is it, Mommy? Oh, is it something super-duper cool!” 

“Oh, I know! Surprise family fun day!” spoke another girl, her voice different, younger. 

“Mayday. Annie. I’m glad to see you both excited. Now, please listen carefully,” Peter said. He kneeled at their eye level, and something about the seriousness in his expression caused Mayday to slow down and look more attentive, eager to listen to her father. Annie was still excited, so Mayday calmed her by holding her hand. “We...” Peter said with a bit of hesitation about how he should say this. “Your mother and I never told you this because we wanted to wait until you were older. However, something came up after someone…. Look, Mayday, unlike Annie, the day you were born wasn’t so peaceful. A bad guy wanted to hurt us, to hurt you...by trying to take you away."

April flinched at Annie’s scared, “What?” She could practically hear the girl clinging to May’s arm. As if letting go would cause her elder sister to vanish. In contrast, Mayday remained attentive. Any child would feel afraid hearing this, but not Mayday, for she wasn’t so easily frightened.

Peter sighed, clenching his hair as he shut his eyes momentarily. He was conflicted about what to say next. “And…instead, this bad guy took...your sister instead.”

April froze at the mention of her. ‘A bad guy...stole me?’

“But...Annie wasn’t born, Daddy,” Mayday reasoned.

Both parents knew there was no better way of announcing this than to show them. M.J. lends a helping hand to April, quietly encouraging her to step forward. April stares at her tiny feet as she scoots forward inch by inch until she stands before her mother. Mary Jane announces, “Mayday, Annie...say hello to your long-lost sister, April Parker.”

April nervously clenched her blue shirt, her eyes glued to the carpet. Her parents encourage her to look up. April did and looked at her sisters faces.

Witnessing them, April’s heart turned cold with jealousy.

They looked much cleaner, cuter, and brighter, especially Mayday. ‘They don’t need to do anything to prove they’re better,’ she thought. ‘In a week, they’ll kick me out for being...annoying, gross, weird.’

As the sisters stared at each other, April noticed Annie stepped behind Mayday. She was a bit scared but more confused than anything. On the other hand, Mayday was transfixed by the sight of her lost sister whose face was identical to hers. May stared at April’s shining blue eyes, subconsciously touching her own left eye. Besides their obvious differing hair colors, the only difference between them were that Mayday’s right eye was green while April’s eyes were all blue.

‘It’s like looking in a mirror,’ April thought. For a moment, April agonized in waiting for her sisters reaction. ‘Will she scream? Cry?’ April gloomfully thought.

The answer was screaming.

But these weren’t screams of terror. This was screams of joy.

“AAHHHH!” Mayday squealed, stomping her feet in excitement. “I. have. another. SISTER!!!”

April's was stunned silent in confusion.

“Annie! Annie! We have another sister! She looks just like me, only cooler looking!” 

April couldn’t believe what she's hearing. Was this girl dumb, or what? She points at herself, saying, “me? C-cool?”

“Yeah! Super cool!” Mayday grasps April’s hands and shook them vigorously in joy, greeting April as if she were a celebrity.

And yet, April could only ponder, ‘W-why? Why aren’t they afraid?’

“The name’s May!" she proclaimed. "But call me Mayday! Oh, and this is ball of awesome here Anna-May, but everybody calls her Annie. Say hi, Annie.”

Annie twirls a lock of her long, red hair nervously before saying, "uh, h-hi," with a handwave.

“Woooow, this is the best-est day ever!” Mayday giggled. “Do you want to see my dolls? Watch a movie? Ohohoho, I can’t wait for us to play together! Oh, hey April, do you play-?” April slaps her hands out of Mayday’s grasp, reeling back as if in fear May would hurt her.

“April!” Peter gasped.

“Oh, sorry,” Mayday awkwardly said. She then rubs the back of her head, still retaining her smile. “Heh, my friends do say I can be nosy.”

“That’s because you are,” an annoyed April said, her arms crossed as she pouted.

“April,” M.J. said calmly, squatting down to April’s eye-level. “Mayday only wants to play with you. Right?”

May nods. "Yeah-huh!"

“See? Now, do you mind apologizing to Mayday for hitting her?” April shifted nervously but stubbornly kept quiet. “April...” M.J. said, a bit more insistent. “Apologize, please.”

April scrunched her face before yielding to her mother. “I’m...sor...ry,” grumbled.

“Be clear, please.”

“I’m sorry,” April expressed louder. She faced her sisters, saying while clinging her arms, “I...wanna play.”

“Yes!” Mayday said, fist-pumping and humming some victory tune.

April cringed at the sight. ‘Soooo lame!’ Suddenly, Mayday gleefully grabbed her arm and dragged her upstairs in a quick dash, with Annie not far behind. Before heading up, April saw her parents head to the kitchen, quietly whispering.

“I think her bunking with May for now will be best. Do you think the reserves will be enough, Pete?” M.J. asked.

“We’d have to plan the finer details over the next few weeks, but we should be able to build her a new room. Besides, some old friends owe me a favor.”

‘They don’t have a room for me?’ Before April could meditate on that, Mayday has already begun showing off.

“Behold! My domain!” Mayday proclaimed.

April was shocked by how big it was! The carpet was as clean and soft as a pillow. There were organized shelves and chests holding who knows how many toys and storybooks. The walls were wonderfully painted, with the mellow pinks and blues bringing a calm aura. She even had a bunk bed! Like, that just automatically makes any kid super cool.

“That was my spot,” Annie said, pointing at the top bunk, “you can have it. I have my own room now.”

Something then dawned on April. ‘Everyone has a comfy bed, a pretty room. Everyone...but me.’ Her stomach felt terrible thinking about that. Mayday briefly snapped her out of this slump by shoving dolls and action figures in her face.

“Her name is Amy, and his name is Eric,” Mayday happily explained. “He doesn’t know it, but his friend is the incredible Radio-Girl!”

“Radiogirl?”

“Upbupbup! Remember the hyphen," Mayday said. "With her legendary, awesome singing voice, she fights off bad guys and brings joy to all her adoring fans!”

“Uh-huh! And her sidekick is Super-Tech!” Annie said, showing off her own toys. “She is the cutest and smartest girl in the world. She is always making the best fighting plans for Radio-Girl.”

“Oh, you should've some of 'em, April! Annie and I made up this one story this one time, where it all started on a regular day until…!”

As her sisters went on and on about each of thier heroes and villains, she stared over at thier toys and just how many of them were themed around superheroes. How unique each one was, how colorful, how many there were. ‘I didn’t even have three,’ she thought, a bitterness creeping into her mind.

Mayday was about to finish when she saw April stare angrily at the floor. “I'm Sorry,” she said. "Did I say something?”

“It’s nothing,” April scoffed, “you just have so many toys.”

“oh, I guess. Hmm...ya want half of them?”

April jerked back at May's casual offer. “What?!”

“Woah. Don’t you like all your toys, Mayday?” Annie asked.

“Of course, but I like April more.” Mayday then marched over to one box of toys & pulled it over until it was in front April. "Here ya go! Pick as many as you want. Ooh, I suggest this one! It talks & got the cuuutest hair."

To say April was utterly baffled by this strange girl would be an understatement.

Every passing moment they spent that day was Mayday, and eventually, Annie showing her unconditional kindness.

April just didn’t understand it.

None of it!

What kids acts like this?! They really that dumb?

Then, her heart offered one answer. ‘They have to be tricking me,’ she thought. For as long as she could remember, she had her guard up; she had seen kids who tricked her into getting in trouble, or stealing something from her.

For a while, April believed that was what was happening. Mayday was probably offer up these toys only to later accuse her of stealing.

When they begun playing games on thier playstation, perhaps the reason April was losing was so Mayday could make her angry enough for her to hit her! April saw May's encouragements like "You're pretty good" as actually her being condensending.

‘This all has to be a trick…no one is this kind.’

She was ready to believe that for the rest of her days... until later that evening.

Annie was stuffed with snacks and was already in bed. Their parents served them delicious treats, which, coincidentally, were April’s and Mayday’s favorite meals. Even after a whole day of playing, Mayday acted like she could stay up all night. “Here’s your blankies,” she offered as both got ready for bed. “I made sure to pick out the softest ones I had.”

“I was gonna pick those same ones anyway,” April muttered, taking the cloth before taking over the bottom bunk.

Mayday looks on in confusion. “Erm, that bed’s mine. The top bunk is—.”

“No. I want this one, so it’s mine.”

Mayday confusion rose, but she shifted gears. She smiled and said, “Okay, but on one condition: say my name.”

“Duh. It’s May, ya doofus,” April grumbled.

“Nuh-uh,” she replied, waving her finger. “That’s what strangers call me. Say my full name.”

“Why should I, dork?”

“Because ALL my friends and family call me Mayday. Your family now, but you didn’t even say it once today.”

‘Me? Family? You…you don’t even know me!’ April thought, her anger nearly tearing her blanket as she gripped tight. ‘Don’t even give me that dumb smile.’

Mayday proceeds to give her biggest smile while poking April’s cheek. “Come oooon. I know you wanna!”

April clenched her teeth as every word from May’s mouth angered her further.

Mayday continued poking and asked, "how about it, April? You're not scared of my name, are you? Hehe, ya grumpy? What's there to be a grump over?"

Then, whether it was Mayday’s pestering or all the jealousy festering inside, April snapped. She brushed away Mayday’s hand poking her, and growled, “Get. Out. Of. My. Room.”

Mayday tilts her head, “but mom and dad said it’s our—”

“No, it’s MY room!” April roared. She sits up and screams at Mayday’s face. “That is what I'm grumpy over! It should’ve been MY room,” she yelled, “MY bed, MY toys! My life! Not YOURS!”

Where once there was joy on Mayday’s face, now there's only shock and sadness. She had faced angry kids before, but April’s outburst hurt her heart. April shook with volatile anger while fighting the urge to cry. She lies back down, facing away Mayday, practically covering herself in blankets. “It’s not fair,” she muffled, “why is everything unfair? You get everything, but I don’t.”

Mayday couldn’t move; she was stuck anxiously, clenching her oversized shirt. She was almost speechless at what she was hearing, barely able to utter, “April…?”

“It’s you who should’ve been taken, not me!”

Cruelty. Plain, cruel words leave April’s mouth. She had uttered cruel words before, but unlike before, saying them to Mayday made part of her feel a sharp pain in her chest.

Mayday was hurt, plain and simple. Her hands trembled as she clenched her shirt, her throat itching and her eyes turning red. If she was like any kid April had seen before, she started bawling her eyes out and ran crying to her parents. She is within her rights to do so after such words, but that’s what they are, in the end, words. Words come and go, but sisters don’t. Telling now would indeed cause a deep divide between them, one that could end in tragedy. At her age, Mayday may not have consciously considered such a future, but deep down, she knew she didn’t want to lose April. So, she inhaled sharply, rubbed her eyes, and marched onto April’s bed.

Fearing the worst, April was ready to start slapping and kicking May off her, but instead, she felt her sister lie beside her.

Mayday scrunched her brow, a swirling of emotions in her head. “That’s the meanest thing I ever heard,” she whispered, staring at the bunk above them. “I wanna be mad, but I can’t. I’m just sad.” She glanced over at April, still hiding beneath the blankets. Mayday turned her back, uncertainty wracking her until she found the courage to ask, “Why do you always look mad? Do you really hate me?”

“…yeah,” April grumbled.

Mayday shuts her eyes at April’s answer. “Why…?”

“Cause you wanna toss me out like everyone else. You act nice, but I’m just a stupid, odd kid to you. Another toy to play and mess with.”

Mayday, shocked, swirls around. “I would never," she refutes instantly. "You’re my sister.”

“No, I’m not,” April said bitterly, “I’m some lost kid. We’re strangers...nothing more.”

Mayday has met stubborn kids before, but April was the most stubborn. She plops back down, sighing over what to say next. Her conclusion? Keep being honest. So, Mayday gently asks, “Wanna know why I think we’re sisters? We have the same sad look in our eyes.”

As quiet as it was, Mayday heard April’s gasp before desperately attempting to maintain the wall between them. “Why would you ever be sad? You have everything.”

“Well...” Mayday sighed. "I miss my great auntie May. I wish I had known her, but she died after I was born. Dad talks about her like she was the strongest lady on earth. She's why I have my name."

April shifted her head, her ear angled towards Msy.

"I...I also really miss my great auntie Anna," Mayday whispered. "She died a few months ago. The first time I've seen someone die. The first time Mom & Dad told me what that is. Y'know, she was the sweetest lady I've ever met. She would've loved you like she did us."

April remained silent. 

"I wished people were less mean to Mommy. She’s the best-est actor in the world, but not everyone thinks so. I didn’t know acting was this hard. She says nothing’s wrong, and Daddy’s there for her, but sometimes I catch her looking so tired…and sad.”

April stirred beneath her blankets, a sharp breath signaling her distress for their mother. “A-and?” she asked.

“And…I get sad when kids look at my eye and call me ‘odd’ or a ‘freak.’”

April’s eyes were wide open in surprise. She stirred and faced Mayday to directly ask, “R-really?”

“Uh-huh. Even adults call me names, like ‘too loud’ or ‘mutie.’”

“What’s that?”

“Don’t know, but Daddy said it’s a word stupid people use,” Mayday said with a smirk.

April couldn’t help but chuckle. She stops realizing what she is doing and tries to look away, but Mayday is keen on not giving up. April asks, “Well…if we weren’t sisters, what would you do?”

“I still wanna play with you,” Mayday smiled.

“Why?”

“Cause I just wanna help,” she answered sincerely.

“Why?!”

“Cause I don’t want you going away again!” Mayday cried. “You’re home now. You’re home.”

Home. A word that so sincerely touched April when her mother uttered it, and now that same sincerity was felt from Mayday. Yet even still, half of her saw only a ruse by someone who stole her life. “S-stop lying.”

“I’m not lying,” Mayday replied calmly.

“You are, so stop—!”

She’s interrupted when Mayday hugs her, and April is utterly stunned; she can’t even move. “I don’t know why, but a part of me…felt lonely. I have Annie, Mommy, and Daddy…but someone was missing.” Mayday pulls back with that same hopeful smile. “You’re that someone. Now everything feels just right.”

That hug, those words of pure kindness, finally made her cold heart begin to melt away. Much of the frost remained, and it might never go away, but April and her sister were on the same page. Home, that singular word shattered the wall April tried so in vain to keep. In her shocked state, April whispered, “M-may…day.”

“You said my name,” Mayday said, beaming with joy. “That means we’re family for real!” Mayday couldn’t stop giggling with excitement as she hopped off the bed. “As promised, the bed is now yours. Sleep tight!”

As April saw her climb up to the bunk above, she suddenly felt cold again…lonely. “May…day,” she whispered, catching her attention. “Will, uhh, will you stay with me? Just for tonight.” Mayday happily obliged and snuggled comfortably on her side of the bunk. “Leave the light on too,” April requested, so Mayday did. April has never felt so warm, so safe, so…happy. She noticed Mayday already had her eyes closed. If she had any last words to share, now was the time. “I’m…sorry for saying something dumb.”

Mayday smiled, “Apology accepted. Goodnight, April.”

“Goodnight, Mayday,” April mumbled. That name was going to take a while to get used to. When April closed her eyes, three words whispered out of Mayday’s mouth.

“I love you.”

Never, not once in her whole life, has she heard those words. Never would she have thought they would ever be applied to her. But it did, and the first to tell them was her sister. She was tough; it shouldn’t have affected her. She still held jealousy toward Mayday, yet tears began pouring down her cheeks. Mayday quietly held April’s hand to keep her calm and steady. April clenched her sister’s hand rather than swatting it away like before.

The reunited sisters held hands as they both drifted into a peaceful slumber.

A/N: I hope you all enjoyed this different take on April's origin. Since hers is arguably the most distinct, I decided to start here, as Mayday and Annie's lives up until now were pretty normal childhoods. As the hints throughout this issue show, there is still more to this story, but I like to keep some mystery going and reveal more later. Let's move on to when the Parkers' family life changed forever: Mayday's powers awakening! 

Chapter Text

As long as I can remember, all I wanted was to help…

Prologue

[13 Years Ago | Fall 2000]

The warm, orange sky’s hue complimented the rows of orange leaf trees of the College Point neighborhood. A cool autumn breeze soothed the air while the sun’s rays brought a cozy warmness. This would be a picturesque scene if not for the wailing of a child filling the air. Cowering on the roof of her two-story family home was a four-year-old Mayday Watson-Parker, and she’d been crying alone for nearly half an hour. Her parents were away for an errand, and their kind Aunt Anna was in the neighborhood to babysit them. Left with no choice, Anna has called Mayday’s parents since any attempt, in her condition, she’s made to get Mayday proved futile.

A car out front screeches to a halt. “Your parents are here, Mayday,” Anna said gently. “Everything’s going to be fine.”

Soon enough, Peter and Mary Jane arrive in a hurry. Out of breath, M.J. asked, “How’d she get there, Anna?”

“I don’t know. I turn my back to feed Annie. Suddenly, I heard crying, and there she was.”

Peter steps back to get a clear look at his crying daughter. Thankfully, she didn’t seem to hurt herself getting up there, but he did notice she was holding something in her arms. “Okay, I’ll get her down,” he said. “Give me a minute with her alone, M.J. I don’t want her to think we’re mad.”

“Good point. Let’s check on Annie, Aunt Anna. I can hear her crying inside.”

“Alright. I’m sorry for letting this happen. I would’ve used a ladder, but my back…”

“You did everything right, Auntie,” M.J. reassured. “Mayday wouldn’t want you to get hurt, even for her.”

“You’re right. She reminds me of May that way.”

Mary Jane shuts the back door, leaving just Peter and Mayday. Peter puts his arms on his waist and uses a calm, casual tone. “Mayday?”

Though tears still streamed down her cheeks, her father’s voice calmed her enough to crawl closer to the edge and make eye contact. “D-daddy?”

“I’m here, sweetie. Your mother and Aunt Anna are inside, too. We got those sweets we promised just before your aunt called us. We’d love it if you join us.”

Mayday hiccups, looking like she’s about to sob again loudly.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m…sorry,” she cried, “I made you and mama mad."

“Nobody’s mad at you, Mayday,” Peter gently reassured. “We’re just confused. You’re smart enough to know how dangerous it is to be this high up. We only want to know why you went up there."

Mayday sniffled, wiping her eyes and saying, “Their mama left ’em.”

Peter asked, “Who’s?” Mayday then revealed that she was holding a warm towel with three malnourished baby nestlings. Despite Mayday’s small handful of worms and tiny bugs, the nestlings chirped loudly for food. If left alone, Peter knew those nestlings stood no chance of surviving. He asked, “How long?”

“Two Days,” Mayday whimpered. “I heard them crying…I had to help.”

“Despite the fact you’re afraid of heights. And now you got yourself stuck up there. You need to think these things through, Mayday.” Despite her nod, Peter sees his reminder was also causing Mayday’s tears to return.

He glances back at the shed, tempted to get the ladder, and quickly resolves this. However, the one thing that hadn’t left his mind when they were notified was the question of ‘how.’ How did their daughter, who barely turned four, get up there so quickly? Aunt Anna’s old, but she’s keen enough to hear someone like Mayday going outside. There was one obvious possibility, but Peter wasn’t sure whether to rejoice or fear, especially regarding the consequences for their daughter’s future. At that moment, another idea forms in his head, and he faces his daughter. “Okay,” he said with a confident smile, “let’s get you down.” To his daughter’s surprise, he stretches his arms, ready to catch her.

“I-I can’t!” she cried, cowering in fear.

“You have those babies secured, don’t cha’?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Then all you have to do is jump,” he replied. His smile was confident, while his eyes were filled with reassurance. His arms were in prime position to catch about anything, especially his daughter. Being quite bright for her age, Mayday recognized all this yet barely inched towards the edge. Peter noticed and said, “Don’t worry; I’ll catch you.”

She knew he would, but her immense fear of staring down from this height glued her to that roof. Mayday knew that if she jumped too far, she risked throwing off her dad, risked harm herself and the nestlings. It must be from the ledge. Seeing the nestlings continue to cry, Mayday soon finds her footing and stands up. She inched forward, but a wave of vertigo caused her to shut her eyes.

“You have to look, Mayday,” Peter said, “jump like that, and you could hurt yourself.”

“I’m scared, Dad.”

“I know you are, Mayday, and that’s okay,” Peter said. His tone shifts to one of blunt honesty and sincerity. If there was any chance his daughter inherited the powers of Spider-Man, he needed to instill into her a lesson he wished he learned far, far sooner. “I wish this world were kinder to people like you, but I learned that doing what’s right often comes with great risk and even personal cost. Much like you are now confronted with your fear of heights to save those birds. And if you wish to keep helping others like this, I’m so proud of you…but I also need to teach you that there will be hurdles. This is your first hurdle, and you must face it…but not always alone.”

Her father’s words caused Mayday’s tears to cease. Deep inside her, an energy of vigor and conviction lit fires of courage. Peter saw this and smiled in pride at his little girl. “Now come,” he said gently, “I gotcha.”

Mayday’s knees stopped shaking as she took a breath. Her lingering trepidation makes her ask, “What if something bad happens?”

“Bad stuff will always happen, Mayday. Always.” Peter's eyes filled with a distant, melancholy look as he uttered the cruel truth of this world. He was briefly back on that dreaded bridge, watching someone he once loved hurtle toward the cold, unforgiving waters.

“Then what do I do?”

Peter shuts his eyes and focuses on giving his daughter courage. “Sometimes, the only thing you can do is take a leap of faith.”

“A leap…” she whispered. It sounded simple, yet she felt she understood only the surface of far more profound wisdom. However, this first step was enough for her inner courage to prevail. If her father believes she can take that leap, then that’s all the faith she needs. She firmly cradles the nestlings, shifts her footing, and focuses solely on her dad. “Okay… I’m ready.”

“I know you are,” Peter proudly said, stretching his arms. “Now…jump.”

Mayday Watson-Parker took her first leap through the air on that sunny autumn afternoon. Feeling the cool air brush her face and the exhilarating pumping of her heart was unlike any she had felt before or since. That day that leap is a memory that would forever stay with her till the end of her days.

This incredible rush ended as soon as it began. Mayday and the nestlings were now safe in her father’s arms.

Part 1: The first day of the rest of your life!

• Earth-919: The Parker Sisters / Commissioned art by @AbbyKMTR_13  

[7 Years ago | Fall 2006]

Ten-year-old Mayday sneakily turns on a flashlight before checking the time with the cute watch her dad gave her for her birthday. She lies in bed, alone with her thoughts, with a diary in hand. Adjusting the glasses her eye doctor prescribed, she ignores the strain on her eyes and presses her pen against the paper.

Dear Diary,

I hope you are well in your new home: my drawer. I see April hasn’t yet tried snooping in your residence, and Annie hasn’t noticed you either. If you were wondering, this is good since I want our new relationship to be remarkable. I found and picked you up last week while doing an errand for Mom because I felt you were the only one to whom I could tell my special secret. I know, I know, I trust my family with anything, but this is something that I’m not sure was even real, yet it feels like it is. I don’t know. At the very least, telling only you saves me the potential embarrassment—one which neither April nor Annie will ever let me live down. My secret is...

Mayday pauses, scratching her hair as she is suddenly at a loss for words.

I don’t know what to call it, but it went like this. When I was seven, after seeing an incredible basketball game at school, I sneaked in and imagined myself as a real basketball player. There I was, playing in the big leagues, roaring crowds and all! Despite it being my imagination, I felt a chill down my neck, as if this was the most important game of my life. I imagined the enemy team seriously trying to stop me, and I suddenly felt in the zone, like nothing could stop me! The next thing I knew, I performed a ten-foot slam dunk! I dangled on that hoop for minutes, totally confused about how I did it and why it felt so natural. None of my classmates believed me, saying that only an adult could make that jump. But I know it was all real, and I don’t know how to feel about it. Nothing like that has happened since, but I can’t ignore that memory because...I miss how amazing it felt. It’s why I still want to know why it happened and if it’ll ever happen again. My uncle Ben once told me something when I was little, saying that change is as natural as air and can encourage or scare a person, often both. He said change is inevitable, and how we confront that change is what defines us. I guess what I wanna say is...I hope what’s happening to me changes me into someone I’m happy to be.

With the last of her thoughts sealed in ink, Mayday tucks herself to bed, ready for another peaceful day.

The next day did not start peacefully. When morning dawned, their parents left early, and a surprise maintenance outage prevented their alarms from going off.

“Out of the way,” April said as she scrambled out the door. This urgency was because they risked missing out on their only field trip day today. Despite their signed permission slips, school policy dictated that any student arriving late on a day like this would be left behind at school. A condemnation of its most severe form, and for kids like them, it might as well be a death sentence, especially for April. “Ain’t no way I’m staying in some boring classroom! Never!!!”

“Come on, Annie!” Mayday encouraged, running behind April.

“Right.” An eight-year-old Annie shuts the house door, grabs her kick scooter, and follows her sisters across the neighborhood. “Geez, we totally knocked out from last night’s secret movie party.”

“No regrets!” April and May shouted.

“Sooo lucky you woke up early, Mayday.”

“Yeah,” Mayday said under her breath. It was hardly a coincidence, but she also couldn’t explain what it was other than her brain freaking out. There she was, having normal dreams, when a sudden burst of colors and ominous noises filled her mind with pure fright and woke her, only to find a harmless house spider on her bed. Any kid would chalk it up to a bad dream caused by a spider in her hair, but Mayday’s curiosity refused to accept such a simple answer. ‘Just’s what’s going on with me?’ she wondered.

“NOOO!” Mayday and Annie turned to the next street to find April on her hands and knees, defeated. “Stupid bus’s gone...”

“Man, sooo unfair,” Annie sighed.

However, Mayday wasn’t so quick to give up. She checked the time on her watch: “Five minutes late, but we aren’t the last block on the bus’s route. Where would the bus be five minutes after leaving? Maple Street... No, it’ll already be on 2nd Street!” She got April back up on her feet and ran in another direction. 

“Where are you going?! The bus is that way!”

“I know a shortcut!” Mayday’s answer was all they needed to hear to rush after her. Thier last hope was in Mayday’s memory of the bus’s route. Luckily for the sisters, their luck was finally about to turn. Entering the more urban streets and cutting through alleys, Mayday spots a familiar school bus two blocks away, halted by a stop light. “There, I see it!”

“Grrr,” groaned an annoyed April, “Why is it so far away!?”

“Wait for me,” said Annie tiredly. Despite her vehicle, she appeared more tired than her sisters, who’d been running this whole time. “Okay, where is—Uh-oh!” As she said that, the light turned green, and a sharp hiss escaped the bus as its wheels began to turn.

“Run like crazy, guys!” Mayday sprinted as fast as she could, leading her sisters after the bus. “Wait! Stop the bus!”

“Can’tbelate! Can’tbelate!” Annie muttered as she struggled to keep up.

“Hey! Ya dill-weeds! Stop the driver!” April shouted as she began to slow down.

They were less than a block away, but the bus was already moving and picking up speed. They heard their fellow students inside and even saw them looking through the windows, yet the kids only pointed and laughed. “Oh, come on, Parkers! You can run faster than that! Hahaha!” one boy taunted while the bus sped up. Mayday could see her sisters run out of energy, but Mayday wasn’t a quitter. Feeling an intense motivation in the heat of this moment, some instinct activated within Mayday, like a reservoir of energy has suddenly refueled her stamina. The soles of her shoes blitzed faster against the sidewalk as Mayday sprinted as fast as she could. While the bus was hardly going at full speed, it was no less shocking to the kids and her sisters with how fast she was. Not even thier best track runners could run this fast.

“Woah! Go, May, Go!” Annie cheered.

‘How’s she doing that? Even I can’t run that fast,’ April thought.

The kids onboard gawked in shock as Mayday caught up to the door and shouted, “Stop. The. Bus!” Before Mayday’s voice could reach the oblivious driver, Mayday’s stunning sprint abruptly stopped when she tripped and fell on the sidewalk. An uproar of laughter came from the bus, which went at full speed and quickly outran the sisters.

“Gaah! We were so close!” April shouted.

Mayday sat up, helplessly looking at their failure to reach the bus. Now, it seemed like they were doomed to be stuck on a dull, lonely school day. Suddenly, the bus stopped, and its door hissed open. Briefly dumbfounded, the sisters quickly seized this opportunity and dashed inside the bus. “I’m so sorry, kids,” the driver said, “my hearing ain’t what it used to be. Thankfully, this kind girl alerted me.” The sisters looked to see a shy, blonde girl with big glasses who was sitting alone. Since nobody else on the bus looked to be offering their seats, the sisters exhaustedly sat beside the girl who’d helped them.

“Phew! I gotta take P.E. more seriously,” Annie sighed.

“Sure, Annie. You’re more likely to mod that scooter than exercise more.”

Annie glanced at her scooter, dazzled by the possibilities. “April…I just got an idea.”

Meanwhile, Mayday sat beside the shy girl with thankful eyes. “Seriously, you’re a lifesaver.”

“Thanks, but I’m not,” the girl said meekly.

“Course you are! Say, you look familiar.”

“Do I…? Nobody ever told me that.”

“Are you maybe from Ms. Fitzgerald’s P.E. class?”

“Erm, yes,” the girl mumbled nervously, “I’ve seen you, but we never talked.”

“You saw me? Weird, I should’ve remembered noticing you.”

“Nobody does,” the girl whispered.

“Well, what’s your name then? I’m May, but my family calls me Mayday.”

Seeing Mayday offer a handshake, the girl shook it. “Courtney Duran, it's nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet ya! Excited about today’s trip?”

“I am now with you here,” Courtney answered shyly.

[Later…]

If heaven were real, the Parker sisters would have arrived as they entered the largest museum in the country: the Science & History Museum of Marvels.

Ever since it opened a year ago, Mayday and her sisters have been eager to check it out, and that wish has finally come true. Were the sisters overly excited to be surrounded by the superhumans movement's history, sciences, and arts, which has changed the modern world? Yes, most definitely. The gallery on Pym Particles captured Annie's eyes, the science and history of them explained by the holograms of two superheroines: Janet Van Dyne, one of the Avengers' founders, and her teenage daughter Nadia Van Dyne, a renowned Champions member.

Annie listened closely as Nadia spoke, “If my father were still with us, he would be proud of the wonders we’ve achieved with the particles he discovered decades ago. Recently, with the help of our G.I.R.L. scientists, my mother and I have altered the self-sustaining nutritional nature of pym particles to work for any living organisms in their natural forms. This discovery continues to save thousands from near starvation and push world governments to do their part in reducing and someday ending world hunger.”

“Awesome,” Annie said in awe of the G.I.R.L. exhibition. The robot attendants even gave her a free lab coat. With sparkles in her eyes, Annie smiled, “I can’t wait to be a scientist like them!”

Meanwhile, April enjoyed not being stuck in the classroom, with the colorful exhibitions being the cherry on top. She noticed one exhibition was pretty empty and had a janitor cleaning up a slur that vandalized the exhibition’s title, “The Mysteries of Mutantdom.” Needing some quiet time, April walked in. Sponsored by the Xavier-Mactaggert Foundation, the walls were the D.N.A. sequences of mutants, the science behind mutation, and actual small flora and fauna from the island of Krakoa.

As April ventured deeper, she entered the history portion of mutantdom. She first saw the usual, boring stuff, such as a copy of the “A.S.B.W treaty” and the “Declaration of Sol.” The former was an international agreement that ended all production of Sentinel models and anti-mutant biological weapons. At the same time, the latter declared the purpose and sovereignty of the Krakoan vassal state, Arakko, the so-called “capital” of the solar system. “Man, we won the moon, but they won a freaking planet. That space race was soooo one-sided,” April commented. 

Further in, April is disturbed by archival footage of mutants imprisoned, beaten by mobs, and killed by police, military, and Sentinels. Though there was catharsis in seeing footage of X-Men like Storm, Jubilee, and the new Marvel Girl saving other mutants, April couldn’t help but relate to feeling like an outsider, a freak.

Mayday fixed her glasses while entering the popular exhibition, “Marvels!” All around her were artifacts and the history behind some of the Earth’s mightiest heroes. Her best friend Olivia examined one of the suits of the deceased Tony Stark before turning her gaze to the Wakandan arts. Courtney wipes a tear from her eye at archival footage of Steve Rogers saving the day with the Avengers before turning to one of his suits. Illuminated in its display in the memorium of the deceased hero.

Though a new team of Avengers has recently taken on the duty of protecting this world, the void Mr. Rogers left is still felt worldwide.

Mayday was moved and impressed by every one of these displays, but the one that drew her attention the most was a display of whom she believed to be a true hero, The Amazing Spider-Man. Unlike the others, only a mere recreation of the suit was displayed, with only a fraction of the pictures and footage showcased. Standing by herself, Mayday marveled at the humble display of his heroism. She can only imagine how swinging through the skyline must’ve felt; the closest she could compare it to was the day she lept into her father’s arms years ago.

“I don’t believe you’re gone,” she said proudly. " Some people say you’re dead, but you’re still out there saving the day, aren’t you, Spidey?”

After all that, it was time for the final event. The sisters reunite as their classes enter a new building whose central plaza has a stage where Earth’s family stands before a packed audience. Despite their stature, the sisters got a good look at the one and only Fantastic Four. Each of them, especially Mayday, was impressed by the words they shared with the crowd. Despite being known across time and space, this family still took the time to speak and inspire kids like them. At that moment, Mayday didn’t see them only as heroes but as real people. Ben Grimm smiled beside his wife Alicia while their adopted kids waved excitedly at the crowd. Hotshot Johnny Storm posing in front of his niece and nephew as dozens took pictures. Reed wraps up his speech before Sue, with a wave of her hand, uses her powers to make their latest donation to the museum visible: Marvel - 1. The rocket that began the Age of Marvels.

All these events, all these people—it might’ve been another field trip for other kids, but it was a reminder of what Mayday aspired to be someday. She always looked out for others, put others before herself, and was there when no one else was. If it took being a hero like Spidey to be that person, then Mayday would be that hero no matter the odds. Why? Because she wanted to be.

The teachers began herding their classes toward the buses as the sun approached the horizon. “And that was only half of what’s in there,” Mayday sighed blissfully.

“We gotta have Mom and Dad take us next time,” Annie suggested.

“If they find the time. They’re getting busier every day,” April said. “Speaking of, how long until it’s dark? Maybe we can hurry to an arcade after school.”

Mayday instinctively pulls up her hands to check the time, expecting the pink and white colors of her watch’s bands only to see her wrist. “It’s gone?!” She combs her bag and pockets but finds no sign of her dad’s gift. “Nonono! The band must’ve come loose! Argh, I knew I should’ve replaced it!”

“Seriously? Urgh... where’s the last place you saw it?” April asked.

“Erm, before entering the new building? I was so excited I must not noticed it.”

“Fine, we’ll buy you some time, just hurry up, would ya?”

Mayday would hug her sister in thanks, but she’d probably be punched instantly if she did. Mayday sneaked away from the group and hurried to where she last saw it. Upon arriving, she quickly scoured every inch of that area but found squat. “No way!” she groaned, “they can’t distract them for long. Where is it?” Her ears pick up a sudden rustling from some bushes; her gaze turns around to see a tiny kitten’s head pop up. She is usually distracted by his cuteness, but her eyes notice something in the cat’s mouth.

“My watch!” she gasped. The kitten jumped from her voice and sprinted away.” Wait, kitty! That’s not food!” She struggled to keep up with the agile feline, their chase taking them across the museum’s open garden until they reached a flight of stairs leading down to a packed one-way street. Mayday’s pace slowed as she descended the stairs and watched the kitten reach the sidewalk to escape into a sewer drain.

Her anxiety quickly swelled right when fatigue kicked in. The constraining air in her lungs made it harder to keep running. The lenses of her glasses began to fog up. Each quick step down the long flight of stairs felt more unsteady. One misstep, and she’d cry about something more painful than a lost watch. She was barely halfway down, but the kitten had already begun crossing the street, her precious gift about to vanish forever. 

The next second, something snapped, and the most unbelievable sensation of her entire life struck her like a truck.

A buzz rippled across her mind, and for the briefest of moments, it was like the reality of the world around her contorted into a mishmash of colors and bizarre images. Everything slowed to a crawl, her body frozen while she clenched her head. She shielded her eyes from intense flashing, nigh-blinding colors, yet they didn’t mortify her. The most ear-piercing and bone-rattling noise sent shivers down her spine, yet it didn’t frighten her. ‘Like this morning,’ she remembered. What woke her up wasn’t just the spider but this insane visual and auditory sensation hammering her head, not her whole body. ‘It’s like...like if the world’s scariest animal has its claws against my neck while its teeth are ready to bite on my head!’ Such an overwhelming experience nearly caused her to collapse, but something kept her steady; something guided her eyes to turn to the left end of the street. ‘Da...danger?’ She dizzily squints to see an intimidating red force hurtling towards her direction. A second later, her perception of the world returns to normal, and the red blur is revealed to be a fast car speeding down the street, barreling straight toward the unsuspecting kitten.

‘No!! Stop!’ Instinctively, Mayday knew something had to intervene. ‘Poor thing’s gonna die...because I scared it away because I stupidly lost Dad’s gift. I led them here, and now...and now...!’ A fire burst to life inside her, a fire she didn’t even know existed but perhaps was always there. This intense rush pushed Mayday to run after the kitten. ‘No, no, that won’t be enough,’ she thought in that split second, her body practically moving on its own. Even if she caught the kitten, that intense sensation in her head screamed, as if now the both of them would be hit. Seeing the kitten stop and glance at the truck mere meters away, one last thought crossed Mayday’s mind, ‘how do I know I can make it? What if I get us both killed?!’

“The only thing you can do is take a leap of faith...”

Her fists clenched, her eyes and mind locked in as this great power finally unleashed itself. She was back in the zone.

“Now...jump.”

Mayday launches herself at incredible speed, outracing the high-speed car and snatching the cat with astonishing care and precision. As the vehicle was centimeters from hitting them, Mayday’s amazing new reflexes kicked in, and her body lept up three stories. Mayday snaps out of it upon colliding against a neighboring building, gasping at the sight of herself now several dozens of feet above the street beneath a fire escape.

Shock and confusion were written all over her face, which was currently stuck to the wall. Her whole body was stuck to the wall. ‘Just like...no wayyyy,’ she thought.

She noticed how blurry her vision was, but after removing her glasses, Mayday realized she had perfect vision as her whole world cleared up. ‘It can’t be. Do I have...?’ Mayday secured the kitten in her backpack before glancing up to the roof several stories up.

Her gnawing curiosity about this spectacular experience drove her to climb. And climb she did, but she used no rope or hooks, only her bare hands. Planting her palm on the surface, it instantly felt as if it were magnetized to the bricks.

‘Left hand, then right hand!’ Every action taken helped her crawl to greater heights. ‘Left foot, now right foot!’ Every step she took made the world below shrink, and the sky felt so close it was like she could touch it. This uncanny climbing soon felt as natural as walking, and she picked up speed! ‘Left hand, right hand! Left foot, right foot! Left-!’

She paused when she felt the roof’s edge. Moving up to the top, Mayday saw she’d climbed to the roof in seconds.

“I have powers,” she gasped, “I can jump high, sense danger, and wall crawl, like Spider-Man. Which means....” Her spirits rose like never before, realizing what kind of change had happened to her. “I’m SPIDER-GIRL!” she proudly proclaimed, fists raised high. “Whoa! This is too coooool! Those bullies were right about one thing: I’m a freak, but being a freak may actually be all it’s cracked up to be--and more!”

If Mayday could, she would take this opportunity to explode into action. Hurl herself from wall to wall—somersault and ricochet from floor to ceiling. Push herself like never before! However, other responsibilities had to be tended to, and Mayday is reminded of this when she sees teachers begin their search for Mayday.

“Crud, guess time’s up,” she sighed. She zips open her backpack and grabs her watch from the kitten, “For a street kitty, you’re pretty bad at finding food and avoiding cars. I’ll sneak you home and show you our neighborhood, where there are many cool cat friends to make.”

The cat meows in response. “Let’s go,” Mayday says, beginning her quick descent. Oh, and feel free to snack on my leftover peas and blueberries.”

The rest of the way went smoothly. The buses were running late, so the teachers dragged Mayday back, no questions asked. The moment she met up with her sisters, Mayday wanted to reveal at the top of her lungs that she had superpowers, but Spider-Man kept his identity a secret for a reason, so she knew doing so would be plain stupid of her, and she was not stupid. She kept her mouth shut the whole way home, though she could sense April looking at her more often.

After a long day, the sisters returned home to find thier parents already prepping dinner. ‘Perfect!’ she thought. She rushed to her bedroom, set free the kitten via her window, and pulled out her custom spider mask made when she was little. ‘Alright. Go time, May! Approach them, act cute and innocent, then wham! Wall crawl all over the ceiling with the spider mask on!’

She giggled excitedly, tucked the mask behind her back, and rushed downstairs. Mayday casually stepped into the kitchen to see her sisters standing beside their father, their faces looking concerned. “Erm, it smells good, Dad,” Mayday said. Upon approaching her dad, her smile faded when she saw his face with white bandages across his face and left arm.

“Are you alright, Dad,” Annie worriedly asked.

“Annie, I am,” Peter reassured with a light chuckle, “we simply had a small accident in the lab.”

“Is that so,” Mary Jane asked, poking his bandaged arm. When he winced in pain, Mayday stood back and caught her mom with a suspicious look in her eye. “When I tried contacting your front desk, everything sounded peachy.”

“That’s standard procedure, dear. Besides, it wasn’t that bad, and no one got hurt but me. Thankfully.”

Mayday saw M.J.’s eyes squint before stepping back and grabbing herself some water. A tired sigh escapes her, causing Mayday to shuffle over to her mom. “Uhh, Mom, I have something-”

“Can it wait?” 

“Oh, umm,” Mayday mumbled, staring at the ground while clenching her hidden mask.

M.J. drinks her glass of water to cool off before turning to May and saying, “Sorry, sweetie. That came off blunt, didn’t it?”

“It’s okay...”

“I’ve just been having a bad day today. I was late to a big audition because I forgot to refuel the car, and...they locked the doors on me.”

“Oh no,” Peter said as he wrapped up prepping dinner, “you’ve been talking about that role for weeks. I’m so sorry that happened, honey. Is there something I can do to help?”

“I just need time to think and talk to my agent again. I'm sorry, but can you leave my plate in our room?”

“Of course.”

Before M.J. left, Mayday’s more sensitive hearing caught her mom whispering to her dad, “We’re talking alone after dinner.”

Just like that, everyone moved on to dinner, and Mayday’s anxiousness shunned away her previous excitement. Her father asked if she had something to say, but rather than reveal to him her powers, she shrank back and talked only about the field trip. ‘Maybe tonight’s not the best,’ Mayday pondered. Her mom wasn’t a stranger to not getting a role, but losing this role wasn’t just a lost part; it would affect their family’s money for the next few weeks at least. On top of her dad being hurt from who knows what at work, Mayday felt it’d be a terrible move to surprise them with her superpowers. If anything, what drew Mayday’s attention as they finished dinner was her mom’s suspicion, which had never aimed at her father before. 

So, when she and her sisters go upstairs, Mayday makes sure the coast is clear and sneaks out to satisfy her curiosity. Staying as quiet as possible, She wall-crawls to the stairs and uses the darkness to hide behind the wood bars of the railing. She then catches sight of her parents in the living room, totally unaware of her presence, and listens.

“You know I don’t like liars, Tiger,” M.J. started, pacing around casually with her gaze locked on Peter.

“I wasn’t lying. Well, I wasn’t lying to you, but the girls. They were all over the kitchen.”

‘Dad lied to us? But why?’ Mayday wondered. Given what she hid from them, she ain't one to talk.

“Oh, were you,” M.J. asked. Though she sounded quite annoyed, her words had a point behind them rather than being born out of baseless assumptions. From Mayday’s perspective, her mom talked as if she had used this tone countless times before yet never heard it herself. “Because when I called you shortly before getting home, you said nothing was the matter. Yet not even five minutes later, you walked in carrying fresh bandages.”

“I simply didn’t want to worry you. I tried patching myself up the best I could. Of course, today had to be the day I wore a short-sleeve, and I didn’t have any replacements in my office.”

M.J. chuckled, “I almost forgot how cute you are when you play dumb, Tiger.”

‘Eww,’ Mayday thought.

“M.J., I am not-”

“You still want to keep lying to me, Petey?” M.J.’s eyes were focused, but her words were tinged with emotion, bordering on sounding hurt from what Peter was concealing.

That was enough to make Peter drop the act. “Sorry,” he apologized. "You called so suddenly and so soon. I wasn’t even off my adrenaline high. What gave it away?”

“I’ve seen and patched up your battle scars enough times to recognize a pattern. Those bad guys have it out for your spleen and liver areas.”

‘What the...,’ Mayday pondered, ‘did she say bad guys? Battle scars?’

“You’d be right,” said Peter. " It’s probably on the news by now, but I followed the sound of sirens after I got out of work. Old habits, you know? I saw crowds forming at the end of a street, where I found two guys running out of the back alleys. That was when I felt it again, my spider-sense shouting out danger nearby.”

Mayday’s heart skips a beat; the tiniest gasp escapes her as she listens.

“I had a hunch you still carried around those web-shooters,” M.J. smirked.

“Not exactly. These are smaller and easier to hide. Anyway, I webbed myself a mask and got the jump on those two. Ain’t exactly as agile as I used to be when one of thier bullets grazed my arm. After webbing them up, I found out they started a massive fire in a jewelry store to cover their escape, but it quickly got out of control and spread to an old apartment next door. That's when I saw the smoke, heard the screams and crying...I had to help them.”

Peter snaps out of his reminiscing when M.J. kisses his forehead. “You did the right thing, tiger.”

“I did, and it almost cost me the secret that fooled the world. I know people would chalk up today as a stunt pulled by an imitator, but if I keep doing this, it’ll-”

“That won’t happen, Pete. Rest easy knowing your secret is still safe from the world. Today reminded us that we'll eventually have to confront a bigger question. One that's plagued the both of us since Mayday was born."

Peter leaned forward as she sighed, “I told ’em stories before. My fake first meetings with the amazing Spider-Man and so on. So why did lying to them today hurt like hell? Was it because of how fresh these new wounds were? Is it getting harder the longer we keep it from them?”

M.J. sits beside her husband, holding his bandaged, burnt hand as she says, “They’ll be teenagers before we know it, and when we do notice, they’ll already be adults. This secret’s served this family long enough, and you know it.”

“Are they old enough to understand?”

“They’re brighter than thier teachers give them credit for. Look at Mayday; she’s a good girl! Already so strong and dependable! Whatever else you and I might have skewed up in our lives, we did all right as parents. If she can handle the truth, surely April and Annie can. They each have the right to know who they are, especially if your theory is still true that they’ll develop powers someday.”

“A theory we haven’t seen further evidence of in six years? I get what you’re saying, but they already know who they are, Mary Jane. They’re our daughters. And I know Mayday idolizes the mask, but adding THIS could completely throw her off.”

“I know, Peter, and I’m ending this conversation by saying she can handle this,” M.J. declared as she stood up, a smile of pride to her children. “Mayday can handle being the daughter of Spider-Man.”

‘Creak!’ 

Peter and M.J. turn to the staircase from the sudden sound of an upstairs floorboard creaking. Peter marches up but finds no one in the shadows. He listened carefully for any sound but caught nothing. He steps down, pauses, and looks up but sees nobody on the ceiling. With nothing found, Peter and Mary Jane return to their room, unaware of their daughter sneakily shutting her bedroom door. Mayday hugged her legs as she sat in the middle of her bed, utterly petrified by all that her parents unknowingly revealed. Her eyes were fixated only on her handmade mask. A mask she and her father made. “A mask me and Spider-Man made,” Mayday whispered in awe, “my dad is Spider-Man, and I’m the daughter of Spider-Man.” 

To be Continued...

A/N: I hope you enjoy this issue, readers! As usual, it ended up slightly longer than anticipated, so the next chapter will quickly wrap up Mayday’s origin before we continue with Annie’s and wrap up this arc. I figured the field trip would be a fun way to drop some history of this universe and casually drop some of its differences along with fun cameos. I tried to keep as much of Mayday's original backstory told in "What If...?" #105 (such as the basketball match and eavesdropping on her parents) while adding new stuff, such as the prologue. I had planned for a while that Peter would sometimes run into people in trouble and feel compelled to help, and reading USM #1 helped reaffirm this decision. Amazing issue, by the way. I can't wait to read more of that run and the rest of the new Ultimate universe.

Chapter Text

Part 2: With Great Power...

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

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

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

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

Among them, she heard April’s voice. “What the heck?!”

“Someone broke the sink! There’s water everywhere!” one girl shouted.

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

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

‘Let it go, April,’ Mayday hoped.

“Maybe she went to the other restroom?”

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

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

Mayday did her best acting natural. “Seriously? What happened?”

“Facet broke. Class’s saying it’s some boy prank.”

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

“Yeah, convenient,” she said with deep suspicion.

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

“You know something I noticed when in there?”

“No?”

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

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

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

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

Now irritated, April throws the paper at Mayday’s face. “It’s not an excuse!”

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

“I know you did this. I don’t know how, but ya did.”

Mayday scoffed. “Why would I break a sink?”

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

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

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

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

[That evening...]  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“You’re hiding something! If you are, you’re the one with a problem, not me!”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mayday quickly utters her answer. “My best,” she said, “I’ll do my best.” 

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

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

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

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

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

SQUEEAAK!   

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

“The hell?! Donny!” a voice echoed outside.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Not all!”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Part 3: Great Responsiblity...

[The Next Day...]

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

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

“Uhh, why?”

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

“I...tripped?”

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

“Worried? About what?”

“For starters, hearing noises upstairs when it’s past your bedtime.”

“I’ve been pushing myself to study harder, that’s all,” Mayday said defensively.

“Your teacher said you stole from his science equipment.”

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

“And your sister has been frustrated with you.”

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

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

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

“Mayday, don’t have an attitude now. I’m only-”

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

“Mayday, you’re not even thirteen yet.”

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

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

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

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

“Nobody’s saying that, Mayday.”

“Then stop acting like I am!”

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Later on...] 

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

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

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

Knock-Knock!

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

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

“Hey?”

‘Okay, maybe not that cool,’ Mayday thought.

“Why are you all alone in here?”

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

“That’s cool! I wish science were as easy for me as Math is.”

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

“Thanks, but that’s not why I’m here,” Courtney said, flustered. “I wanna ask a different favor.”

“Sure. What is it?”

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

“Protect?”

“Gah, see Courtney. It’s embarrassing,” she told herself. “It’s fine, May; just forget it.”

“First, it’s Mayday. Second, it’s not embarrassing. Who do you need protection from?”

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

“They’re even disrespecting Mr. Hackmutter? Gosh, those jerks have no shame,” Mayday said.

“Mister who?”

“Hackmutter, the janitor.”

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

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

“Good point. Anyway, can you escort me to the cafeteria? I feel like they’re following me.”

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

“Okay, only so that I make sure you don’t starve.”

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

“Hehehe, I couldn’t agree more!”

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

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

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

“W-why are you here?”

A piece of fabric is tossed to the janitor’s feet. It appeared to be a simple tag, but Hackmutter saw the school emblem upon closer inspection. “I remember my P.E. days,” Crazy-8 shared, “and these funny little tags in my uniforms always itched.”

“You think it’s one of these kids?”

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

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

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

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

[Meanwhile...]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mayday yanks her hand away, “My sisters are out there! I gotta save ’em!”

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

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

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

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

A quivering Annie asked, “April, what is that?!”

“I don’t know. But it’s big, ugly, and ticked off.”

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

April grabbed Annie’s hand and whispered, “When I say run, do it, okay?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

One final hit that’ll determine the outcome.

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

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

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

“She’s here!”

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

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

“No, it isn’t. Courtney, she was-”

“Paramedics already have her,” M.J. revealed. “She’s alive, Mayday, because of you.”

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

[At home...] 

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

“Thank goodness,” M.J. sighed in relief.

Annie asked, “And Mayday’s friend?”

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

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

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

"It is! All of it."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Crystal."

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

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

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

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

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

"Woah," Annie awed while April sat silently.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Who?"

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

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

"You're joking, right?"

"No."

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

"What if I'm really nice?"

"April."

"Fiiiine," April pouted.

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

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

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

Chapter Text

For as long as I can remember, I only wanted to be the best...

Prologue

[Winter, 2006]

It was a cold, snowy night in the streets of Queens. The chilly air was quiet as the strong Atlantic sea wind brushed over the city. A calm night like this was an ideal cover for an opportunist to make thier move. Within one of the highrise towers in Queens, a massive vault weighing over two tons stood idle until an enormous force knocked it open. The whip of a green tail blew away the plume of dust, its razor-sharp tip scraping the wall as green armored claws stomped forward. The Scorpion has acquired his target. This target wasn't some bags of money, however. What the conniving Mac Gargan had in his hand was a shiny metal cube. At a glance, it appears worthless, but holding it in one's hand revealed it as tingling with some unknown power. "Item secured," he reported, speaking into his suit's built-in comms. A smile forms on his face upon seeing one of his offshore accounts displayed on his visor skyrocket in cash.

"Want the rest? Give me the item," his employer demanded.

"Don't have to tell me twice," he chuckled, heading towards a room with an expansive balcony and tall wall of glass windows. Right before he could leap outside, he's caught mid-air by two webs and pulled back inside. From the rough landing, the hand holding the strange item opened up enough for a web to snatch it. 

"Seems Ol' MacDonald had a piece of mysterium, and here I was expecting a farm," said Jessica Parker, aka The Ultimate Spider-Woman. She's donned her usual crimson red super suit, its iconic web emblem spread across her chest and back, and her long, brown hair dropped over her left shoulder. 

"Grrr! Why are you even here?!"

"Would you believe me if I said my spider senses tingled?" Scorpion answered by firing a barrage of acid at Spider-Woman. After dodging some of his blasts, she webbed up his tail and delivered a swift kick that nearly sent him flying out of the building. "I can't let you get away with this Mysterium, Mac."

"And why not?" Scorpion asked, spitting out some blood. "This is some rich mutant's private vault, and I ain't hurting nobody by stealing some hunk of metal."

"This 'hunk of metal' you're robbing is considered one of Krakoa's greatest secrets. Handing it to god knows who sounds like a gateway to an international conflict. Whatever money they offer will be worth squat if war happens, Mac."

"Not my problem, and it ain't my fault those mutants have shit security." Scorpion rips off the webbing on his tail and raises his fists, saying, "Nor it ain't my fault my employer's offered a deal I can't refuse."

Jessica webs the Mysterium to her back, entering a fighting stance with a fierce, piercing gaze. "Then maybe a beating from Spider-Woman will remind you why you should've."

Suddenly, a voice rings from outside. "Yeah! And her trusty sidekick, AMP!" Both Scorpion and Spider-Woman turn to see a shocking sight. Anna-May Parker landed on the balcony thanks to a pair of crudely made and clunky rocket boots. Her disguise also appeared to be wildly thrown together. Her look consisted of a simple long-sleeve shirt, a pair of goggles, a pink arrangement of gloves, a backpack, shoes, kneepads, and a cape. Jessica and Mac stood stunned by the bizarre sight as she ran to Jessica's side and pointed at the Scorpion, "Let me make the first move, Spider-Woman. I got a new trick up my-"

Before she could finish, Jessica spun Annie around and whispered, "What are you doing?!"

"Helping, duh!"

"No! You need to go-"

"Hey! Are you making kids fight for you, Spider-Woman?"

"She is not affiliated with me!"

"Yes, I am."

Jessica nearly wanted to strangle her niece as she insisted, "Silence child, who I do not know."

"How about this," Scorpion said, "you hand that metal back to me, and I might not tell the whole city you're employing child soldiers."

"Never, villain!" Annie declared. She whips out a metallic glove from her backpack that encompasses most of her arm. "Not when you can't get past my trusty Force Field Glove!" The moment she activated, however, the glove short-circuits. "Aww, but I tested this a minute ago." So distracted was she that she didn't notice a spray of venom hurdling towards her, saved only by Spider-Woman, who grabbed her and dodged out of the way.

Scorpion hurled himself at Spider-Woman and bashed her through the wall, the heroine unable to fight back at the risk of letting go of a defenseless Annie. Jessica was able to put some distance between her and Scorpion but quickly noticed the Mysterium within Mac's hand.

Realizing this was his one chance, Scorpion hurled a wide spray of acid at the two, knowing Spider-Woman would protect the kid first. What he should have accounted for was Annie's gadget. After hitting it, Annie's glove lit up and formed a shield around her and her Aunt, protecting them from the acid.

"Ha! It did work!"

Spider-Woman lets go and leaps forward, snagging Scorpion's tail and spinning him around until he's thrown into the ceiling, ripping off the deadly cess. The dazed villain is now stuck as his legs dangle, webbing fired around him to ensure he stays there and doesn't overhear them. Furious, Jessica marched over to Annie, demanding, "How did you get here, young lady!?"

"Through my turbo-boots," Annie answered, excitedly pointing at the small rockets. "See, I had a scary dream last night."

"Not another one of your weird dreams," Jessica sighed.

"I'm serious! It was scary. You were there, and I felt it meant something. So, I decided to overhear Ben while he trained Mayday, and he let slip that you were tracking Scorpion. So, using some old police scanners, I followed clues to your path, deduced your destination and viola."

"Ben and his damn mouth," Jessica muttered. "Alright, come on."

"We're gonna stop another crime?!"

"No, I'm taking you home."

"What?! Why?"

"There's a million damn reasons why, but if I had to pick one, it's so your parents don't find out," Jessica said with the utmost seriousness. 

"They'd never have to know," Annie pleaded. "Please, Aunt Jess, let me be your sidekick for one night?"

"Annie, you're freaking nine years old."

"I'm nine and one-twelfth!"

"Still five and eleven-twelfth's years behind, kid. That is the rule your parents and the rest of this family agreed on," Ben returned.

"But that rule suuuucks!"

Scorpion's muffled voice suddenly asked, "What are you two yelling about?"

"None of your business, nosy!" the two parkers said in unison.

In the brief respite, Jessica sighed and asked, "Why are you even here."

"To help-"

"No, why are you here."

Annie, briefly, is silent of an answer. She removed her goggles and said, "Because I'm trying to awaken my powers."

"We've been offering you lessons-"

"Breathing exercises and reflex tests are doing nothing," she whined. "No, it gotta be like how Mayday got her powers. And what better place to find danger than with THE Spider-Woman?"

"Alright, do you feel any different?"

"N-not yet...but maybe-"

"Maybe you nearly got yourself hurt for nothing!"

Jessica was a very blunt person, taking every superhero matter seriously. Annie has heard this since being told her Aunt's secret identity, but to face it firsthand really hits home how stern she is. In frustration, Annie muttered stubbornly, "So trying to be great is stupid?" 

"Annie, you're approaching this wrong," Jessica said. "You already have awesome potential."

"Not as great as Mayday's," she mumbled.

"Don't see the fancy powers and think that's what you need. It's more complicated than that. People recognize you without them."

"Not everyone. At least with powers, I can be someone else they do like," Annie moped.

"Annie..." Jessica sighed, kneeling to her level and hugging her. "Look, it's past bedtime, and you have a big event tomorrow. Let me take you home."

"Okay," Annie muttered, a tired yawn escaping her.

Jessica, holding Annie tightly, swings away into the night. This night will only be between them, but she hopes Annie gets to talk about this with her parents, hopefully without outside interference. Secrecy is also a delicate matter for their family; the last thing they need is more drama.

Part 1: A Strange Reunion

[That Morning...]

It was still snowing as Annie lazily swung on some swingset with her sisters at a local playground. The whole thing quickly lost appeal compared to the real thrill of web-swinging, such as the one felt last night. That whole ordeal was, in fact, more challenging to keep secret than she thought. Maybe it was because hiding a pair of rocket boots was troublesome, or perhaps she wanted an opinion that could understand her.

"No way," April suddenly shouted. "He sounds like a fun teacher, but there's no way he's that cool."

"April," Mayday replied, "he shoots freakin' electricity out his fingertips! You should've seen the things he showed me the past two months. Oh, and his combos with Uncle Ben and Aunt Jessica are freakin' spectacular!"

"Listen, it's like I always say: Never fully trust a man who shoots lightning."

"...you've never said once that in your life."

"And you never had great taste."

"Oh really? Well, guess what 'poor' tastes got me." Mayday whips out a cute photo with a distinct yellow signature. "An authentic photo AND autograph by Ms. Marvel herself," she said, "all thanks to the coolest Spider-man." 

April gasped in utter shock. One of the best heroines that's ever hero-ed posing with and signing her sister's photo?! "Oh, now you're just rubbing this in my face." Mayday slips her fingers to reveal a heroic picture of Ms. Marvel signed for her. April stared blankly at the gift. "Still have crap taste," she muttered before swiping her gift and admiring it. 

"Erm, hey," Annie spoke, grabbing their attention. "Listen, I got something I want your guy's thoughts on."

"Sure, Annie." Mayday's supportive tone was enough for Annie to feel now was the perfect time to share this with her sisters. Upon telling them everything, thier reactions were surprising.

"You what?!" they said in unison.

"Yeesh, really exuding that twin energy when you two do that."

"Now isn't the time for jokes," Mayday said. "Urgh, I should've noticed you were eavesdropping, but for you to go through following Aunt Jess, that's like the textbook example of irresponsibility."

"For once, she's right," April said, "what if one of your gizmos failed? You could've fallen straight down into the pavement, Willie Coyote-style, or get pelted with acid! I've seen those alien movies, and let me tell you, not a pleasant picture."

Mayday nodded, "Yeah-wait, you seen what movies?"

"But I didn't, did I?" Annie refuted. "I only wanted to...to..." Annie paused, letting out a long, tired yawn.

"Are you even gonna stay lucid for the contest?"

Annie shook her head to wake up. "I'll be fine, Mayday. Though it doesn't help neither of you back me up here."

"There's being determined and being stubborn. You were being plain stubborn."

"Greatness is often born from stubbornness. Dr. Stark said that once, Mayday."

"Yeah, and look where that kind of advice got'em," April said, scooping up and throwing a snowball that decapitated a nearby snowman. "Dead."

"Come on, April. You gotta feel the same way. At least a little?"

"I do, Annie," April sighed, a hint of frustration in her breath. "It's dumb that we haven't got our powers yet, and I wanna find out my powers at any cost, but it's plain stupid to get yourself killed over it."

"Harsh but true. Thanks for the backup, April."

"Don't push it, May."

Annie's shoulder slumped in defeat. "Oy, my weird dream was bad enough. Now this?"

Mayday sat beside her on the swing set and asked, "Hey, you've been saying that a lot the past few days. You sleep well, Annie?"

"Yeah? You know how much of a heavy sleeper I am," Annie explained. "Besides, everybody has weird dreams."

"But you've had them since you were two. You don't find that a little weird?"

Annie fidgets from the question. Annie would disregard these dreams at any other time in her life. However, ever since Mayday's powers manifested, the past two months have left her curious about any quirk that could hint at potential powers. Still, Annie tried to think things out logically, especially if she was the best scientist someday, and everything so far gave her a clear answer. "Mayday, don't give me hope," she said, "so what if a few dreams are weird? What does that have to do with spider-powers? Dad, Ben, and Jess haven't once had dream powers or whatever."

"True, but with superpowers..." Mayday picks up a rock and launches it into the air with her reverse wall-crawling powers. "...you never know."

"Fair point."

The trio shifts the conversation when Mayday's birthday gift, her first phone, notifies her with a new message. "Uhh, well, since we're opening up about stuff, I got something to share."

"This should be good," April said.

Mayday turns to Annie with a nervous look in her eyes. She says, "I won't be attending the science contest." Annie froze, and it wasn't because of the cold. A ripple of confusion and hurt swirled in her hard as Mayday explained. "Something big came up. Last week, I visited Courtney after her physical therapy, where she told me the doctors were releasing her today. I was so happy for her that I blurted out that I'd be there to celebrate with her for the day. It was only after leaving that I finally remembered your contest."

April immediately gave her the side-eye. "Convenient you 'forget' that little detail."

"Don't twist my words. It was a dumb mistake, yeah, but...I was so happy for my friend." 

Before April could continue, Annie spoke dejectedly, "And you decided now was a good time to tell us? To tell me?"

"I couldn't just turn around and say 'nevermind' to her face," Mayday sighed. She kneels beside her little sis, holding her hand as she says, "And it was only until yesterday that Uncle Ben agreed he would drive me there. I just felt like, after everything, I owe Courtney this celebration. You understand that, right?"

"Sure," Annie muttered, her gaze away from Mayday.

Suddenly, the cold disappeared as Mayday wrapped her arms around Annie, embracing her. Annie can't deny that her eldest sister gave the best hugs. "I'll be back home as soon as possible," Mayday said optimistically, "and then you can tell me how you earned 1st place. We can even go over the footage Dad will be filming. Aaaand, I promise to bring home your favorite sweet."

Annie gasped, "An authentic Latverian chocolate sundae?!"

"Oh yeah."

Annie daydreams of the delectable sweetness; its taste is more divine than every other flavor. Her imagination ceased when thier parents messaged that it was nearly time to leave. Mayday leads her sister back while April and Annie follow behind. On the way, April bumped her and whispered, "You're seriously gonna forget her leaving last minute over some ice cream?"

"No, but she's doing this for a friend, right?"

"Well, if this Courtney were a real friend, she wouldn't mind Mayday attending your event. If I were you, I would be pissed at her keeping this from you. Be wary of people keeping secrets; that's what I say."

"Doesn't that include mom?"

"W-well, she's different."

Annie sighed, "I am gonna miss her today..."

"Sure. By the way, a cape, seriously?"

"It was a cute cape!"

"And what the hell kind of name is AMP?"

"It's an acronym of my name: Anna-May Parker. Clever, ain't it?"

"Hell no!"

[Later...]

Ever since she was little, she had a knack for facing problems. There was something within her that was naturally curious, be it a magnificent machine on display or the smallest critter in thier back yawn. She just needed to learn all about it. Some people have called it hyper-fixating, a distraction, or being nosy. To Annie, it was simply her eagerness to discover. This energy has been helping her survive navigating this large crowd of people attending today's science fair. By her side was her family, April, her mother, and father, along with thier Aunt Janine and cousin Richard, all of her to show support. Annie held her invention in her package, nervously clinging to it.

"This is crazy. It wasn't this packed last year," Janine commented.

"I remember," M.J. said, "you don't think these crowds will block the camera, Tiger?"

"Not to worry, honey. Nothing stops me from recording our baby's victory."

"Daaaad, not so out loud," Annie said, "people are gonna stare."

Richard spoke, "You know the whole building will stare at you when you present, right?"

Annie tenses up, about to throw up at the thought. Upon seeing this, April slaps Richard's shoulder, shouting, "Don't remind her!"

Upon finally reaching the front line for contestants, Annie submitted her invention and was told to join the other kids and hand over her gadget as the contest was the fair's big opening event. Her mother asked, "Do you want Richard and April to join you?"

"N-no, it's fine. I wanna double-check my gadget by myself. I know it the best."

"If that's what you want, just remember the stress exercises we went over. If it can help me nail in roles, it can get you up on that stage."

"I will, Mom..."

Everyone gave her good luck, and her father gave her a proud hug. "You got this, Annie!"

"Thanks, Dad." Upon joining the rest of the contestants in a large room, she kept her head down and moved to her spot while everyone else chatted, shared ideas, and enjoyed complimentary snacks. "It feels weird being surrounded by big kids," she mumbled. Trying to ignore them, she double-checked her gadget's inner mechanisms and power supply. She always enjoyed how much of a groove she got in when she did. To her, it's like the numbers of equations spoke to her, and the cogs of any machine were a puzzle waiting to be solved. Indeed, Annie felt this energy was part of her charm. However, not everyone thinks so.

"Hey, what's with the baby?" asked one kid from a neighboring booth.

'Ignore them,' Annie thought, giving this group the stink-eye.

"Is that even gonna work?" another whispered. "Be pretty embarrassing if it doesn't. She'd be crying all over the stage."

"Hey, wait, I know her," one kid from this group mentioned. "Yeah, I got to school with her older sister, May. She wouldn't shut up about her."

Annie's eyes widen, 'she would?' 

"May makes her sound cool, but she and her twin are way cooler. I have yet to spot May here. Looks like she was extracting all that to make her feel special."

"Shut up!" Annie's outburst shocked the group and drew the attention of some other kids. Annie blushed in embarrassment and stormed off to the nearby rear entrance door. "Why do people always say that about me?"

Sitting at the bottom of a snow-covered staircase, Annie tried to cool off by distracting herself. The first thing on her mind was her strange dream. Unfortunately, like many dreams, she's unable to remember most of it except for the anxious feeling it left her with. Whatever was forgotten still made her feel sick. There was also one keen detail she did recall. Just before she woke, she saw a figure flying towards her on some machinery. She recalls only a glance at the rider, but the last thing she saw was a pair of piercing yellow eyes looking back at her. Annie shivered, whether from the dream or the snow; she couldn't tell. 'It's just a dream,' she thought, 'has to be. Your nerves are getting to you, Parker.' Though freaked out, Annie looked at the bright side.

This moment at least distracted her from the group of rowdy kids. "Those dummies," she spoke out.

"What a rude thing to say."

Annie spun to see a boy standing atop the staircase. 'Wha-? Who's he?' Annie thought, 'He looks older than Mayday. He's got some fancy-looking dark hair and even fancier clothes. And those eyes...I've seen those yellow eyes. No, it can't be a coincidence, right?'

The boy continued his comment, "Especially since I'm gonna win."

Upon hearing such a bold claim, Annie leaped up to her feet. "No way! I'm taking it. Besides, don't you look a little old to enter?"

"If I recall, the contest's age bracket is between ten and thirteen. By those metrics, I'm within my rights to partake, and you're the outlier."

"Well, I don't obey those metrics."

The boy chuckled. "How rebellious and ambitious. I glanced over when you shouted suddenly. You're quite prideful."

He sits beside an annoyed Annie, but she keeps her distance. 'Don't lock eyes with the enemy,' she thought. ' I don't know why, but something's different about him. Maybe it's how he talks so fancy-like. Heck, everything about him screams Richie Rich.'

He proceeds to ask, "What's your name?"

"Annie."

"Just Annie? Mysterious. Okay, I'll play along. My name's Stanley, but Stan's fine too. What brings you here, Annie?"

"The fair."

"Right, dumb question. Well, why did you join?"

"My Mom and Dad encouraged me to sign up."

"You look no older than ten, and the judges accepted your application? You must have some gift."

"Maaaaaybe," she said with a proud smirk.

"Ooooh, secrets. I like secrets."

Annie scoffed at the boy as his gaze turned to the snowy skyline. "My mother tells me I have a gift, too. She thinks me and my little bro are different because of our dad's smarts. I think of our parents; she was the true brains, personally. It ain't easy maintaining two mega-companies, you know?"

"Erm, no."

"Right, another dumb question," he chuckled, momentarily forgetting his social status. "With how smart Mother is, maybe that's all the more reason to believe she has a point."

"About what?"

"To not sign up for this fair."

"No way. What kinda of mom would say no like that?"

"The kind who says I'm above these things, these people."

"Sounds like a stuck-up mom."

"I like to think of it as a unique way of showing love."

Annie's previous tense posture eased as she asked, "Well, do you have doubts?"

"I guess? I've never been around this many kids before."

"I know, right?!."

"Totally. I'm lucky my brother is here. His encouragements have been helpful."

Annie looked down at the snow and mumbled, "That's nice."

"Yeah. His talk with my mom is why I'm even here. He's very headstrong compared to me. You have a sibling?"

"Two, my older sisters. One of them's named April; she's the bored-looking kid inside, in case you're wondering."

"Not fond of the sciences?"

"She is, but she's also more of a sports and arts kinda girl. My other sister, well..."

The entrance doors are kicked open, surprising Annie and Stanley, especially the former. "There you are," April said, "Whatcha' doing out here? The contest is about to-" She stopped upon noticing the boy beside Annie. "Who dis'? Aren't boys icky to you?"

"Yes, but I had no one else to talk to."

"Ooof, I'm hurt," Stanley said dramatically. "I assume this is your sister, April?"

"Yeah, she—" Annie spoke until she noticed April appear...unnerved? Her sister was squinting at Stanley, and Annie assumed the two had met before until seeing Stanley seemingly unfamiliar with April.

April quickly grabbed her sister's hand before snapping at Stanley. "Like that's any of your business. We're going, Annie."

"Good luck. It was nice chatting with you," Stanley said.

"Yeah," Annie replied before the door shut behind her.

"I don't like him, "April muttered.

"Why?"

"Bad vibes, okay? Anyway, did you seriously tell him my name?"

"Just our first names."

"Why the hell did you do that?!"

"What? He's just some kid."

"Still, it-urgh, never mind," April grumbled to herself.

Though not said, Annie and her sister did agree on one thing: how odd the aura surrounding Stanley was. 'Weird,' Annie thought, 'wait! Is this a hint to spider-sense?!' Before she could continue that thought, April dragged Annie straight to the presentation stage at the main auditorium, where the contestants were waiting. Annie fanned her face to calm down and awkwardly marched up. 'No eye contact!' The contest went as planned, with each kid showing off and explaining thier entry invention to the judges and audience. While anxiously waiting, Annie found it odd that Stanley wasn't there. 'Must've chickened out.'

With each passing contestant, the crowd applauded, while April didn't. "Booo! A potato battery is better than that junk!"

"April, be respectful," her mom and dad said.

"Yeah, just boo a little bit. Small jabs can sting just as bad as big jabs," Janine whispered, earning a chuckle from April.

After an eternity, the judge announced, "Everyone, put your hands up for Anna-May Watson-Parker!"

'Why'd they say my full name? Annie's fine,' she panically thought. 'Forget it! Remember mom's advice and do it.' She nervously walked up, her latest invention waiting for her on the stand. Annie stared blankly at the large crowd, and for a moment, her vision blurred from the swarm of faces. She snaps out of it upon spotting the smiles of her family, all of them applauding loudly. Her dad, of course, was excitedly recording the whole thing. Her Aunt Janine and her cousin Richard cheered her name. Her mom smiled brightly and proudly, believing she would do spectacularly. Her sister April gave her a thumbs up and confident smile.

The head judge asks, "Ready?"

The stage was quiet, the crowd waiting, and her family whispering that she's got this. "Yeah," Annie said. She snatched her gadget, put it on, and announced, "Umm! P-p-presenting to you, the Force Field Glove!" With a press of a button, the clunky metal glove flickered on. It emitted a quiet pulse that charged up its energy core. From the audience's perspective, this child seemingly vibrated like an earthquake was happening when Annie hadn't moved an inch. Finally, the glove's built-up energy dispersed and formed a perfect sphere around Annie. The crowd gasped at such a feat while the judges quietly nodded. "Through soundwaves," Annie said, "this glove can emit a condensed but powerful vibration around me, energizing it into a solid sphere. Throw anything at me, rocks or acid; it doesn't matter because it won't go through. I built this in a month because I couldn't get the design out of my head and thought a glove-form generator would be awesome. Yeah, uhhh, thank you."

After a moment of pause, the crowd applauded at the astounding tech, especially her family. Annie rushed to her seat, her cheeks red as roses. 'Oy vey, you rushed it, Annie. No, it doesn't matter. Your invention blows everyone else's out of the water-' 

Suddenly, something flies through the main auditorium doors. The lights focus on it, revealing a masked boy in an advanced glider circling the audience. After many gasps and cheers, the masked boy landed on the stage and revealed himself as Stanley. "Sorry, everyone. Last-second technical difficulties."

The head judge announced, "Erm, everyone, put your hands together for Stan Hollister."

"Thank you, sir. Now, let me present you a commercial-designed air glider."

Annie's jaw dropped. She knew something was different about that boy, but she never would've guessed he had built something so advanced. It looks factory-made, while hers looks like it's strung together by duck tape and parts found in a backyard shed. 

"With a top speed of a hundred and twenty miles per hour," Stanley continued, "this glider is eco-friendly thanks to its internal stabilized mini-reactor. It's easy to fly, too; one must plan a simple flight path, and the glider's A.I. will do the rest. It'll even automatically pull the rider away from incoming objects." 

The crowd was on its feet applauding such an advanced gadget, and Annie slumped over in shock, feeling an intense sense of deja vu. 'It can't be...I've seen this before. Those yellow eyes were Stanley's! But how?!' It didn't take long for the judges to pick Stanley as the winner, while Annie ended up in second place. Annie looked off to her family and noticed the look of concern in her parent's eyes.

Once the contest was over and the crowd dispersed to check out the rest of the fair, the Parker family walked out to the front lawn, away from the crowds. "That's our Annie! Smartest girl on this side of New York! Your gadget went off without a hitch," Peter said in jubilation as he tossed her daughter up and down, her silver trophy in hand.

"And you were such a natural up there," M.J. cheered.

"Seriously, kid, you killed it up there," Janine said.

Annie giggled from all the praise, though deep down, she wondered if her parents were trying to distract her. 'Do they know something about that boy?'

As Peter sets her down, M.J. kisses Annie's forehead before hugging her. Annie always found her mom's hugs so warm and comforting, able to warm the heart even in the cold. Somehow, even her words were warmer. "We're all so proud of you, Annie," M.J. said.

"Thanks, Mom," Annie said as she pulled back. "I..."

"Yeah?"

"I wish I won. I wish Mayday saw it."

M.J. and Peter consoled her. "We know," Peter said, "but her responsibilities called her elsewhere."

"She's making her friend's day the best it could be," M.J. shared, "and when Uncle Ben drives her back, she'll shower you with praise over your hard work."

"Second place?"

"It was a spectacular second place, a position few still achieve. Isn't that right, Peter?"

Annie looked up to see her father suddenly lost in thought. "Dad?"

"Hmm? Oh, yes, of course."

"You good, Pete?" Janine asked.

"Sorry. It's hard to take my mind off that glider. Brings back bad memories."

"I'm sure it was just a coincidence, Tiger, but I get it. I heard the name Hollister before, but where? Urgh, it's been so long..."

As the adults discussed this, Annie looked off at the Civic Center entrance as April and Richard spoke behind her.

"I think that kid cheated," April whispered. "Ain't no way he built that all by himself."

"He sounds rich, according to Annie, so he probably did build it," Richard said. "You can especially tell by how much of a show-off he was. They're all like that."

"Exactly! Don't you think so, too, Annie?"

As April asked, Annie stared off at the entrance doors and was the first to notice someone walking out. At the top of the staircase were Stanley and his entire family, including his eponymous mother. The whole Parker family turned and noticed the family, a mixed reaction of confusion and surprise among them. The family saw that behind Stanely were two people, his brother, and mother, dressed in fancy winter clothes. Once again, Annie couldn't help but feel something familiar about Stanley's brother. As for Stan's mother, Annie wasn't familiar with her, but her mother and father certainly were judging by how shocked they were.

"Liz?" M.J. and Peter gasped.

Elizabeth "Liz" Allan took off her shades, a rush of nostalgia setting in at the sight of a pair of friends she had known since high school. "Petey...Mary Jane. It is you two! Wow! It should've been obvious when Stanley told me who took second place. Only a Parker could create an amazing gadget from 2x4s and a wad of gum. My, does fate work in mysterious ways, doesn't it?"

"I guess it does," Peter said with caution. When Liz and her kids step forward, Peter has Janine subtly pull Annie and April behind him.

Annie could see how unnerved her father was as she peeked over at her mother. She calmed as she said, "It should've been obvious for us, too. Then again, it has been twelve years since we've seen Stanley. Especially little Normie, how you doing?" 

In confusion, Normie scratched his brown hair, asking, "Uhh, Mom, have I met them?"

"When you were a baby, sweetie," Liz clarified with some pain in her voice. "They were your father's best friends, Peter and Mary Jane Parker."

While Normie and Stanley were stunned at this news, Annie whispered, "Mommy, who are they?"

"That's what I want to clarify," M.J. said as she proceeded to ask, "Excuse me for asking, but I don't understand why the judge said Stanley's last name was Hollister?"

"Oh, that was my birth mother's maiden name," Stanley answered.

"I told him to submit a false last name to avoid attracting media attention," Liz explained. "I mean, THE Stanley Osborn and his brother Normie Osborn at some science fair? Paparazzi would already be swarming this place."

Annie gasped in astonishment at this revelation. 'These are the famed Osborns?' Even at her young age, anyone interested in science has at least heard of the Osborn family. 'Not only that but Mom and Dad know about them?!'

From the corner of her eye, Annie noticed April did not share her amazed reaction. She looked downright disgusted at them. "I don't like these people," she whispered, her hands clenched into fists.

"Oh my god, are these your kids?!" Liz beamed excitedly over the sisters while she tried to get a closer look. "Aww, they're adorable! Wow, Annie practically has your hair, Mary Jane."

"T-thanks," Annie mumbled.

"Oh Gosh, I see you let one of them dye thier hair. Would never be me," Liz said, pointing at April.

M.J. pats April's hair, saying defensively, "April likes it that way. Who am I to say no?"

"Is that her name? How cute and interesting," Liz chuckled, brushing her short blonde hair. "From what Stanley told me, your daughter Annie is quite the egghead. Congrats on winning second place, by the way. Not every day someone so young could challenge Stanley's skills." Suddenly, Liz stops as if she has a brilliant idea, but the Parkers aren't so eager to hear. "Guys, here's an idea: are your schedules open this week? How great would it be to get together for my company's second annual Christmas party!"

"Peter and the girls are Jewish," M.J. reminded.

"Did I say Chrismas? I mean the Holiday party! Did I not just say Holiday, boys?"

"Totally," Normie said, hiding a chuckle.

"Thanks for the offer, Liz," Peter said, pulling out the car keys. "However, we have something planned already. M.J. and I also want the girls to have a laid-back winter break; a party sounds too fancy."

"Please, I insist. We're holding it over at the new Alchemax building here in Manhattan. There are lots of normal families and friends there. Not too many snooty people. Look, I'll even send a cab and pay for dresses for your girls; casual is fine."

"That's kind of you, but-"

"Petey," Liz whispered, ensuring only he and M.J. could hear. "I know our families didn't leave on happy terms, but that was long ago. And...house life has been pretty lonely, especially for them. So, can we give it another shot and see if it works between us?" She pulls out her Alchemax card, which carries her phone number, and hands it to the couple. "Here, I leave the choice up to you."

Annie stared at the Osborns as they walked away to their family limo. Annie waved as Normie and Stanley entered the limo before it drove off. She looked up to find her parents no longer hiding thier uncomfortably. 

"Hey," Janine said, "she didn't notice Richard or me! How rude."

Part 2: The Parkers & the Osborns

[That evening...]

"And, there!" Mayday placed Annie's latest trophy next to the surrounding past academic achievements, all of them second place. "You know what I think? I think the silver is gonna make the gold pop. Dontcha agree, speedy?" Mayday asked, looking at Annie's baby turtle.

"Don't rope him in your pity fest," Annie whined.

"Hey, dad showed me everything. So what if some kid has a fancy glider? You still rocked."

"Maybe, but today is another day proving why you're better," Annie said, sitting back as she finished her ice cream from May.

"I heard, and those kids don't know what they're talking about," Mayday reaffirmed. "we aren't competing over anything. We're sisters."

"So why do I feel like everybody outside our family ignores me?"

"Not everyone's gonna like you," Mayday said as she sat beside her. "Why they felt that way, we may not know. Still, don't get lost trying to get thier attention. Focus on yourself. See what helps makes you unique."

"I guess, still, those boys were unique."

"Normie and Stanley Osborn," Mayday whispered, "feels weird to say thier names."

"I know, right?! Looking back, it wasn't the glider that struck me but thier mannerisms. Never talked to a kid like him, to one so distant."

A knock on the door drew the sister's attention. "Hey," said April, "sounds like things are getting tense. Come on." And so, Mayday and Annie did. Though thier parents told them this was adult talk only, thier curiosity got the better of them. The three huddled together at the top of the staircase, staying hidden in the dark as thier parents talked in the living room.

"I know you two didn't take much, and Liz wasn't always the kindest," Peter said to his wife standing by the front windows, "but I think she means what she said."

With a deep sigh, Mary Jane responded, "If this were any other family, Tiger, I would agree. Heck, I'd be pushing this family to go if it meant the girls meet more kids their ages. Not thier family, however, not with that surname."

"It's been twelve years since that nightmare, and the only people who walked away that night were us, not him."

'Him?' Annie shared a confused expression with her sisters.

"And yet that family continues to thrive off his empire. Have you read about their business ventures in the past few years? It'd make Ayn Rand blush," M.J. firmly retorted. "Liz has even used that fortune to build a new subsidiary, Alchemax.

"I know, they have contracts with S.H.I.E.L.D. Yet Jess relayed that nothing's shady going on."

"Creating a glider scarily similar to his says otherwise.

"You said it was just a coincidence."

"That was before I learned it belonged to an Osborn!"

"Mary Jane," Peter said, his concern evident in his tone as his wife sat down with a tired sigh.

Annie was willing to go down in worry, but Mayday stopped her. Hanging back, Annie noticed April appear sad for thier mom. In thier ways, the trio was stunned at how unnerved thier mother was, especially over a seemingly simple party invitation. 'Who the heck are these Osborns?'

"Sorry..."

"Don't be," Peter assured.

"I just...I can't imagine myself bearing the anxiety knowing our babies are in that dreaded house." 

Momentarily, Peter is silent, both to ponder their own decision and be considerate of his wife's distress. When approached, Peter said, "If it makes you that uncomfortable, then we won't go. Not much point if we don't all go."

With those words, Mayday and April assume that would end it. Neither felt disappointed at that decision; Mayday wasn't there, and April didn't trust them. Annie, however, refused to accept this without an answer. Perhaps this was the bad side of her curiosity, and she was probably being nosy, but Annie refused to accept such a plain answer and needed to know. Thus, even as Mayday grabbed her, Annie shouted, "Why not?"

M.J. gasped, "Annie?!"

'Busted!' her sisters thought.

"Should've figured," Peter sighed.

"I spoke with one of those boys, "Annie said. "He was a bit weird, sure, but who isn't a little weird? I don't think judging him just because of who he's related to is fair." Peter and M.J. stood astonished at their daughter's opinion and said they had shared a meaningful conversation. More especially, they were impressed at how outspoken she was. Annie sincerely asks, "So, who's this guy you keep talking about, and why does he scare you, Mom?"

Revealing themselves, the sisters sat on the couch adjacent to thier parents. "We kinda wanna know, too. If that's okay," Mayday said.

"We," M.J. said, struggling to find the words, "it's just, this is a heavy topic, girls."

"Are you sure you wanna know?" Peter asked. "I'm warning you now, this story ain't for the faint of heart."

Annie looked at her sisters and saw thier silent support. "Yeah, we do."

M.J. sighed, her head on her forehead. "Where do we even start?"

"Well," Annie shrugged, "who's this Liz lady? She talked to you like you were friends."

"We were," Peter answered, "way back in High School. We didn't talk much until she started dating my first-ever best friend."

"Who?"

Digging into old, painful memories, he answered. "Harry. His name was Harry Osborn. He's the father of those boys, Normie and Stanley. Harry was a man who was like a brother to me."

Mayday leaned forward, asking, "Was? You mean he's...gone?"

Peter could only nod. He proceeded to drink some water to cool off. While Mayday respectfully stayed silent, Annie gently asked, "Is that why you don't want to go? Because you miss your best friend?"

"Partly," M.J. said, "I'd be lying if I said I didn't see Harry in those boys' eyes today." Her eyes suddenly turned angry, creating a fierce scowl that shook the sisters. "No...the real reason I refuse is because the stink of that monster still lingers in the Osborn household. The monster who nearly took you away from us." That last sentence, Annie noticed, was uttered as M.J. looked directly into her sister's eyes.

Mayday asked, "Who's this monster?"

"Harry's father, Norman Osborn."

CRACK!

Annie and her sisters jumped at the sudden shatter of glass that was once thier dad's cup. The mere mention of that name made him crush it into sand. Glancing over, Annie picked up how April gripped her head as if she were experiencing a headache. "Sorry," Peter said, brushing away the glass, "been a while since I heard that name. Let me explain, but know I'll be sparing you the grizzly details until your three are old enough, okay?"

"O-okay," Mayday said.

Annie asked, "Who's nor-I mean, that man?"

Peter looked at the blood in his hand, cleaning it with a towel as he began. "He was once the Green Goblin. He was a power-hungry maniacal industrialist who made Oscorp the megacorporation it is today. Through his ruthless, manipulative tactics and grand ambitions, he tried to play god by creating an all-new super formula. What he theorized would showcase a human's true potential instead unleashed a monster that's always been there, that was him."

Annie cowered, imagining what this man looked like, her mind imagining a hulking, scaly monster.

"He was evil personified, not caring about how he used his power. It was only a matter of time before he became my greatest foe," Peter continued, "He...took away good people, people your mother and I loved and valued." Annie could practically feel the great pain in her dad's voice as M.J. tightened her grip on his ring hand. "His rampage eventually destroyed him. At least, we thought it did until that legacy compelled Harry to follow in his father's footsteps. I tried to save him from it, but instead, he saved me. He did, but in return, the goblin killed him through the formula toxins." Peter wiped the last of the blood away and turned his Mayday. "He saved his infant son, Stanley, and had another he'll never meet. That's how we thought this sad story had ended until Norman returned to make his last stand. On the day of your births...he kidnapped you and your sister."

Annie could feel her sister's shiver as Mayday tried to keep a steady face. The day April returned to them, thier dad told'em of a man who tried to harm them, but after that, nothing much else was spoken of it since. Nonetheless, Annie remembered the moments April struggled with her memories. Though many things came naturally to her, seeing someone older than her have never played games, listened to music, or remembered basic math was surreal. Though they all helped her along the way, Annie couldn't imagine how much it hurt just not remembering half of your current life. 'And all because of this, Norman.'

Mayday took a shaky breath, as did April, who felt the most uncomfortable of the three. She mustered the courage to ask, "Is he why I can't remember?"

M.J. sighed, "We...don't know, but it's possible, baby."

Though unsatisfied with the answer, April was no less disturbed by the thought. Annie saw as Mayday squeezed April's hand to comfort her.

"After what felt like an eternity," M.J. continued, "your Uncle Kaine rescued you, and eventually, we found you too, April."

Annie asked, "But what happened to erm, you-know-who?"

"He died," Peter revealed, "by own his actions." As much as he hid it, there was a bit of reassurance in his tone.

"Good riddance," April spat out with a quiet but venomous resentment.

"All that remains of him is his tattered mask. I checked for days after, looking for any clue he lived, but found nothing. As Spider-Man, I don't want to say that I'm glad and that death is ever the solution. As your father, well...I've slept well, knowing the evil of the goblin will never harm my children or family again."   

Annie has heard her fair share of harrowing stories from family and school, but nothing hit home like this. A part of him feels the weight of every word shared by thier parents and is glad they aren't shy about the past, yet she couldn't help but feel the odd one out in this discussion. This happened years before she was born, and that time displacement created a disconnect from what her sisters were experiencing. The thought of being held in the arms of such a cruel man made her stomach sick to no end. At the very least, this made her even more appreciative that they were here, at home, and a part of her life.

"Now you see why we wished to wait to share some things," M.J. said, "The truth is often hard to swallow."

"After hearing that, though I believe there's no harm going, I'd understand if none of you wish to go," Peter stated, waiting for a response.

In her rational mind, Annie came to one answer, though it didn't take a genius to know it would be unpopular. "But they're not him," she announced. "Your spider-sense didn't go off with them around, Dad. I bet if Mayday were there, she'd also sense nothing. Normie and Stanley are kids, just like us. This monster has nothing to do with them, and you said thier dad saved you. If Harry was a good person, why aren't they?"

"Because they're Osborns," April bitterly said, "once an Osborn, always an Osborn." Without uttering another word, she got up and returned to her room.

Though dejected, Annie doesn't blame her. She wasn't there, but they were. Still, Mayday grabbed her hand and said, "I think Annie's right. If this is a chance to rebuild something between our families, we should take it. The worst that could happen is that it's a boring party, right?"

Peter and M.J. look into each other's eyes, holding hands as if silently communicating through thier gestures. Mary Jane stood up and declared a compromise. "You and Annie will go with your father. April and I will stay and go out that evening. Been wanting to spend together with just her anyway." With that, thier mother heads upstairs to check on April.

Annie felt bad that barely half of the family would go, but these old wounds were still fresh, and the Osborns didn't live the most relatable lifestyle. Still, this may be the start of something new, something great. Thier father kneeled to thier level and told them, "Okay, but if we're gonna do this, we first must be ready."

Annie asked, "How?"

"We..." Peter said, whipping a fresh set of coupons, "are shopping for dresses."

"Oh Yeah!" Annie cheered.

"Whyyyyyy..." Mayday whined.

[A week later...]

A car pulls up to the pristine and futuristic Alchemax HQ building. The Parker family steps out when a woman in a black suit greets them. "Hello, Mr. Parker. I'm Ms. Janurary, Osborn's executive and personal assistant. I hope you and your kids are doing well this evening."

Feeling as cute as a button in her pink and red dress, Annie cheered, " It is!"

After denying an assortment of dresses, a satisfied Mayday arrived with a fresh suit and responded, "I hope so."

"Thanks again for the ride," Peter said, donning his best suit. "So, which way to the elevator?"

"That won't be necessary. I'm here to escort you to the Party. The Osborns can't wait to see you."

"Feeling's mutual," Peter said with slight trepidation.

Though new to this, the Parkers decided to follow January inside. As they did, Annie wondered, 'Nearly a week without another weird dream. It has to happen eventually. That couldn't have been a coincidence. Either way, Aunt Jess may have a point. Maybe there is something more to me than just powers, and maybe talking to these people could help me see what that is.'

To Be Continued...

A/N: I hope you've enjoyed this issue! Writing this chapter has been hectic mainly because I'm trying not to make it feel like it's doing too much and steering focus away from Annie. After several drafts, I have the second half of this planned out, along with the final portion covering April. Some first appearances of big names, including Trans Icon Jessica Parker and this universe's version of the Osborn Family. I blended several elements and decided to give Normie his brother from 616 to parallel the sisters and give him someone to bounce off of.

So, please share any opinions you have on this chapter. I'm more than happy to hear any of them.

Finally, an important update: I'm going on a family trip overseas beginning the last week of May, which will last around two weeks. I'll put some work in, but for the most part, expect me to be on break until I return the first week of June and get back to work. I'll release the second half before I go on my trip and finish April in June. 

Chapter Text

A humble abode sits in the middle of Harlem, the fiery glow inside its walls emphasizing a warmness against the cold winter night. Beside the fireplace, Mary Jane noticed frosticles began outside one of the windows. "Some light snowfall, and already there's ice forming."

Her host's bandaged-up hand hands M.J. a cup of hot cocoa. "Here. This may warm you up."

"Thanks, Jess," M.J. said, smiling at the famed superpowered Private Investigator Jessica Jones-Cage. Taking the cup, the sweet aroma reminds her that Luke's hot chocolate recipe is out of this world, like something from a Christmas movie. Making conversation, M.J. asked, "Another work-related injury, Jess?"

Jessica looks at her bandaged hand. "This?"

"Yeah. You got it during a pursuit.

"Ha! Naw, it's dumber than that. My latest case was a tricky one, and I got so pissed that I lashed out by bashing through the hood of a car. You know, like a dumbass."

"You're too hard on yourself, baby," uttered her husband's deep, warm voice, the invulnerable Mayor Luke Jones-Cage. He patted the empty couch seat beside him, the prospect of which his wife gladly accepted as she flopped down, utterly exhausted. 

"I know," Jessica mumbled, "glad I'm taking a break this month. Helped clear my head a lot."

CRACK!!!

"Mostly cleared..." Jessica sighed. The three heard the noise from upstairs, so they went to Luke and Jessica's daughter's room. "Dani, what was that?"

12-year-old Danielle Cage and April Parker sat on the wooden floor, casually playing one of the latest fighting games. April shrugged and asked, "What was what?"

"April," M.J. said, insisting on an honest answer.

"It was me!" Danielle admitted and quickly shuffled back to reveal a fresh crack on the floor. "I kept losing matches, got mad, and forgot my super strength ."

"Still bad at keeping secrets, I see," April sighed.

"Well, that won't do," Luke said, stepping inside. He stands over his daughter before sitting down and taking the controller. "Apply what we learn from the gym to any fight, Dani. Where do you think you're lacking."

"Uh-oh," April gasped.

"April's combos are too good, Daddy. I can't get the EX meter to fill fast enough to counter."

"Mmm, you're not utilizing your character's strengths. And from this replay, you're treating your zoner like a rushdown character, " Luke advised, much to his wife's and M.J.'s amusement.

"Thanks again for having us over," Mary Jane said. Heading back home after dinner would've been pretty lonely." Mary Jane didn't say it, but there was another reason for her visit. April has been quieter since she and Peter shared their history with the Osborns. She'd have a shorter temper than usual whenever she wasn't staring off; her mind wasn't miles away. Whether it be with them or Mayday, April was quick to snap back. Thankfully, there were ways to calm her down, such as Danielle having a tight bond with each of the girls to help them have fun and take their minds away from what's troubling them. What was more challenging to address was the nightmares. April's always had them, but they've since begun to occur every night for the past two weeks. Mary Jane tried having her see a doctor, but April was resistant, trying to act like she wasn't bothered despite the dried tears on her cheeks.

'She won't tell me what she sees in these dreams,' Mary Jane thought, watching April innocently distracted by the game. 'If it's what I think it is, she might...no, she will find out sooner than we wanted. We must find the right time to tell her because if we don't...'

"Hey," Jessica said, snapping M.J. out of her thoughts. Jessica saw how troubled she was when she said, "If you need help, you got friends willing to lend a hand."

"Of course," M.J. sighed at the small but comforting reminder.

"I hope Peter and the girls are having fun. Those types of parties sound boring as hell," Jessica continued.

"I'm sure they're—" M.J. said before her phone rang. She answered and heard a familiar voice informing her of critical news.

Part 3: Surprise Guests!

[About an hour before...]

Annie felt something. It was an itch at first, then a tingle. Suddenly, it grew too strong to grasp before overwhelming her senses. "HOT!" she cried, spitting out the spicy shrimp that she had carelessly taken a big bite of.

"Small bites, Annie," her father said, handing her a big cup of refreshing water. As Annie chugged the cold water, her family stood by one of several snack bars scattered across the main party floor. Tall, thick glass windows adorned the walls, showcasing a fantastic view of Manhattan. The walls resembled traditional high-class architecture, yet within them, a blue glow revealed the Alchemax tech buried beneath. Joyvilous holiday music rings in the air with live performers playing classical renditions of these classic jingles & jangles. Once the shrimp's spiciness faded, Peter asked, "Well, Annie, how's it feel to be in a big, fancy party?"

"Like a fish out of water," Annie said.

Mayday shrugged, "like people are always watching us. At least my senses aren't going off."

"The Feeling's mutual, kids," Peter said. Their family never found this type of life appealing. Thankfully, this would only be for one night, and the sisters could invite the party hosts to somewhere more their style of fun. Peter munched on one of the sweet cakes, as did Mayday, and both reveled in its delectable taste. "Mmph! Foods incredible, though."

"Dad, please tell me we're taking extras home."

"I like where your head is, Mayday. Quick, grab the small bags!"

As her family snatched some of the best sweets they could find, Annie stood by, thankful she still had her taste buds. Suddenly, a familiar tingle coursed from her tongue to her head. She wondered if the spice was still until her forehead suddenly grew hot. It was as if a fever had struck her. However, she didn't feel nauseous. Instead, her vision became dizzy as she stepped away in a daze. Suddenly, vague voices echoed in her ears, and with every blink, some strange light flashed around her. It all happened so fast that Annie could barely utter a word before she clutched the side of her head.

"-from a father."

"Rude little-!"

"You got a gift."

"Anna..."

"Wha-?" Annie mumbled. She's turned around by Mayday, who grabbed her by the shoulders.

"I said, where are you going?" Mayday clarified.

Annie rubbed her eyes, the flashing of colors gone. "Going? I was going somewhere?"

Peter approached her, placing the back of his hand on her forehead. "Did you have a fever just now?" he asked out of concern. "It's gone now, but Annie, if you're feeling sick, we should take you home."

"No, I'm fine. It was nothing..."

"There. You. ARE!" The Parkers turn around to find Liz Allen-Osborn, champagne glass in hand, approaching them in a jolly mood. Annie found Liz's dress to look like something one of those Disney princesses she loves to watch would wear. There wasn't even a wrinkle on the white, precious fabric. Altogether, the dress seemed worth more than their family car. Annie then noticed Liz staring at her dad. "Oh my," Liz gasped, "even after all these years, you still fill a suit well, Petey."

Peter coughs awkwardly at the comment, "Uh, yeah, my wife thinks so too."

"Mayday, what'd she say it like that?" Annie asked.

"Uhh, ask Mom."

Their discussion drew Liz's attention. "Oh my gosh! They must've inherited M.J.'s fashion sense, Petey, because your kids look adorable!"

"I'm not adorable. I'm snazzy," Mayday clarified, proudly brushing her suit.

'Wow, first time wearing one, and Mayday's really into it,' Annie noted

"I'm glad the three of you are enjoying yourselves so far."

"Well, we know a good party when we see one, even if it is quite different from our usual parties," Peter said.

"And what kind of parties are those?"

"Well," Annie said with a big grin, "the kind that includes top-of-the-line music by famed musician Bouncy E Bunny and his awesome band."

"Ahh...Peter, whoisthat?"

Peter leaned over and whispered, "The mechanized mascot of Annie's favorite party site: Bouncy E Bunny's Arcade & Eatery."

"Oh," Liz said, a shiver down her spine at the mere thought of the germs and childish ruckus that littered such a place. "Ahm, well, I'm already jealous over the level of talent you've acquired. If anything, this very party is learning more on the cheap side. Something I'm quite embarrassed about, but that's what happens when a schedule like mine is very tight. Most of these guests, for example, are my top employees with their families. Some, however..."

"Mrs. Osborn?"

Annie and her family peeked over to see a group of men and women, each wearing a pin on their clothes that bore the emblems of several companies. In front of them was a woman dressed professionally in a wrinkled suit and donning cleanly cut short black hair. Annie noticed that the woman's blue eyes had a subtle glow.

"Yes, Ms. Janurary?"

"Several representatives have been very insistent on speaking to you," January said in an almost robotic tone.

"Indeed, President Osborn. If you don't mind to share a few words with Roxxon and-"

"Don't listen to his old-school pitch," a man interrupted, "how about a word with the Assembly of A.I.M.? Dr. Rappaccini has recently-"

"Thanks, but no thanks," Liz abruptly said. "If the music and entertainment didn't make it obvious, this is a holiday party, not a pitch meeting."

Annie could hear the tiredness behind Liz's voice, yet Liz still had an authoritative tone behind her words, so much so that it seemed like it would disperse this crowd. The next moment, Annie witnessed the tallest man of the bunch step forward. He donned some dark shades and spoke in a deep, commanding tone. "You heard our host," his voice boomed, "if you wish to pitch your latest schemes, make an appointment first." Despite the finality of his words, he spoke elegantly, almost evoking the imagery of a gentle giant. Annie also gawked at his stature. Standing nearly seven feet tall, gazing up at this person was like looking at a mountain. Upon shooshing the crowd away, the giant bowed to Liz, saying, "Lovely party so far, Elizabeth. Tell me, whose chef did you hire to make such a killer calamari?"

"P-presidet Roman," Liz gasped.

'They know each other?' Annie and her family similarly thought.

"Chef Bernard from Lyon, France," January answered.

"Aha! Of course," Roman said, "Only a lemon freshly plucked from his native Corsica could produce such a sweet aftertaste with every bite."

January continued, "I also believe my creator is curious as to why you greet us with your presence, Mr. Roman?"

'Creator?!' Annie thought. 'I knew it! I knew her eyes looked funny! She's a heckin' robot!'

"Enjoying the holidays, of course!" He chuckled before spotting Annie's father. "Mr. Parker? Of course, I've nearly forgotten your small business down at Queens. How's that going?"

"It's a non-profit foundation," Peter corrected, "and things are going smoothly."

"Very good to hear, Mr. Parker," Roman said as he shook Peter's hand. Annie and Mayday could see how tight Roman's grip was. "Say, if you're ever looking for help, we're always open to a partnership," Roman offered, whipping out an Empire Unlimited business card. "Who knows? Perhaps Empire City will have your organization's name plastered across its main square."

However, Peter firmly replied, "I don't do that kind of work."

"Oh...," Roman said, eyebrow raised until he glanced at Annie. "Wonderful kids you have. She reminds me of my little one."

"How so?" Peter inquires.

"I know a genius when I see one." Annie looked away as he said that, gazing out the window to avoid eye contact. Outside, she could see this 'Empire City' in the distance. Located off the shores of New York, it was a massive project with the express purpose of building the city of the future. Beyond Corp., Alchemax, and Empire Unlimited were the city's lead architects, and the trio dubbed it as 'humanity's answer to Krakoa.' At least, that is what Annie heard the adults say, which the news keeps proclaiming it as. Feeling Roman's gaze turn away, Annie overheard him say, "From one father to another, I respect your decision. Have you got to do what's best for them, right? Have a pleasant evening, Mr. Parker."

Upon Roman's leaving, Annie noticed Liz took another swig of her champagne and sighed. "January, can you take care of things from here?"

"Of course, Mrs. Osborn," January said with a slight bow. "Mr. Parker, perhaps your children will have more fun with kids their age. Mind if I escort them?"

"Sounds good, Ms. Roboto. You two agree?"

Mayday nodded, but Annie took a second to do the same. 'I heard it,' she thought, 'I heard him say those words before, but I never met him until now.' The sisters are escorted through the crowds of adults and are led to a door leading to a stone balcony. "Mr. Osborn is outside. Please wait here. I'll locate his brother," she informed before leaving the sisters.

After January left, Annie suddenly felt butterflies in her stomach. "Uhhh, hold on," she insisted, shaking her hands as she tried to breathe.

"Deep breaths, Annie," Mayday steadily said. She grabbed her sister's hand and helped synchronize their breaths, keeping Annie from becoming lightheaded.

"Okay, I'm good," Annie sighed calmly. "Urgh, why is talking to anybody so hard?"

Opening the door, Annie and Mayday peeked out to find the 12-year-old brother gazing out the misty winter night. "Normie?" Annie blared out.

"Wha-?! Oh, right. You're Stan's science buddy." He points at Mayday with an unnerved look, "And you...look familiar."

Mayday giggled at his nervousness. "You expected my twin?" she asked, pumping her fist in the air, "face it, Normie Osborn, you hit the real jackpot."

Normie's nervousness vanishes and is replaced by a scoff, not quite clicking with Mayday's comment and display. "Have I? Guess we'll see by the end of tonight. Just know I'm not looking for new friends; I only agreed to meet because of my brother's and mother's insistence."

Mayday optimistic asked, "aaaand now that we're here, why not make the best of it?"

"I suppose," Normie groaned, "I'm aware of Anna-May's name, but who's this 'jackpot' I'm speaking to?"

She extended her hand with a smile and said, "May, May Parker. My sisters have interesting opinions about you and your bro."

"Normie," he replied, shaking May's hand but less as a kid and more like a businessman. "And do they now? Hopefully, they aren't more annoying than other people's opinions about us. Quite the firm handshake, by the way."

"Really? Haha, that's a first," Annie said, trying to downplay Mayday's superhuman grip. "How could you tell?"

"In this family, we've been taught how to read any potential competitor, down to their handshake. Such is the life for the heir of Oscorp."

"That's...intense. At our home, my dad taught me sewing," Mayday shared.

"I don't see how helpful that'd be, but that sound...quaint?"

There's an awkward silence after Normie's response before Annie asks, "So, what are you doing out here alone?"

This is immediately answered when someone kicks open the balcony door. They sharply face this person, a girl around May's age, sporting the biggest smile upon locking eyes with Normie. "Pumpkin!" Normie shielded his face from the flurry of smooches from the blonde, blue-eyed girl who was now tightly hugging him. Annie and Mayday gagged at such a sight; they had never seen a girl act so clingy till now. "Oh, Normie, my Pumpkin! I've been looking everywhere for you! You weren't ditching me, were you? And after far sooo much time being separated."

"N-no, Elan, of course not," Normie muttered. He puts on the fakest smile the sister's seen, yet Elan is oblivious.

Annie whispered, "Sis, what am I looking at?"

"Whatever it is, it's gross."

Eventually, Normie wiggles himself out of Elan's embrace. "Normie? Hehe, don't make me chase you again!" Elan playfully says until he suddenly hides behind the sisters. She looks squints at Mayday, eyeing her suit and complexion. "Oooh, you must be kids to tonight's servants! I mean, you do look just like them."

'WHAT?!' both Annie and Mayday thought, shocked at Elan's ignorance.

"Pardon me, sweet Elan," Normie nervously said, "but I was spending quality time with my best friend, May, and her sister, Anna-May."

"Best Friend?"

"Just go with it, May," Normie whispered.

"Oh," Elan said, a sudden twitch in her eye. "But Normie, pumpkin, wouldn't your time be better spent with a girl who is fairer?" She flips her long hair to emphasize her expensive make-up.

"Fairer, eh? That must've cost a fortune," Mayday said.

"May, is it? What I'm wearing's worth more than you'll ever earn in your entire life," Elan said sweetly, but her eyes slyly glared at Mayday.

Annie caught a whiff of Elan's perfume and winced at its intensity. "Blah! Why do you smell weird?"

"It's not weird! You rude little girl!" Elan shouts. Once again, Annie is quietly surprised at the choice of words she's hearing. First Roman and now Elan. Annie swore she had heard their words before, but how and why? The sisters blocked any attempt Elan made to hug Normie. "Come on, Pumpkin. Let's leave these meanies. Who wanna chat brats like them anyway?"

Suddenly, another surprise guest appeared. "Normie! And friends," said Stanley Osborn, "I've been looking for you. Care to join me?"

"Gladly," all three said in unison.

"No," Elan defied, "Not gladly! Stan!"

"Sorry, Elan, but Normie and I promised to spend the night with the Parkers. And an Osborn always keeps his word." Before Elan could respond, the brothers pulled the sisters back inside, through the crowd, and into one of the elevators. "Phew! Another successful escape, bro!"

"Thanks, brother," Normie sighed. "And January?"

"I told her Mom requires assistance. She should leave us alone for a while.

"Hey, so who's Ms. Trust Fund?" Annie asked.

"Annie, don't quote April," Mayday reminded, "But seriously, who's the racist?"

"Elan DeJunae. I knew her since the 1st grade," Normie shares. "Her family is politically powerful in Europe, making them perfect friends to our family. I also remember her skipping classes that teach the importance of tolerance."

"I'm sure that's a coincidence," Mayday said sarcastically. "Has anybody also told her she puts Pepé Le Pew to shame with how clingy she is?"

"Understatement of the year, sis," Annie said. At first, it was a snicker, but eventually, both sisters and Stanley shared a hearty laugh while Normie smirked. The elevator took them away from the party's ground and into the more quiet and modernist lounge used by executives. "Seems pretty boring," Annie comments.

"On the surface." Stanley pulls out a remote to open a secret door. Entering, the sisters gasp at the sight of a fully decked-out arcade room. Stanley strolls over to a blank wall and presses a hidden button, activating a mechanism, revealing a refrigerator stacked with fresh drinks inside the wall. "Normie and I have little hideouts like these," he shared, popping a fresh can, "It's a quick and easy way to escape board meetings and not go insane with boredom."

"Indeed. Though having girls here is a new and odd situation," Normie said.

Annie and Mayday cross their arms over Normie's comment. "Suddenly, you're sounding like a good fit for Elan," Annie said.

"Yeah, chill out, bro. Let's at least show them around," Stanley insisted

"One time wouldn't hurt," Normie muttered. "So, which game should we play first?" Now that they had a chance to get to know these brothers, the sisters also figured it wouldn't hurt to use this opportunity to have fun.

Mayday helped herself to the refreshments, asking, "How about something up your alley? I've heard you're quite the sporty kid, Normie."

"Yes, and?"

"Come on, Richie Rich, let's play something sporty! Don't tell me you don't have those arcade sports games."

Normie suddenly showed a flash of confidence. "I can show ya one better," he said slightly smugly. Lead through the main hub of the hangout, Mayday is led to a door near a balcony, and on the other side, it was certainly a surprise. Mayday expected several things when imagining what a rich kid did to have fun, like perhaps a gold-plated game system or a big, fancy bar filled with every type of soda. However, she didn't expect Normie Osborn to own a whole indoor basketball court.

"Woah," Mayday awed. It wasn't much bigger than a playground's basketball, but the fact there was one inside this building was very cool to her. "Wait, when did this get installed?"

"Oh, part of this used to be part of the employee lounge, this court included. However, one day, Mother handed this area to us. Stanley and I added the rest of the space, and I've been getting extra practice here since."

"Kinda sucky she took away something from her workers," Mayday commented.

"It's her building, and she has the right to do what she wants." Normie's answer hardly appealed to Mayday, but she remained silent. "I'm guessing you like the sport, too?"

"I'm attracted to the court like a moth to a lamplight," Mayday boasted.

"Well, I'm sure that sounds cool in the schoolyard," Normie said nonchalantly, grabbing a fresh basketball, "but will that passionate sentiment hold up against a professional?"

He tossed the ball at her; Mayday caught it and smirked at the challenge. "You're not the only professional in this room." In no time flat, the two were in the middle of the court, and Mayday made the first move, her eyes locked on the opponent's basket. "First to ten points wins!" she declared as the game began. Amid this back and forth, Mayday sees that her research on the brothers is paying off. She already let known her knowledge of Normie's interviews, sharing his keen interests, but she's also read up on his sports record on his private school's team. From her own experience, Normie was a surprisingly good team player, but none of his past games painted him as a good solo player. Mayday herself always tries to balance her approach and be the lead for her fellow players, but she holds her own against overwhelming odds when the opponents have her cornered.

Normie was still a trained player and got a few good overhead shots, but the boy's nerves were showing in his sluggish attempt at defense. Point after point, Mayday brushed aside his vain attempts. She had seen this mistake on Normie's part before; he was wasting too much stamina on trying to dunk the ball. Even while holding back, Mayday was running laps around him, reading his movements and guessing his next move like she had done several times before. The polyester basket wobbles after being struck by a basketball, frustrating Normie. This missed shot led to the perfect opening for his opponent, Mayday, to dunk the ball into the net easily. Thus, circumstances created the perfect opportunity for her to show off the last of her athletic skills, and Normie wasn't about to throw in the towel. One of the previous things Mayday noticed from Normie is that, while quite skilled, he gets too irritated if a game plan doesn't play out the way he wants to.

Normie tried to swipe the ball away from Mayday, but her grip was too strong, and she threw the ball into the basket. The buzzard goes off, cementing Mayday as the winner with ten points to Normie's three points. She barely broke a sweat while Normie lay collapsed on the court. "And that's why my coach promoted me to small forward," Mayday said proudly, spinning the ball with the tip of her finger.

"Unbelievable," Normie gasped, breathless, "such versatility! The power behind your throws is nigh-perfect."

"I'm not one for praise, but feel free to keep going," Mayday chuckled.

"Tell me, Parker, how did you learn to play like that?"

Mayday gave a nonchalant answer. "Pfft! Basketball's practically second nature to me."

"Don't insult me with fake modesty," Normie said, sitting up. "You're just some kid from Nowhere, Queens. The level of skills you showed requires a bunch of training. You MUST have some talented instructor or something, but how?"

"Or perhaps you gotta re-evaluate your preconceptions, buddy boy." She tossed the ball back at him. It didn't take long for Normie to suddenly turn his back on her and walk to a balcony outside. "For all his posturing, he's acting like a sore loser." She didn't care much for such irritable behavior, especially from someone who acts so sophisticated. Still, Mayday has dealt with more annoying boys. She grabs drinks for the both of them and joins him outside. She pressed the cold drink to his face to get his attention, "Here ya go." He stayed silent, so Mayday mimicked his voice, saying, "Thank you, May Parker."

"I don't sound like that," he mumbled, finally taking the drink.

"Are you...sulking?"

Normie stood there, silently pondering while drinking his can, until he finally answered. "Hardly professional of me to stay silent, especially to a girl. I'm sulking, if you must know; it's simply that I've never been beaten before," Normie admits. "Mother encouraged me to sign up when I was barely six, and as with everything else in my life, I was given all that one needs to be a great player. I've been playing and winning ever since...until you showed up. I've never expected you to be so amazing, May Parker. I'm suddenly struck with a new fear that my skills are inadequate, knowing that a girl in a suit outclasses me."

"Wow," Mayday scoffed, "have you never heard of the word 'humble' before? Normie, this was all simply a casual game. You got humbled by one defeat, and now you're treating it as a championship game. It was all just for fun."

"An Osborn has little time for fun, and we don't get humbled either, " Normie retorts. "We do things right the first time, every time. We can't afford long setbacks."

Mayday resisted rolling her eyes. "With all this money, your family can survive setbacks better than everyone else."

"Not after it nearly cost Dad his entire livelihood." Normie noticed Mayday flinched at his little outburst, regretfully turning his head away. "Sorry, ignore that. Nothing but old family troubles."

Mayday could practically feel the next words she wanted to say in her throat, eager to be let out. "Did...your mom share how our dads were best friends in the past?"

"She did. It should have been obvious, especially after she showed us pictures of a familiar man beside my dad." Normie faces Mayday, asking, "You sure your family isn't from old money?"

"No way, Jose," Mayday chuckled. "My dad's side immigrated from Poland forever ago with nothing but the clothes on their backs. My mom's Mama came from Mexico. Married a writer after moving here, but I don't know if they had much money."

"You don't?"

"My mom doesn't share as much as my Dad."

"And yet, despite that, your father proved exceptionally great in earning my Dad's friendship. Is your dad that smart and assertive?"

"He's pretty smart, yeah. He's assertive when something dangerous happens." A smile spread across her face as she finished, "He's also the kindest, funniest, and best dad in the world."

"Humor isn't a quality I expected my dad to find charming," Normie said dismissively. However, Mayday sees the facade fall when Normie mutters, "Still...it must be nice to share a laugh with your father."

"Normie, I'm sure your dad is happy you're doing well," Mayday said earnestly. "You may be stubbornly headstrong and long-winded with your speeches, but you got passion."

"But would this have been enough? Would he be proud if he was around?" Normie questions. "Even if I never met him, he left many lessons for us, lessons I want to understand and answer for. Like how he dealt with life's problems. It, I don't know, helps make me feel like he's still with me."

"My friend Olivia said something similar," Mayday shared. "Surely your Dad's already proud."

"Not until I reach the heights he reached," Normie reaffirmed, his commitment to this idea clear as day.

"But why?"

"For justice," he answered, "I don't mean to do justice only for all he's done for this city; I want justice for what was done to him. I want Justice against the man who took him away from my family. One day, I'll find that Spider-Man."

Mayday silently held her breath, a chill down her neck from mentioning her father's hero mantle, out of the mouth of an Osborn no less. Her mind races with imagery of their family's past battles and fears those days still have a grip on this boy. "Uhh, you might want to be specific?" she said nervously.

"Who else do you think I'm referring to? The one that terrorized this city when both our dads were young."

"But he's gone, Normie. Everyone knows that."

"But what if-" Normie said, stopping himself from sounding absurd. "I know. It's just so frustrating to see people and heroes alike praise him when he's a murderer. Heck, he disappeared after my dad was killed. Wouldn't you feel angry at someone if you knew they took away someone important to you?"

Normie's tone and choice of words were definitely what one would expect from a kid born from such affluence. At this point, Mayday finds it tiring to deal with, but part of her wants to know about Normie. She wants to know how much of the Goblin is in him. She knows it is rude to make assumptions and was taught to see the best in people. She believed all that, but this is also the son of a man who battled her dad to death and the grandson of the man who took April from her. Annie may be here with a peace offering and compassion; Mayday wishes for that and is trying; it's why she's here. Secretly, however, Mayday joined in case traces of this family's darker legacy lingered inside these boys or, even worse, those villainous impulses decided to lash out.

Every fiber in her body hoped she was just delusional and she would be inclined to agree. And yet, seeing April, her very twin, act so distressed was fair enough grounds to validate her concerns. Mayday answered, "I don't know, but I don't want to be angry forever."

[Meanwhile...]

For Annie, it takes no time for something interesting to catch her eye. Stanley showed off a much more laid-back way of speaking while they hopped from game to game. Be it ping-pong or the dancing machine, his demeanor was like that of an older brother. Eventually, Annie's exploration led her to a set of doors with glowing lights peeking through. "Ooooh, what's in here?" Upon stepping on a glowing tile inside, the rest of the panels in this room lit up white, all connected to form a screen that opened up a holographic menu.

"Oh yeah, this room," Stanley said excitedly, "it's only a prototype, but this is my personal VR simulation game room. I finished it last year and have been updating it since."

"You built your very own sim room?!" Annie then watched as Stanely input commands into the settings. Through holograms and sections of the room re-shaping itself, the room transformed into a life-like ruins of a city block. It's the kind of wreckage in line with the aftermath of a superhuman battle. Annie couldn't believe how real it already felt. It's like she was kicking real rubble and smelling real smoke. Her gaze turned upward to see some of New York's most notorious supervillains were out of the debris. "That's Doctor Octopus," she gasped, the four-armed mechanical genius looking straight from the old newspaper photos. Two more suddenly appear beside him. "He's teamed up with that creepy alien guy and that lizard monster!"

"Seems like the day needs saving," Stanely announced. With a snap of his fingers, the room formed a simulated glider beneath his feet, and a holographic projection changed his suit into some purple armor. "How about it, sidekick?" Annie looks down to see the room change her appearance into a generic superhero look. "What powers do you feel like playing with? There's astral projection, precognition, psionic powers..."

"Urgh, anything but those lame powers!" If this were any other game, she'd eagerly program the game to give her spider powers and go nuts. Unfortunately, Stanley Osborn was right there. "Oooh, shoot. I can't decide. How about letting the game pick?" At random, the game added bright colors to her suit, and Annie suddenly began to levitate in the air. "Whoa! I can fly!"

"Try to keep up, sidekick," Stanley said as he flew towards the supervillains.

"Sidekick?" Annie clenched her hands into fists and flew after the villains like a speeding bullet. "Haha! We'll see about that!" Though Stanley tried to fire rockets at the opponents, not only did they tend to miss, but Annie's incredible powers meant she frequently struck the villains first. Annie grew more confident in every attack she dished out. This was yet another impressive display of Annie's ingenuity in Stanley's eyes. However, to Annie, this was her living out her hopes of becoming a hero like her father before her. While she's not as vocal about it as April, she quietly yearns to be an equal to her sisters, especially Mayday. Sure, the rush of the NYC airbrushing her hair is super fun, but even at her age, she believed such power was the personal boost she's been looking for, to grow and do something great with that power, just like Mayday would, just like how her dad would.

"Last one!" she shouts, flying fast and ramming herself into the back of the old Doc Ock, sending him flying toward the streets below. "Yes!" In her brief moment of celebration, she lost track of one of the opponents and was nearly ambushed by the digital Venom. She noticed in the last second, screaming in fear at such a terrifying sight until a high-pitched sonic grenade was thrown by Stanley and glued onto Venom. With the last enemy defeated by its weakness, the simulation congratulates the winners before returning to the menu.

"That was SO fun!" Annie cheered. "How'd you able to program the AI like that? They felt so lifelike and scary!"

"This may be a bit hard to believe, but from my father's old collection," Stanley shared, brushing his hand on the digital glider.

"Oh...umm, that's a surprising place to find references from."

"I know, right?!"

'He seems surprised. Does he know who his dad is?' Annie wondered, asking, "How'd you even find them?"

"Well, what began as a simple clean up over at our mansion became me finding out my Dad had stashed away all this hi-def footage and dusty old files of these villains. They were all labeled under 'studies.' And, get this: each of them had Spider-Man in them. I was so confused at first until it hit me...my dad was a Spidey fan!"

"Phew," Annie sighed, "oh! Really?!"

Stanley chuckled, "Could there be any other explanation?" He pulls out his phone, showing Annie photos of her father dressed as Spider-Man and swinging across the city. Where Stanely sees fan photos, Annie sees a hunter tracking his prey. "Went on a bit of a rabbit hole, to be honest. He was practically his number one fan, probably even inspiring his work that reshaped the family business, up until he...well, until he was gone from our lives."

"Wait, so your dad's...gone? Like, gone gone?"

Stanley waves his hand, saying, "Yeah. I was barely a year old when he died. Can't feel sad over something I can't even remember."

"I'm sorry," Annie said, pretending to be surprised, an endeavor that proved harder than she thought.

"Well, in my eyes, all that matters is the family I do have," Stanley said, smiling at the home screen of his phone, which consisted of a family photo of him, Normie, and their mother. "I respect that path she's forging for us, and I wanna take the next big step in my life someday when I'm older."

"Is that why you keep building these gadgets?"

"Yep, but I say it's more than just building the impossible, especially if there's no purpose behind it," Stanley proclaimed. "I think everyone has something to prove. For special kids like us, we gotta prove we can be better leaders than what came before."

Annie scoffs, "I wouldn't call myself 'special.'"

"Don't be so modest," Stanley encouraged. "No other kid I met came as close to one-upping my tech as you. You got a gift; cultivate it! What's stopping us from using these gifts as we see fit?"

Annie paused because she had heard these words for the third time that night. Except this time, she has an answer passed down from her parents. "Responsibility," she said.

Stanley responded casually, "Oh, well, yeah. That's a given."

"Not always for certain people; at least, that's how my dad thinks."

"And what do you think?" Stanley asked, to which Annie had no clear answer. "Hey, wanna go to another match?"

"How about we go play something else? This super stuff is more intense than I-"

A sharp gasp suddenly, Annie. That pesky headache has returned. She initially shuts her eyes, thinking it was motion sickness from the simulation, but the ache persists in the darkness. She hears Stanley's voice utter, "If you say so. Computer, end simulation." Opening her eyes, she follows him out of the room, the game's mechanisms seemingly shutting down. However, one step before exiting the door, Annie's face collides with a wall. She falls backward, the open door before her gone in the blink of an eye, and the pain in her nose is very real.

"What's was..." she murmured, the ache in her head becoming worse, this time faster than before. All around her, the room re-ignited despite Stanley's command. The whole space glitched out, strobing flashing lights right in Annie's face, freaking her out and causing her head to spin. "Mayday! Stanley! Turn it off!" Despite her cries, she saw nor heard either of them and sat stuck in this room that was beginning to scare her. The pain in her head then became truly excruciating, like her very skull was being split open. As if compelled by some force, Annie's eyes shot open, the flashing lights gone. All around her, there was nothing but webs.

It was like she was inside a long tunnel made of spider webs, the outside of which was a bright blue space. The pain of the headache ever so slightly rescinds, leading Annie to take a breath and touch the web. The vibration lit the web up, sparkling with red and orange energy, and I heard the echoes of this travel down this endless web. Squinting her eyes, she sees countless other webs like the one she was sitting in—all interconnected, lit up by dazzling colors, and creating new threads themselves. "It's...like a great, big web." Annie didn't know why she said that or even made such a comparison; it all felt right. Brushing her fingers against the web, it felt almost alive.

Pressing her thumb further on a web strand, her vision is suddenly struck with a vision. Her environment changed as the simulation did, and the world became entirely alien. She was on top of a tall building, with a perfect view of New York City covered in black goo. Ear-piercing screams echo below. Otherworldly creatures crawl up buildings, unified like ants. Amid all this, far ahead, she sees a shadowy figure chased by a small army and swinging in the air. Before getting a better look, she's returned to the great web. "How horrible," she sighed. Gripping the web as her hand shook with fear, she incidentally activates another vision. She's atop Brooklyn Bridge this time, and a fear-inducing shriek is heard above. Lasting only a few moments, Annie saw someone circling the bridge with a glider never seen before. Beneath this rider's purple hood were a pair of yellow eyes. Right before Annie returns to the web, she sees a figure cladded in blue and black swing up and strike him against the face, a figure with her exact hair color.

Annie gasped, "Was that me?"

"That's enough!" Annie spins around, the tunnel of the web behind her, entangled by metal webs, forming a shield and blocking that direction. The source of this was a great machine, unlike anything she'd seen before. It looked crude yet inhumanly advanced, with an aura of strange energy fueling it. It was morphed into the shape of a large chair, with its occupant staring right back at her behind a pair of bright red sunglasses. "One mustn't delve too deep into the future, lest you guarantee doom for thy world to a destiny you just witnessed," said the Elder, who appeared as a pale, old woman donning a one-piece black and blue gown that shrouded her whole body. A long white symbol shaped like a large spider wrapped around the mystical gown.

All her fears and anxiety poured out of her as she demandedly asked, "Who are you? What are you doing to me!?"

"I've not raised even a finger, child," she answered in a raspy voice. Annie felt a hint of tiredness in her tone, making her wonder how old this woman was and how long she'd been here. "Though I understand why you ask such a question with fearful trepidation. It's difficult for any spider person to grasp their powers. Yours, child, goes far deeper. You could see IT."

"See what?"

"Everything." With a wave of the elder's hand, Annie witnessed all the webs light up like a firework show, sparkling with myriad lights. It was as if the heavenly stars against the night sky had begun to swirl around the earth. "Whether by chaotic, multiversal coincidence or the doings of a being above us, you have a gift, Anna-May Parker. Though, other variants I've met tend to prefer Annie."

"O-other variants?!" Taking a deep breath not to freak out, Annie asked, "Y-you mean, THESE are my powers? I don't understand. Dad never told me anything about this!"

"Some things are burdens we must carry alone, Annie," the elder shared solemnly, "what matters now is what you plan to do with such great power."

'With great responsibility...' Annie remembered. She shakes her head and stands before the Elder. "Take me back, please! I don't know if I can deal with this. Plus, I don't have time for whatever this even is! If Stanley finds out I have powers, it could-"

"You mustn't worry about your identity," the elder assured. "However, your concern over time is true, Annie. Time and experience are the key ingredients to nurturing your gift, ingredients you are currently lacking. If you wish to one day learn to harness your connection to the great web and your many other abilities, then you must accept the responsibilities that come with them. Only then will your power reach its next stage. Only then will we meet again. Until then, Annie, I'll be waiting right here."

"But why? Why does this matter?"

"It matters for the sake of all you love and cherish." The Elder reaches out her hand and taps Annie's forehead with her index finger. Annie's eyes glow brightly as she receives one more vision. "My parting gift to you. Do what you feel is right. Don't lose track of yourself in your quest for greatness. And never let your compassion and curiosity waver."

Annie is briefly pulled back into darkness, the pain of the headache finally fading away. "Anna! Anna!" a voice calls out to her. Her senses return as she opens her eyelids, her blurry vision clearing up to reveal Stanley Osborn standing over her, his face full of concern. "Hey! You're waking up! Quick, how many fingers am I holding?"

"Urgh, three, duh," Annie groaned, pulling herself back up. "What happened?"

"I'm...not sure," Stanley answered. "You were right behind me as we were leaving. I turned back, and you looked woozy before collapsing suddenly. You were out for a few minutes, and another second longer, I'd be going to get your sister."

'Mayday...oh no!'

The vision gifted by the Elder struck her mind like a speeding train. There they were, Mayday and Normie, talking on the balcony when her sister's spider senses alerted her of danger. Mayday pulled Normie away, but the blast's power beneath the balcony decimated all in its blast radius. The smoke and debris dissipated in the cold winter air, revealing no survivors from the ruins of the collapsed balcony.

'My vision's going to happen! They're both going to die!' Already back on her feet, Annie's sprinted out the door. "Uhh, I'm fine! Speaking of my sis, how about we check up on her and Normie?!"

Flabbergasted, Stanley blurted out, "Now?!"

"Yeah, come on!" Annie ran like she was hopped up on adrenaline, the imagery of the vision playing repeatedly until she reached the balcony, Mayday and Normie standing right before her. Rapidly, she said, "Mayday! Let's go back with Dad. Like right, the second."

Grabbing her arm, Annie pulls her sister towards the door. A surprised Mayday lets her but insistingly asks, "Woah, what's going on, Annie? You look out of breath."

As Stanley caught up, Annie answered, "Uhh, I-I don't feel good. Stanley agrees. Now, let's go-!"

A sudden tingle started to ring in Mayday's head and, surprisingly, in Annie's head. Annie jerked back in shock at the flashing, warped colors coating her vision. Being struck by her first spider-sense was like being hit by one of those flashbangs, nearly overwhelming her. Mayday grounded her by holding her hand, and when Annie saw her sister's expression, it was filled with surprise and fear.

A confused Normie steps forward, asking, "Alright, what's gotten into-"

"GET DOWN!" Mayday screamed, shielding Annie as an explosion erupted beneath the balcony.

Annie's ears rang, and dust and smoke clouded her face and dress. Coughing those out helped keep her awake, her dazed vision catching a blurry silhouette of her sister. "May...day," she coughed, the dust settling down to reveal her sister was beside her, with a noticeable bruise on her head from debris meant for Annie. The shockwave and head hit to the head cause her to become unconscious. "H-hey, wake up," Annie worriedly said.

Her ears subtly picked up, coughing behind her. It was Stanley, dazed from the blast but seemingly fine behind the heavy doors. "Anna? Normie?!"

"H-help!" Annie gasped to hear Normie's voice but saw nothing but half the balcony broken off. She and Stanley rushed over, with Stan peeking over to see his brother clinging onto a piece of rebar. Normie's tux was tattered, half his face covered with blood. Yet, despite how hurt he looked, he clung onto the hunk of metal with dear life. "S-stan! Please, help!"

"I got you!" Stanley cried. He pulled Annie away from the unstable balcony and leaned down as much as possible for his brother's hand. It was but two inches away, but the tip of Stan's fingers was just out of reach of Normie's.

Annie could only stare on in shock. "They...they're alive," she muttered. "But, where-?"

A sudden "No!" from Stanley startles Annie. "Normie, hang on! I can almost..."

Annie rushed over, seeing Normie's hand slipping. Barely a second later, Annie's heart sinks as Normie Osborn falls. For a long, agonizing second, Annie and Stan saw him plummet seemingly to his death. The next thing they knew, Normie was snatched mid-air by something. Something green and with a long, mechanical tail. "No..." Annie quietly gasped. Climbing up the side of the building, Annie and Stanley froze in fear at the sight of The Scorpion, his deadly tail holding the captured Normie by his leg.

"Brilliant move, Kingsley! Ya nearly blew the targets to smithereens," Mac complained. "charred corpses don't make for good hostages."

A familiar engine turbine echoes in the air. Annie turns to her left to see, rising from the dark winter sky, a menacing figure cloaked in dark orange with piercing red eyes and a terrifying grin. "Ooh, Gargan, don't you see? The kiddies always love a good firework show!" He then lets out a wicked laughter that stunned all who heard it with quaking fear. Hobgoblin's engines burn hotter, and he flies straight for Stanley, grabbing the kid by his collar. "How kind of your father to have two of you. That way, if one of you falls, we still have another," Hobgoblin said, gripping Stanley's chin. "Ya get the hint, brat? Best to fasten your seatbelts and shut up if you want what's best for you."

Annie was paralyzed, staring at these fiends. Part of it came from being so close to the blast, but something about the fear the Hobgoblin inflicted by his mere presence terrified Annie. Even if she didn't risk exposing her and her family's secret identities and could fight back, her instincts told her that fighting the Hobgoblin seemed almost impossible. "May," she whimpered, loud enough for Hobgoblin's ears to perk and acknowledge her presence.

"You didn't say they have two more brats with them," Hobgoblin told Scorpion.

"So my intel ain't up to date, sue me," Mac groaned. "Now come on, we got 30 seconds until security arrives."

Despite the time limit, Hobgoblin squinted his piercing red eyes at Annie, then glanced at Mayday, and a lightbulb lit up in his mind. "Aha! Don't tell me, but are you and your sister aware of the Parker Industries business?" Annie remained silent, trying to avoid his staring. "I bet the owner of such a renowned business would do anything to have his little girls back." Annie's spider sense went haywire. She sprints towards Mayday, but Hobgoblin's superhuman reflexes allow him to grab her arm. Annie's heart raced in anxiety as the glider levitated her higher into the air.

Scorpion, with Normie in his grasp, leaped onto a neighboring building. He shouts, "Kingsley! No unnecessary loads! She'll weigh us down!"

"Consider the ransom money for the boys all yours," Hobgoblin declares. The upgrades and weaponry I can get Parker to build for me are worth more than petty cash."

Before he could attempt to kidnap Mayday, a ruckus was heard from inside the building. As expected, the two supervillains saw that Alchemax security had arrived; the parents were leading the charge. Annie could faintly hear her father cry out, "Annie!? Mayday!" The only comfort Annie could take now was the view of Mayday waking up, safe in their father's arms. Liz's cries for her sons draw Peter and Mayday's attention to Annie, dangling under the Hobgoblin's mercy.

"Mom!" Stanley shouted, utterly terrified. Glancing at Normie, he saw that he was now barely conscious.

"Normie! Stanley!" Liz shrieked upon noticing the blood dripping down Normie's face. "You monsters! Let my babies go!"

"Daddy!" Annie cried, unable to hold back tears at the sight of her family so far away. "Dad! Mayday! Please, help!"

"Scorpion! Hobgoblin!" Peter screams, "Don't you dare hurt her! For god sake, these are kids you're threatening!"

"Exactly, four eyes. They make for the perfect means of escape. Any shot you fire at us means these kids get an express ticket to the pavement below," Scorpion said. He pointed at Liz, a resentful glare hidden by his mechanical helmet. "Elizabeth Allen-Osborn," he proclaimed, "if you want to keep your kids and company alive, you will agree to our demands within the next twenty-four hours! Refuse, and I'll destroy your legacy and burn the whole company to the ground with one little secret between us. Your choice!" Liz froze in shock over his threat.

Feeling the glider ready to take off, Annie pleaded at the top of her lungs, "Mayday! Daddy!"

"Just hang on, Annie!" Peter shouted, "Help's coming! I promise!"

Annie could barely hear the last of her father's words as the glider shot off into the cold winter night.

Part 4: Ties of the Web

The following hour has a total blur for Mayday. Liz had ordered all her private security personnel to locate the supervillains in Manhattan by the time she and Peter were out the door and heading straight home. Not by car, that was too slow. Instead, Mayday got out of her suit and unveiled the official prototype version of her spider-girl suit underneath. After her father webbed up a makeshift mask, she swung beside him as they hurried to catch up to the speeding supervillains possibly. Mayday's eyes scanned for any sign of them while Peter informed Mary Jane of what happened over the phone; she could only imagine what her mother felt as such frightening news. Over the phone, Mayor Luke Cage called the authorities of a kidnapping while Jessica helped fly MJ and April to a rendevous point. Mayday was so distracted looking for the kidnappers that her father had to grab her to inform her that M.J. already had her aunt and uncle on the phone.

Several agonizing minutes passed before both of them realized the trail ran cold. Forced to rethink their plan, Mayday and Peter eventually headed to the rendevous point. Upon arriving, Mayday saw Aunt Jessica and Uncle Ben in their spider suits, as well as her mother and sister. "Mayday!" April yelled, the twins running into a tight, frightened embrace.

"Annie is..." Mayday sobbed, "She tried to warn me, but I wasn't fast enough!"

"At least you were there," April muttered. She pulls back, staring at her hands in disappointment. In a rare sign of distress, April somberly asked, "What are we gonna do?"

"We'll find them, that's what! None of us will rest until Annie's safe and sound," Ben assured.

"I'll make Mac regret this for the rest of his life," Aunt Jessica swore furiously. "Let's first search their old hideouts. Between us, we should be able to cover them quickly."

Without hesitation, Peter said, "I'm coming with you. Ben, you have a spare suit, don't you?"

"Of course."

"Then let's get going! Whether you or I find Annie first, these guys won't tell the difference since we have the same voice."

"Sounds like a plan." Ben hands Peter a small, special box from his belt, and with a button press, the box springs out a full copy of Ben's suit. As Peter quickly dressed, Ben told M.J., "Take the girls to a safe place. We don't know what Kingsley could do next, and the last thing we need is him or his people going after you three while we're gone."

Like her father, Mayday responded without hesitation: "I'm going too!" The whole family was not surprised. Even before her powers, Mayday had always had unwavering courage within her. "Please, dad! At least let me help with scouting!"

"Sorry, May, but this is not a discussion," Peter said, putting on his mask.

"Yeah, because I AM going with you. I WILL help save Annie. My sister. My responsibility!"

"You're not the only one with a responsibility, Mayday." Peter gave the go-ahead for Spider-Woman and Spider-Man to begin their search. Peter looked back at his daughter. "I swore on my life I wouldn't let anything bad happen to any of you three," he said. "That promise was broken tonight, and I won't ever let that happen again." Saying the final word in this discussion, Peter swings away, vanishing into the skyline ahead.

Mayday stands there, her mask wrinkled by her fist's intense, frustrated grip. Her mother calls to her, "Mayday, you heard your father." She says, "I can see that cut on your cheek. These people already hurt, and I won't let them hurt you again."

"Best to listen to your Mom, kid," Jessica Jones advised. When Mayday continued to stand there, pondering something, Jessica stepped forward to grab her. "Hey, they'll find her-"

THWIP!

Jessica nearly tripped over. Looking down, she saw her feet webbed up. Spider-girl reflexes had taken her by surprise.

"Sorry!" Mayday shouts as she hurriedly swings away. She can hear her mother's and sister's cries for her not to go. She truly understands where they're all coming from. Mayday's heart was filled with anxiety, and she had barely a few month's worth of training against two veteran supervillains. However, she would never forgive herself if she stood back and did nothing if she had the power to save Annie. "I'm soooo grounded. It'll all be worth it if it means a chance at finding Annie. Hang on, sis. I'm coming!"

[Meanwhile...]

Only three hours had passed since her kidnappers brought her to their temporary hideout, but it felt like an eternity for Annie as she huddled in the corner of her dangling box prison. Hung by some chains, it was made out of reinforced alloy steel with a plexiglass front and holes for air. Annie calculated their cells to be 2.5 cubic meters wide, 2 cubic meters tall, and 2.5 meters long. Even when she's huddled up, it feels suffocating and cramped. She couldn't stand or barely could move her arms without banging on something. She perhaps could slam her fists against the walls. Still, the rational part of her mind knew that even making a dent meant the immediate discovery of her spider powers, especially since her kidnappers had been hanging out several feet below since she'd been locked up. Though the ceiling was high, their prison boxes were essentially always in constant view to the supervillains, the two acting like they hadn't just kidnapped three children.

'Monsters,' Annie resented. She turns up to see her fellow hostages. Stanley was a few feet across her, dangling in his prison box, while Normie lay in his prison right beside his brother.

"Normie," Stanley whispered, "please, wake up! You're scaring me."

"Shut up. Brat," Scorpion warned before sitting back and munching on some late-night food. "Mmm, man. Prison needs a better menu if a damn sandwich taste like bliss. Ain't that right, Kingsley?" The Hobgoblin remained silent while he peered through a boarded-up window, twirling a pumpkin bomb in his hand.

"Hey!" Stanley yelled, "Whatever money you want, you can get it. I can pay you now if you let us go, please!"

"Idiot..." Stanley and Annie gasp upon hearing a disoriented Normie speak up. He clutches the wound on his head while he continues, "At the first sign of danger, you forget that an Osbron never negotiates with imbeciles. Besides, this is more about money. This is personal."

"Heyyyy looks like he's the true brains between the two of ya," Scorpion chuckled, "that right, kiddo, it is personal. Just between us, your ma and her business have done something very bad recently. It'd be a shame if the whole world knew what it was."

Stanley speaks up defensively, "Liar! Mom would never-"

"So what if she did?" Normie interrupted. Annie noticed a distinct coldness in his tone as he continued, "Roxxon has been responsible for three oil spills this year alone. Empire Unlimited has been accused of IP theft and violating several labor laws. Do you think your measly little secret is the one in a million that'll tear Mother down? Alchemax, and all which Oscorp owns, is untouchable."

Scorpion responded to Normie's demeaning tone by slashing Normie's cell with his tail. Like a goldfish shaken inside a waterbag, Normie tumbled around his cell by the attack until the cell eventually swung to a stop. "Hmph! Then I guess I won the lottery for my one-in-a-million secret," Scorpion boasted.

Annie saw Stanley quietly insist on his wounded brother not to agitate their kidnappers. Annie remained silent throughout all this. She had leaped into trouble before, full of gusto and assurance. Surely, the kid of Spider-Man himself could easily face any danger her father faced. 'This whole time, I wanted to be a hero, like Dad, like Mayday,' she pondered. 'Now? I can barely lift a finger without trembling! Why? Is it because I'm truly on my own? Dad promised help, but will it come in time? These guys, that hobgoblin...I don't know what they'll do to us if I so much as speak!' Then again, with her fast breathing, she might pass out from a lack of air before she gets a chance to speak. She attempted to steady her breath, but her breath slowed when she remembered Mayday's technique.

'In...and out,' she repeated. Hands held out as if Mayday held them. Annie relied on memories of her sister's compassion to ease her mind. 'Even when she's so far away, she's there for me.' While going through these memories, her mind flashes to the horrible vision that started all this and the terrible fate it showed for Mayday and Normie. 'She's alive because of me...guess I'm good for something after all.' A tear streams down Annie's cheek, her hands clenched into fists. 'Now, I probably won't ever see my family again. If I do something, I'll probably screw up and expose our identities. If I do nothing, then they'll keep getting hurt us, all because I'm too scared!' She wipes her face, hiding her weeping face. 'They were right. I'm nothing...nothing without my sisters...'

Her tears fell like rainwater. A feeling of utter helplessness threatened to consume Annie. Then, a stray memory flashed before her eyes.

"Focus on yourself. See what helps make you unique."

"We aren't competing over anything. We're sisters, and sisters always help carry each other!"

Annie wipes her face and collects her thoughts. 'Focus on me,' she thought, soon repeating as a mantra, steadying herself. 'I'm the daughter of Spider-Man and destined for great things. I have the power to make a change. All I need to do is focus and solve this like every other problem because no problem is without a solution.' Concentrating her mind, she attempts to tap into her newfound power, hoping to gain at least the advantage of what will happen shortly and planning to gain the upper hand. 'Focus, Annie! Focus!' She shut her eyes tightly, away from anyone's attention. From the darkness, a spark formed, and a series of brief flashes struck her.

An intense battle is occurring between Scorpion and what looks to be her Aunt and Uncle. It's nighttime, but Annie can't feel how far into the future this is. Peering closer, Annie can faintly make out the Hobgoblin in the distance, on his glider flying over a burning building.

Unfortunately, trying to force a vision is extremely difficult, and Annie is exhausted when it becomes too much. 'Drat! I barely saw anything!' she thought. 'What I saw could be days from now. Still, it showed the Hobgoblin wouldn't hesitate to leave us to our deaths if we were in that fire. Still, what should I do with this to help us?' With few options, Annie tried again and concentrated as hard as possible. 'I can do this. I can do this! Mayday...Mayday would believe in me as much as I believe in her! I...can...!'

'Think, Parker! Think!'

Annie flinched back, shocked at the sudden voice in her head. She glanced to see no one else notice her brief fright.

'Drat! She could be anywhere! No, I can't stop now...' Annie faintly hears an echo in her head.

'Mayday?!'

The voice shouts, 'Whoa!' and is briefly silent, yet Annie can still feel a connection. 'Annie?!'

'Y-yeah! Yeah, it's me! I can hear you in my head. Is it you?!'

'What? I don't-yeah, it's me.'

Annie held back her sign of immense relief and concentrated on Mayday's voice. 'Mayday! Oh, you have no clue how good it is to hear you!'

'Good to hear you too, sis! But how is this possible?'

'Maybe it's my powers? They are the reason you and Normie are still alive.'

'You got your superpowers?!' Mayday exclaimed excitedly. 'How you'd-no, wait, got to save you first. What's your situation? Where are you?'

Annie glanced back, answering, 'Uhh, Stanley, Normie, and I are trapped in cramped metal boxes hanging from a high ceiling. These jerks are right below us and have been keeping an eye on us the whole time. I don't know what street we're on, but it looks like an old apartment. Maybe six or eight floors tall?'

'Hang on.' After a few moments of silence, Mayday continued, 'Annie, I...this is insane.'

'What?'

'When I swung in a certain direction, my spider sense felt you fading away! Yet, when I swung in the opposite direction, I felt this same connection getting stronger.'

'Like a radio.' Annie's mind remembers a lesson on electromagnetic radiation, how they're a part of the electromagnetic field. She recalls how these waves are often emitted by charged atomic particles, like electrons, accelerated by electric fields. Annie knows the brain's billions of neurons are electrically charged but could hardly emit what is necessary to transmit EMR...unless it's affected by radioactive spider DNA. Though it sounds like a stretch, she hypothesizes that being naturally born with spider DNA has radioactively charged the particles in their minds to complete this process and produce EMR. EMR is powerful enough to turn their very thoughts into waves and for those waves to be picked up between each other.

Annie shuts her eyes and asks, 'Go in the latter direction.' A tingle in her head grew stronger when she concentrated on this tingle. Then, Annie was shocked to see a hazy image of Mayday appear in her head. She's wearing her spider-girl suit, peering out atop a building. 'No way! I can almost see you now! It's BOTH our spider senses, Mayday.'

'That's crazy! How's this possible?'

'I don't know, but my gut tells me it has to do with us being sisters, Mayday. Us being born with these powers probably has affected our spider-sense's psyche, causing them to be interconnected!'

"Annie." She turns her head to Stanley, who is calling her name. "I know your quietly freaking out, but everything's going to be okay. I promise."

"Don't make promises you can't keep," Hobgoblin said condensendenly. "Didn't your father teach you that? Oh, right, he's dead. Haha!"

Spooked by his presence, Annie hung back and retreated to her thoughts. 'Quick! Tell Dad and Aunt Jess we're here. While they're beating up these jerks, you can help us get out of here. Just make sure nothing catches fire.'

'How'd you know Aunt Jess's here? Never mind—I'm notifying them now. Hang tight, Annie! I'll get you out in a minute.'

Having figured it would take a few minutes for the main event to begin, Annie shifted to getting out of her box and making up a believable ruse as to why. She felt the walls, but all were reinforced. It was too tough for the Osborns to believe anything, but powers tore through them. She then checked the plexiglass, and it was easily the most promising. She noticed how it slightly stuck out, and there there were screws on each corner. Annie could get a good grip with her newfound strength and turn them until they're loose. It's flimsy, but her most believable option in case Mayday is seen or caught up in the action.

Speaking of, the Hobgoblin suddenly leaped from his lookout spot, hearing a familiar noise outside. "Quick," he hissed, "even for them." He whips out a laser gun and blasts the chain holding Stanley's cell, letting it fall to the floor. "Where'd you hide it?!"

"Ow! H-hide what?"

"What's the matter with ya?" Scorpion yawned.

"This brat must've had some special tracker in him."

"We scanned them, didn't we?"

"YOU did, and not good enough because those web-heads are here!"

"WHAT?!"

Annie saw Hobgoblin grab and tear off Normie's chain, tossing it cell to Scorpion. A chill ran down her neck when he glared at her, and a sinister smile spread across his grey, scaly face. "Oops," he says, lighting up a match and tossing it into a pile of trash. The debris grows into a big fire in seconds, soon spreading onto a rotten wooden support beam.

"What are you doing?!" Scorpion demands.

"An unfortunate change of plans," Hobgoblin said. "From the sounds of it, I heard two of those spiders heading this way, and I can't defeat them with you and these brats. Buuut, leaving the third to cook to death may be the distraction we'd need to escape once more. Especially if the both of us split up!"

"What?!" Stanley yelled, "No! Anna!"

"Tsktsktsk! See, young man? This is what happens when you fail to keep your promises," Hobgoblin said mockingly.

Annie could already smell the smoke while Scorpion and Hobgoblin prepared to leave. Outside, they all heard the voices of Spider-Woman and Spider-Man, "Nowhere to run, Hobgoblin!"

"Set those kids free, and maybe we won't pummel your asses!"

"Time to go," Hobgoblin said, carrying Normie's cell while Scorpion held onto Stanley's. "well, little girl, you ever wonder what the inside of an oven is like?"

"I'm nine and one-twelfth years old, creep. So, no."

"Bleh, what a dull answer to die with," Hobgoblin mumbled before exiting with Scorpion and the brothers, leaving her alone.

"Ok, new plan: punching!" Annie smashed her fits against her prison, even if her hands began to sting with pain. "Owowow! Come on!" She quickly made a dent, but the cramped nature of her cell made it difficult to build momentum for her punches, and the fire was spreading fast. Seeing it engulfing the whole floor, Annie shifted her body, planted her feet against the dented wall, and kicked it. Cracks and creaks filled the room as the old support structure began to shatter. Any fresh air inside her cell was filled with smoke. Despite her throat burning and the cells beginning to heat up, Annie didn't give up.

"I'm getting out of here!"

BANG!

"I'm seeing my family again!"

BANG!!

"And I'm going to be a hero, like my father before me!"

One final kick caused the crumpled metal to fly out. An unfortunate side effect of Annie's strength was its effect on the rustic chain holding her up. Each kick cracked this further until it was barely holding the cell. Annie had her breath as the chain dangled her over the roaring fire, gripping the sides of the cell like her life depended on it, and leaped onto the chain. The cell broke off as she did and tumbled into the tall flames. Its weight creates a loud cracking sound right before the whole floor breaks apart and falls to the level below, now setting the room on fire, too. "Ackack! Smooth, Annie. Exactly how dad would've done it," Annie coughed out. She climbs higher but sees a thick layer of smoke coating the ceiling, and to make matters worse, each wall is lit up like a box of matches. "Even if I could wallcrawl, they'd be so hot I'd burn my hands and fall anyway. Crud! There's gotta be an exit!"

Annie felt the whole building suddenly shake, but this wasn't the fire's doing as she heard several loud explosions and the crash of heavy objects. 'Dad, Auntie Jess, everyone, please be okay.'

'Annie?!'

'Mayday!' Annie gasped, hearing her sister's voice again. 'How bad is the fire? Can you get in?'

'I'm inside. It's already on the floor above and below you. Just hang on. I'll sense you out!'

"Please hurry," Annie whispered, seeing the screws holding the chain in the ceiling begin to fall apart. Annie tried to cover her mouth, but the smoke was so thick that it did little to help. Right as another screw above falls, part of the ceiling suddenly breaks, except this time, it wasn't the fire's doing. "Mayday!" Annie smiled, watching her sister suited up and lowering down with the help of her trusty webs.

Mayday grabbed Annie with a web the second she saw her, saying, "Hang tight." She lifted both of them out mere moments after the whole section of the building collapsed from the fire. Annie was carried by her sister through the smoke and spreading flames until they were finally on top of the roof.

"Brrr! Oh, snow, how I missed you!" Just as Annie coughed out the last smoke, Mayday embraced her tightly. Though her mask was one, Annie could feel the tear stains pressed on her cheek.

"I was so scared," Mayday sobbed.

"So was I, but we both pulled through together." A distant explosion snaps the two out of their sisterly hug. To their far left was the echoes of the Hobgoblin's crackling, while to their far right was the distant splatter of venom fired from Scorpin's tail. "Who's fighting who?"

"Aunt Jess is dealing with Scorpion, and Dad's fighting the Hobgoblin." Mayday takes her hand and reloads her web-shooter, saying, "I know those two are still in trouble, but Dad and Auntie Jess can handle it. Right now, my responsibility is to get away from these creeps."

"But-" Annie said before her head suddenly felt like it was pounding.

Annie witnesses a blurry image of a pumpkin bomb aimed at her dad, who is about to explode mid-air. Though Spider-Man avoided it, it was close to a building, causing a wide burst of concrete shrapnel. A moment of carelessness by Hobgoblin caused him to fly too close, leading to shrapnel striking him and his hostage, Stanley Osborn. The boy plummets below, and though Spider-Man catches him, it is too late for the shrapnel and fall to shred his heart. The final visual she saw was Normie's sobbing over his brother's corpses, his eyes flashing yellow as she swore vengeance against Spider-Man.

Snapping out of her vision, Annie pulls away her hand. "No! We gotta at least help Dad stop Hobgoblin. If we don't, he'll die, and Normie could become the goblin!"

Utterly baffled, Mayday asks, "Annie, how do you know that? What's going on with your powers?"

"It's like some hyper-spider sense or something. It warns me something awful will happen unless I do something to change it."

"You mean the future? You can see the future!?"

"Yes, it's how I saved your life at Alchemax. It's how we can save both brothers' futures if we fight together!" Even now, despite how much their lives have become embroiled with superpowers, Annie worried that such a thing would be hard to believe. However, seeing Mayday's expression shift to determination was when Annie knew better than to doubt her sister's trust. Both knew that if they were going to do this, Annie could not go with her face exposed. Avoiding the fire in the building, Annie and Mayday waste little time searching for any wearable disguise. To their luck, Annie found and dusted off an old helmet, goggles, and sports gear. All combined, her face, hair, and clothes are all shrouded. She clung to her sister as she swung them over to the tense air battle.

Mayday asked, "What's the plan?"

"Uhhh, sneak attack! You and Dad corner him to the building where I'll hang back."

"And do what?"

"I'm working on that part."

"Annie, I only have one spare web-shooter. Are you even sure you can swing onto his glider?"

"It's simple physics and aerodynamics, Mayday. Just create an opening for me; I'll grab Stanley, and Dad will kick the creep's butt."

With little time to argue, Mayday swings them to the corner of the building. Their dad and Hobgoblin perform a deadly dance a few yards away as fire and webs swirl around them. Amid this duel and unconscious, Stanley's neck is wrapped around Hobgoblin's arm. Annie puts on the spare web-shooter and sneakily hides while Spider-Girl swings into action. Annie sees firsthand how much of a natural her sister is, for despite the deadly weapons, she avoids them and synchs up with her dad as if they had done so several times before. She's certainly their dad disapproved of her surprise interference, but this battle required all his attention, and one wrong move would mean a quick death.

Meanwhile, Annie practiced patience and did what she did best: analyze. 'Focus on his patterns,' she thought, squinting at Hobgoblin's speed and sharp turns. Despite his mania, the villain was a truly skilled flyer. Annie knew she didn't have to outmaneuver his flying; she only had to use it to her advantage to grab Stanley. Suddenly, Annie noticed one particular move. Hobgoblin was beginning to feel the pressure the two were giving, forcing him to fall by flying straight upwards and making a 90-degree turn to stabilize. With such speed and a sharp turn, Annie calculates that it'll give her the momentum to attach herself to the bottom of the glider. 'Here goes nothing. Mayday, get Hobgoblin to the lower half of the building and force him to perform that rising maneuver.'

'We'll try our best. Get ready!'

The speeds of these battles are truly startling, for in no time's flat, her father and sister have pressured Hobgoblin to the building she's at, and he's already about to perform his maneuver. If Annie had to guess, he's going to fly over the building to separate himself from foes and make an attempt to escape. 'Here goes nothing!' Annie leaps as far as she can right as Hobgoblin rises, feeling the snowflakes and wind trying to cloud her target, but her sharper eyes, thanks to her powers, prove to be a game changer. She locks her eyes on his glider, adjusts for the wind velocity, and fires her shot. 'I did it!' she cheered, her web attached and tugging her along the Hobgoblin's trajectory. She hangs on tightly as she rises high into the sky, her newfound powers giving her the strength to hang on. She saw Stanley and the pumpkin bomb in hand, refusing to let that future come to pass.

Just as she calculated, Hobgoblin's 90-degree turn propels her towards underneath his glider. She reached out her hand and barely latched on, resisting the intense speeds brought on by the fast machine. Though she caught him by surprise, soon Hobgoblin notices something off. "Huh?! What's this extra weight? Did that brat somehow latch on!?" Annie works fast, tearing off a piece of the shielding and shredding the power cables connected to the engine. A fuse blows out, causing the left engine to begin smoking. "Gah! No! Impossible!"

As the glider began to spin out of control, the section of the suit Hobgoblin grabbed Stanley tore off. As if in slow motion, Annie saw Stanley free-fall past her, causing her reflexes to kick in. Fueled by pure desperation, she leaped after him, hands reaching out as far as she could. 'Move, Parker! Save him!' As they plummeted, Annie struggled to keep her from drifting, to keep herself awake, to keep herself believing the future could be changed. "I got you!" she shouted jubilously upon gripping his hand. Spotting a small building below, Annie clung to him tightly and used her web arm to swing to its roof. Her landing was very clumsy as they tumbled across the snow-covered floor. Annie scrambled to Stanley's side, checking his pulse, 'He's...alive!'

"Nooo!" Hobgoblin screamed furiously as his glider crashed him into a building. Annie watched him fall before her father caught him and webbed him up. Mayday joined her side and was greeted shortly after by their irritated father.

"Uhhh, everything worked out," Annie nervously reminded.

Peter tapped the side of his mask. "Kingsley's subdued, and the kids are safe. Need backup, Spider-Woman?"

"Nah, I got him," Spider-Woman confirmed. "The boy's hurt, but he's breathing. Meet up at the hospital on 12th Street?"

"Right, meet you there," Peter said before ending the call. He walks up to Annie and sighs deeply before scooping her up and embracing her. "I'm...so sorry for letting this happen to your two. I should've been faster. I should've thought something would happen, especially with our blasted family luck."

"It's okay, Dad," Annie whispered, the whole event catching up to her as tears welled in her eyes. "What matters is you did your best, and you kicked butt up there!"

"Heh, a bit rusty, but I still got it," Peter chuckled. After a kiss on the forehead, Peter set Annie down for Mayday and her to hold hands. Both share a look of pride at what they accomplished during this desperate hour. "Uhh, weird thing to say, but Stan's out cold, yeah?"

They all look back and see him drooling. "He sure is," Annie said.

"Okay. Firstly, Mayday, you're grounded tomorrow. Also, you're swinging's improving but could still use some work."

"That's fair," Mayday said with a shrug.

"Secondly, Annie, you'll have to explain these powers so we plan what to do next."

"Oh, I can see the future now," Annie casually dropped. Her father is at a loss for words, especially as she finished with, "Also, Mayday and I can speak to each other with our minds."

"..."

Mayday glanced at Annie, 'Wow, already made him speechless.'

Annie smiled gleefully, 'Ohoho! This spider thing is going to be sooo cool!'

Epilogue:

April shuts the door to her room, the darkness of the midnight air coating it with only the moon providing any light. She looks down at her hands. Fragile. Small. Worthless. She huffed and stomped across her room, left alone while everyone else was at the hospital with her sisters. "Should've been there…I should've been there!" Her scream was as loud as her lungs allowed her, so loud was it that it nearly masked her sobs. "Maybe my stupid powers would've come out, and I stop Annie from getting hurt! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!"

She pounds her fists at the side of her head, tugging her long hair in utter frustration at…everything. "If it weren't for that dumb party, if it weren't for those cursed Osborns, none of this would've happened! Yeah, that's it. That's why the attack happened in the first place. It's got to be it; it's their stupid scheme's fault! Graaah, I knew those Osborns were nothing a bunch of good-for-nothings! Takes one to know one, right?!"

Amid her tantrum, she remembers Mayday's face and her swinging into action with no hint of fear. "It's not fair." Her vision is clouded with such fury and jealousy that she can barely hold it back. Only when she sees her reflection in the small mirror on her work desk the final emotion bursts out: hatred. "Mayday, the hero," April growled as she grabbed the mirror, holding it closer to her face. "Mayday the attention hog. Mayday the pristine. Mayday the stealer!"

Holding the mirror high above her, April slams it down while picturing the face they share as it instantly shatters into tiny pieces. With glass shards all around her, April pants from the intense rush, anger failing to fuel her until she's left with a broken reflection. Staring at herself, April's sobs grow louder, "Am I…just nothing? Maybe that's why I was all alone. Everybody got along just fine without me. I thought maybe with powers, I would show them I'm worth something. That I'm needed."

April cowers forward, hands to her face as she tried wiping the never-ending flow of tears. "Nothing's working out. Why does nothing work out like how I wanted." With one last burst of anger left in her, April slams her fist down. "Ouch!" she cried, reeling back her hand to see a small shard of glass pierced it. "Stupid thing!"

Tearing it out, she stares at the stream of blood dripping off her hand. She scours her desk for a band-aid but grows more frustrated until she yells at her wound. "Urgh! Why are you so stupid!?"

Suddenly, a small but strange sensation crept from her wounded hand. April looked to see something squirming, like a black tendril. She couldn't believe what she was seeing as a black ooze began to pour out of her wound, standing up like flakes of hair and sewing the wound. The pain was gone in a second, and the wound was perfectly healed.

What started as small breaths turned into fits of laughter. April grabbed a pin needle, stabbing her thumb until it bled, and watched the same process happening again. "Heh! Hehehe! See? I have powers, too. I can be good, too." She sits back, relieved and already feeling stronger. Strong enough to crush anyone who hurts her family. "Yeah, once I figure this out, no one will get in my way…get in father's way."

April snapped out of her thoughts, feeling something suddenly wrong. "Why'd I just say that? Where'd that even come from?" A gross, tingling feeling begins to ripple inside her once-wounded hand. The creeping feeling courses up her arm until that black and blue goo suddenly begins to ooze out of her arm. "What's happening to me?! Mommy!"

She tried rushing to her phone, but the feeling began to slow her down, making her numb as the ooze began to coat her torse. She clutched her head, feeling as if a need was poking into her brain. 'Can barely think!' She hunched over, feeling it consume her body until wrapped its tendrils all over her head. "This is my powers? This is what I am?!"

She feels it coursing through her, transforming her voice from a cry into a guttural roar before anguishedly screaming, "NOOOO!"

A deafening silence fills the air, and any rational thought before being gone as a new, primal instinct that's always been there kicks in. The normal human facade has vanished, and a new creature forms for the first time in that lonely room. A being not of this earth yet is utterly alien to its species. She turns with large white lenses for eyes, a long flock of dark goo as hair, and rows upon rows of sharp teeth. She leaps out the window, reaches the roof, and viciously roars to the heavens its ancestors originated from. The echoes of its roar could be heard for miles as she felt an unquenchable hunger consume her.

Now was the time to hunt. Now was the time to wreak some Mayhem.

A/N: Well, that was fucking ominous! It looks like April's arc is starting on a happy note :D

Anyway, sorry for taking so long! This chapter was a doozy with rough patches that needed editing and re-writing. It didn't help that my vacation was delayed by two weeks, but I did have a lot of fun during those two weeks. Again, thank you for your patience. The next two issues will be the last of the sister's origins. Afterward, we'll return to the present and see what new adventures await the Marvelous Spider-Girls! As always, please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!

Chapter Text

Prologue: The Mark of Mayhem

The stink of raw bovine was potent within the dimly lit warehouse on Brooklyn's north side. Even for a graveyard shift, the inside of this building was too deathly quiet for a certain wall-crawler to ignore. Upon entering, the masked man raised his fists as he ventured into the darkness. ‘I almost forgot the stench of this city.’

Walking through rows of boxes, a whiff of raw beef drew his gaze to a half-open door of the warehouse’s freezer. Turning on a light attached to his belt, he enters to discover the whole freezer nearly empty. Usually, there were over a dozen rows of hanging, frozen cow carcasses, but they were all gone. ‘No,’ he thought, ‘eaten.’

The frozen meats' thick bones were shattered like simple sticks. Deep claw marks were scattered across the steel walls, patterns he felt he had seen before. ‘This better not be what I think it is,’ he said.

Taking a step, his foot kicks up a pile of frozen shell casings. 'Our elusive late-night eater got caught.’ Examining the floor, he pondered, 'No blood. The ballistics were all flattened. Whoever did this, if they can take bullets like it’s nothing, this thing ain't going to be easy to kill.'

“Kaine!”

He winced at the yell of his name. Running back to the main grounds, he finds his accomplice sitting on the floor. “Hummingbird,” he grunted, “for the thousandth time, only use cape names when we’re doing capeshit!” His annoyance subsided when Hummingbird showed him a wounded man in her arms.

“There’s three others like him who are badly hurt,” Hummingbird told Kaine as he grabbed the man.

“He got a badge. He and his fellow piggies must’ve gotten a call about a disturbance and messed with the wrong crook. Hey,” he said, but got no response. With a loud SLAP, Kaine struck the man’s face with the palm of his hand. “WAKE UP!”

The guard screamed, then proceeded to shout louder at the sight of a masked man and a hooded girl with a bright, green face. “HEY! I’m going to make you regret fainting on me if you don’t give me some answers,” Kaine demanded, “now, who did this?”

The man coughed, trying to collect himself. Kaine sees the loss of blood from the slash across the man’s abdomen is making it a struggle. The officer took a deep breath and mumbled, “I don’t know. It looked small but was fast and strong. It wasn’t human. It was…a monster…”

Seeing him begin to fall unconscious, Kaine sets the officer down and, with a tired look, says, “Call 911; they’ll take care of them.” Before further pondering the description, he noticed Hummingbird clutching her head. “What’s wrong?”

“Such rage,” Hummingbird said with a tremble as if holding back a flood of hate. “So much anger and fear. I never felt this before.”

“If you can feel it, use your powers to read its thoughts. We can pinpoint where it is and catch it!”

“No, no,” Hummingbird mumbled, shaking off a rush of emotions. “Something’s clouding her mind so much it’s blocking me out. Urgh, she’s gone, hiding somewhere in the shadows.”

Kaine crossed his arms, an evident scowl across his face. “Three days, and we’re not closer to figuring this shit out. I didn’t want to do this, kid, but we might need some extra hands—” Kaine paused upon registering a particular word he almost dismissed. Turning to Hummingbird, he leaned forward and asked, “Did you just say ‘her’?”

And Hummingbird nodded.

Part I: Nightmares & Monsters

April opens her eyes to find herself in the passenger seat of the family car. It is stuck in traffic, and the outside air appears hazy. Her mother, driving the car, looks tired. It's a feeling April's been seeing whenever it involves her. She shuts her eyes when a sudden headache sets in, unable to recall how or why she is here. April looks down at her hands, the hands of her seven-year-old self. She remembered this because this was the exact pattern of dried blood coating her bandaged knuckles.

“Sorry, Kit. It seems the ice cream will take a while,” Mary Jane sighed. No amount of honking would make the cars move.

“My hand doesn’t even hurt anymore,” April said, “and stop using the nickname. It’s April.”

“I know,” M.J. chuckled, “but isn’t Kit your favorite character that movie you like? You know, the one with a girls’ baseball team in the forties? So sweet how that movie inspired you to pick up your own bat.”

“Even after today?” April feels a rush of memories of this day. What was supposed to be a simple practice between two of her school’s little league baseball teams ended with her being kicked out.

Her mother exhaustedly said, “No matter what happens, I won’t deny your passions, April. I can’t, however, ignore how this is the third fight you had at school.”

“He only got a broken nose and lost one tooth,” April mumbled.

“And yet you kept going,” Mary Jane reminded. April winced at the memory, feeling her hand tremble at the flashes of each punch she delivered. “Again and again until the coach had to yank you off.”

“I only did because he threw that ball on purpose,” April complained. "Just because he’s older and bigger, he felt he could pick on one of my teammates. He was the one who threw the ball so hard that it knocked a tooth out of one of the girls.”

“A tooth for a tooth mentality isn’t the right,” M.J. said, stopping herself from getting more frustrated. With a deep breath, she continued, “April, I understand your anger. When I was your age, I felt so lost from the absolute mess called my life—so much that I wanted to scream, and I ended up doing things I regret down the road.”

"I don’t regret it. And no, you don’t understand.”

“Yes, I do. I’ve been bullied and been called disgusting things. I remember those feelings all too well. Despite that, I’ve never—“

“Maybe you should’ve,” April yelled, stubbornly crossing her arms. “This boy was not going to stop unless I did something, so I did!”

“And because of that, your hands are bandaged, you’re off the team you wanted so badly to be in, and the girl you were helping is scared of you.”

April fidgets at this. “S-she is?”

“April, she didn’t stop hiding behind her parents until you and I left.”

She remembered it now: how the girl shivered in fear, staring at her like one would at a wild animal. She didn’t like how that made her feel. What’s worse, April feared her mother viewed her the same way, even for the briefest moments.

“Mom…are you scared of me too?”

M.J. flinched at her question. “Why would I ever be scared of my little girl?”

“Because…I think something’s wrong with me.” April felt the swell of burning fill her throat as she began to choke up. Looking at her bandaged, bloody hands, she whimpers, “I try. I really try to be normal, but I’m broken, aren’t I?”

Right as she began to quiver in fear, her mother gently placed her hand over them. Such a simple gesture radiated such warmth that April grabbed her mother’s hand and leaned on her forearm, sobbing. She felt her mom’s fingers comb her lengthy, black hair, hearing her lovingly say, “I don’t find you scary, April. And just because you’re not seen as normal doesn’t mean you’re broken.”

“How?! I’m just a big idiot who messes everything up!”

“April Kathrine Parker, you are NOT an idiot,” M.J. said firmly, turning her daughter’s full attention toward her. “You’re a smart and strong girl. I see a fire burning within you. So bright it is that no one and nothing can extinguish it—your spectacular, April. You just…it’s simply hard to show people this side of you. I think if you do, however, then they won’t be scared anymore.”

April wipes her eyes, trying to remember the smiles she brought to the team, but even then, she can’t shake away the meanness and fear in other kids, even some teachers, at school. “I’ll probably still screw that up, too,” she mumbled, “and so what if I am scary? Maybe they should be scared.”

“You don’t mean that, April.”

April clenched her hand, the flames of anger canceling out her mom’s voice. Anger at others and anger at herself were quick and easy feelings to grab onto and rely on to push back against a world that always keeps pushing her down. ‘I do,’ a part of her thought, ‘because when I make them scared, make them pay, then father will be proud of me…’

April shuddered, an intense fear taking over as a sharp pain struck her mind. ‘ARGH! W-what’s wrong with me? Why did I think that?!' she thought, clutching her head. 'Can’t think!’ She felt her mother grab her, trying to tell her something, but April couldn’t hear her. Her dilemma is amplified tenfold when all the cars surrounding her suddenly begin to honk continuously. The collective high-pitch blare of their horns might as well be the sounds of a thousand bells ringing in her ears.

“It hurts!!” she cried, “everyone just shut up!!!”

In a panic, April opened the car door beside her and leaped out, only to begin falling into a deep, black void. Her mother and the world vanished as she fell. “I-I’m dreaming! Only dreaming!” She suddenly lands on something soft and gooey. April sees her appear in a long, circular tunnel of strange black slime. An echoing roar drew her attention to a light behind her, where the shadow of some wild, shapeshifting beasts was seen. April ran for an eternity, her senses warning her this monster was always behind her.

A pit opens beneath April, and as she falls, a rush of water all over, like a giant tidal wave devouring a surfer. Floating, April held her breath as she opened her eyes and felt an immense dread in her heart. She was in a dimly lit tank filled with some green liquid. April could barely move as dozens of spikes, cables, and plugs were punctured into her body. ‘No!’ Though every word uttered filled her throat with that burning liquid, she didn’t care as every fiber in her being screamed, “Let me out! I don’t belong here," even as the spikes punctured deeper into her bones.

“Why? This is where you were born, after all.”

She saw a shadowy figure approach on the other side of the tank.

“You’ve had your fun playing make-believe.”

A black ooze formed out of her body's wounds, threatening to consume her.

“The sooner you see that they’ll never accept the real you, the sooner you can come home and finish what you were born to be.”

April pulled back her fist, defiantly crying out, “NOOOOO!!!” Bashing through the glass, the shadowy figure disappeared, and April felt free. Out of the tube and seemingly out of the dream.

Opening her eyes, April finds herself beneath a Brooklyn Bridge, hanging over the deep, cold river below. April could barely utter a word, not noticing her hands were stuck onto a steel beam until she started to slip. “Wha—? Where am I?!” April winced as an ample light shone at her; a fishing boat had caught sight of her. April desperately clung to the beam until all her fingers unstuck at once, sending her hurdling towards the water.

Then, bizarrely, right as she struck the water, she finally woke up in bed.

With a sharp gasp, April fell out of bed, clutching her blanket. Her heart pounding while she wipes tears from her eyes. Fresh sweat dew fell down her brow while the serene sounds of an early morning filled the air. Glancing down at her hand, April sees it looks normal. She was normal. “What a nightmare,” she mumbled. Such words were harder to say when every passing night had her trapped in some new, even worse kind of nightmare. Though they had been mere nightmares, they each felt completely real somehow. It's how each time they haunt her that leads her to cry so hard she gets lightheaded. April ponders if she should share such dreams with her parents, but the sooner she considers that the sooner a part of her will quietly shoot down the idea. It was like a cricket whispered the suggestion in her head, and April accepted it without question. “Only a nightmare…”

After huddling in bed for a long time, April got ready for the day. Slumped forward, hair tangled, she stomped down the stairs to find her sisters already eating breakfast with their parents in the kitchen, discussing something. “Forgetting someone,” she muttered.

Mayday perks up. “April, you’re up! Sorry, Annie woke up early cause of some weird dream and—” she said, stopping upon getting a good look at her twin. “Dad?”

Peter walks out to see April disheveled and exhausted. Kneeling beside her, he presses his hand on her forehead. “April, you sleep, okay?”

Peaking over, Annie’s eyes widen. “Woah, you look gross.” She flinched at April's glare, stammering, “I-I mean tired, you look tired.”

“I slept fine,” she sighed.

Peter asked, “Then why are their bags under your eyes, April?”

“Yeah,” Mayday added, “is something wrong?”

“If there is, it’s probably cause’ of you and your dumb powers.”

Peter immediately tries to calm her. “April, she’s only worried about you.”

“What’s to worry?! I look weird, and now everyone’s on my case!” April saw her family confused at her outburst, but she didn’t care; she needed some way to vent. The way she sees it, what’s a little attitude to superhumans who have everything she doesn’t? This anger briefly fades when Mary Jane comes forward and presses her palm on April’s forehead.

She asked gently, “You feel pretty warm. Do you think you're sick, April?”

April grew shy from the question. She tended to ignore others' questions, but the one person she never did this to was her mother. “N-no, Mom. I’m good.”

“Alright, I’ll take your word for it after you apologize to your sister.”

April rolled her eyes but reluctantly said, “Sorry…” Mayday nodded, and April saw a quiet understanding and lingering worry in her eyes. April pondered whether May’s spider-sense was the reason.

“How about you quell this old lady’s nerves and take medicine before eating?”

April nods, taking her mother’s hand and sitting at the counter while her mom soothes her by sharing an old, fun, sick day story. Over in the living room, their big TV blares out the latest news report, but it fails to reach April’s ears.

“A violent attack by a strange assailant struck Brooklyn Bridge late last night. Police arrived to find three fishermen wounded, their boat severely damaged. While at the hospital, one of the fishermen has shared with police a description of their attacker that’s identical to the assailant responsible for a dozen other incidents reported over the past two and a half weeks. When asked about this individual, who’s seemingly eaten their entire fish catch, fishermen shared how they could only describe it as a monster.”

[Later…at The Champion’s Facility]

One can tell April was making her grumpy face when everyone in the room shared how cute it was. ‘I’m not cute. I’m mad!’ she thought, following her mom to the stands located at the sidelines. She had a clear view of her sisters, decked out in their superhero gear while standing in an extensive training field. Located underground, the whole room was like a huge school gym, modified personally by Ironheart herself to create any scenario a hero may find themselves in.

Like the other buildings above them, the training room is open to the superhero community if they want to test their skills quickly. It also helps that the famed hero Ultimate Spider-Man is a close friend of the family and has a particular other hero who finds the time to help.

“Do we have to be here?”

“This is their first big test, April. It’s only right for us to cheer them on,” M.J. reminded. April’s sisters noticed and waved at them, and her mom waved back, cheering out, “Good luck!” April pouted, and her mom took notice. "Come on, hotshot,” she kindly encouraged. "One cheer for me?”

April groaned and gave the dullest and most drawn-out, “Yippee…”

“Good enough, my little grumpy grump,” M.J. chuckled. April slumped in her seat as her mom smiled sweetly at her, saying, “April—” until the red light from the observation deck ahead turned yellow. “Oh, cover your ears.”

“I know, I know,” April sighed. Even when she did, the ringing of the loud buzzing noise made her feel a bit dizzy. When the alarm ended, Mayday and Annie sprang into action. Their training had begun. The scenario was simple: cross a hundred obstacles to reach a civilian tied up and hanging over a fire pit. April gets goosebumps from the sight of fire, yet Mayday is hardly phased.

“Woo! You got this, sweeties!” M.J. cheered as Mayday and Annie swung over the first set of obstacles, mainly high walls, swinging objects, and paintballs simulating bullets.

“Pfft! A reality show contestant can do this,” April mumbled. Her sisters quickly swung and wall-crawled through this first set, crossing over thirty yards. April notices Annie is easily the slowest of the two. Having powers for not even three weeks, April sees Annie spend more time figuring out those odd visions than practicing the rest of the powers. She loved her, but that behavior seemed like a massive waste to April. To her, if you’re strong enough, you can punch through any problem a vision presents. It also didn’t help that April thought her armored blue chest plate, joint pads, and bright red helmet looked utterly ridiculous.

A huge tremble rocked the facility when a shadowy figure leaped from the ceiling, grew five times her size, and landed at the halfway point of the field. This was the second phase of their test, a superpowered henchman, who, in this case, is standing in front of the marvelous hero, Kamala Khan, aka Ms. Marvel.

“FEE-FI-FO-FUM!” As she raises her giant fists, Kamala's deep voice booms, “I smell the bones of puny spiders; be they alive or dead, I’ll grind their bones to make my bread!”

“Do henchmen even say stuff like that?” April asked.

“You’d be surprised,” M.J. answered.

Kamala stretched her right limb to grab one of the sisters while using her other to squash her foes. It's from this struggle that April sees a change in Mayday. Ever since they were little, April noticed something about Mayday that made her a natural leader of the three. Whether it be misadventures in the park, a school assignment, or errands, Mayday always had the most convincing plans and seamlessly stepped into the role.

Now, April sees how that lends to Mayday’s heroics. Her twin swiftly saved Annie from being snatched while avoiding Kamala’s swipes. Sure, she had almost three months of training, but heroics fit like a glove for Mayday. ‘Would it be so easy for me if I ever get powers too? I’m her twin, it should be…right?’

“Something bothering you?”

April flinched from her mom’s sudden question, a quizzical expression on her face. “Uhh, no, mom.”

As they returned their attention to the training, the sisters began to fight in synch with one another, with a bit of help from silently speaking to each other through their spider senses. Their webs soon began to entangle Ms. Marvel, as those spaceships did those metal walkers in that one movie they loved. With webs entangling her ankles, Ms. Marvel fell over, clearing the way for the sisters.

April hears Annie cheer, “We’re going to make it!” However, there was one last opponent. Before either sister could spot their foe, Annie’s web was cut mid-swing, and she webbed up before landing on the cushioned ground. “Aww phooey…”

“Annie!” Mayday shouted. April could see she was conflicted about freeing her sister or saving the hostage. Ultimately, Mayday decided to push forward.

“Dang, he’s fast,” April gasped while Mayday dodged a barrage of bright yellow electrical blasts from the shadows. April tried to spot him, but her eyes were suddenly blurry as if a green filter filled them. Through it, she spotted a green and purple figure flying out of the shadows by way of a glider. A bright, deadly energy filled the palm of his hand as he aimed at Mayday from behind. “Why isn't she sensing him? Mayday, watch you!”

Listening to her sister rather than her spider sense, Mayday maneuvers away from her target to avoid a rear attack. Scanning for a sneak attack, Mayday appears confused until two stray webs wrap around her, capturing her. The session ends, and both fail to reach the hostage in time.

A perplexed M.J. turns to April and asks, “Hotshot, I know you're worried, but you got to let them focus.”

“Mayday wasn’t focusing because the weirdo was right—” April said, but upon a second look, she noticed the green and purple figure vanished as if he was never there. “What? N-no, didn't you see him too, Mom?”

M.J. only looked more confused. “Saw what, April?”

April gawked at the stage as the lights flickered on. Rubbing her eyes, she also noticed the odd green vision was gone. As her mother guided her to the court, April was silently bewildered at what she had just witnessed, so bewildered that she could barely pay attention to Mayday.

“Dang it, so close,” Mayday sighed. Her optimism shined through as she laughed it off to her twin. “April, did I at least look cool just now? Say, why’d you throw me off? Did you see something I didn’t? Wait, if you did…does that mean you and Annie share vision powers?! Oooh, I’m so jelly!”

“He wasn’t there…” April muttered, her mind a world away. “Why was I the only one?”

Mayday tilts her head, “the only one to what?”

“…Huh?”

The sisters’ confusion broke when Annie struggled to wiggle herself out of her restraints, “Umm, little help?”

“I gotcha!” Kamala, adorned in her fabulous super suit, expands her hands and tears the web off like it was paper. “There you go,” she chirped, “Good teamwork with your sis, Spiderling! That spider-sense you two share must be crazy good to maneuver so quickly.”

Annie blushed at such a compliment, especially from a superheroine as great as Ms. Marvel. “Really?! Thank you, Ms. Khan!”

“Haha, just Kamala is fine, Annie! Welp, what do you think, Miles? I think we've got ourselves some fast learners.”

Landing from the hidden scaffolding above was college grad Miles Morales, the renowned hero of Brooklyn who dons the Spider-Man mantle alongside their uncle Ben Parker. “They got the spark, but still much to learn.” Looking at Annie, he asked, "Is following your senses still tricky for you?"

"Yeah," Annie sighed, "it's like several voices yelling at me all at once. I try to see ahead to anticipate better, but..."

"Keep your head in the here and now; those visions aren't gonna be clutch until you know you've mastered it," Miles advised, "but don't get frustrated; this is why we practice, and you still have plenty of time to handle those powers." Approaching Mayday, he advised her, “You are improving, kid. You are a natural, but you tend to react rather than think.”

“What does that mean? I barely had time to react."

“See, it's like basketball. You're the biggest player on the team, and they're counting on you, yeah? Being in that position means you can't just react to whatever you face in the court; you need to think beforehand about what is best for others and what needs to be done. You reacted and tried to save the hostage, but you left your sister behind. When April warned you, you reacted but didn't think through what to do and got sniped."

"I guess," Mayday mumbled. 

Miles finished his point by saying, "This comes from being a team leader, kid. Be it with friends or family, it'll always be tricky thinking through when to be their leader and when to be their sister. Finally, remember this: it's up to you to look after them while trusting they can stand up to the challenge."

“Yes, sir…” Mayday sighed. April could tell from her tone that she was taking it to heart. Mayday does tend to be a good listener.

“It’s alright,” Miles reassured. "As your pop and uncle said, this is all just to help you understand your gifts.”

“That’s right,” Mary Jane spoke, “I know we haven’t had the best luck the past few months, but hopefully, you three won’t find yourselves in another dangerous situation for a long time. By then, I’m sure you girls could take on anything.”

“Sure, all three,” April mumbled. Right as she did, April's head pounded as an alarm blared across the training room. Her mother helped shut her ears as Miles shouted, “That’s the automatic security alarm!”

Though confused, Kamala and Miles nonetheless shielded the sisters. “Someone must be breaking in,” Kamala said. The main entrance door of the room opened as Peter and Ben ran over to them. “What’s going on up there?”

“We don’t know,” Ben said, “we were up in the control room but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.”

“Our spider senses aren’t picking up any sign of danger either,” Peter added.

“Whatever it is, can someone shut off that alarm already?” Mary Jane shouted as she hugged April in the confusion, shielding her from the noise.

Suddenly, the alarm stopped, which it was not supposed to do. A moment later, everyone with spider sense picked up a presence they didn’t think was dangerous. It wasn't apparent to Miles, Mayday, and Annie, but to Ben and Peter, they had sensed this man before. A piece of the vent above crashed onto the training floor, and the whole group turned to see two people drop to the floor.

“You need a new security system,” the man in the dark and scarlet suit said in a stern, irritated tone.

“He means we broke it just now, 'cause it suuuucks,” the young woman beside him clarified.

Upon noticing the man glare at Kamala and Miles, Ben whispered, “Hey, we got this handled. I’m sure you two got important stuff to do, right?”

“T-that’s right,” Kamala said nervously, slightly creeped out by the masked man. “Oh my gosh,” she gasped, enlarging her ear, “Miles, you hear that?”

“Umm, hear wha—”

“It’s the Champions! They need our help, like, right now!” Kamala proceeded to enlarge her hand and firmly grasped Miles. Waving farewell, she said, “Hope we train again, girls!” and left the Parkers to deal with…whatever this was.

Feeling better, April gasped when the stranger took off his mask, revealing a face nearly identical to her dad and uncle. “Uncle Kaine!”

“Welp, this isn't going to be good,” Peter sighed, sharing a look of concern with Mary Jane. Peter's second brother wasn't a fan of visiting family, so the two knew it was serious business whenever Kaine was involved.

“Of course, he’s already broken something,” Ben muttered before clearing his throat and giving introductions. “That’s right, your kind-hearted and lovable uncle Kaine is the Scarlet Spider.”

“Woah,” April gasped, “wait a second, don’t that mean YOU were the one who almost killed Ambassador Logan last year? The news wouldn’t shut up about it.”

“Kinda. It’s a complicated stor—"

“Yep, he almost did,” Ben interjected, “nothing but wholesome stories with this big guy.”

“A good fuck you to you too, brother,” Kaine grunted.

“Kaine!” M.J. and Peter shouted, covering their daughter’s ears. April giggled at his casual swearing.

“Look, I don’t like this any more than you do, but—” Kaine continued until he suddenly had a glass jar shoved in his face. “Aracely, why are you doing this?”

“I excused the previous swears, but I won’t excuse one made in front of children. That’s one dollar in the jar.”

“Hehe, I like her,” Mayday giggled. “Who’s she?”

As Kaine begrudgingly tossed in a dollar, Aracely turned around and introduced herself. “I am María Aracely Josefina Penalba de las Heras! Known to all as the mystical and proud hero Hummingbird…but you can call me Aracely!”

“Kaine saved her when she was fifteen,” Ben added, “and though he’ll never admit it, he has adopted her ever since. How long has it been now, bro? Three years?”

“I told you; I’m still looking for a good home for her,” Kaine refutes.

Upon noticing the Parker sisters, Aracely floated in the air and excitedly hovered over them.

‘Does everyone in the family have powers?!’ April thought.

“Heeey, are these the nieces you and Annabelle always talking about? They’re so cute!”

“Really?! Aww shucks,” Annie giggled.

“Aracely…” Kaine groaned.

“Woah, the little one sees all and knows many, many things! Like learning Spanish from Ms. Sanchez,” she said, looking at Annie. “Hola, ¡puedo enseñarte español si quieres!”

Speaking for her shocked sister, Mayday asked in awe, “How’d you know all that?”

“Oh, I know everything.”

“No, she just reads minds and emotions,” Kaine specified, annoyance present in his tone.

Aracely gasped as she looked at Mayday. “Kaine! Mayday’s heart is unlike anything I’ve sensed before! As strong as a hurricane, yet her compassion is endless!”

“I try my best,” Mayday said, blushing from praise.

‘Creepy,’ April thought, catching Aracely’s attention as she whips her gaze towards her.

‘And you,’ Aracely telepathically said until her tone and expression dropped. ‘You are…different. Afraid, and yet—’

“That’s enough!” Kaine shouted, grabbing everyone’s attention. “Aracely, come here.”

As she did, Peter suggested, “Hey, let’s move this somewhere more private. Girls, go change and wait in the—”

“No,” Kaine said, “all of you need to hear this.”

Seeing Kaine still has little patience, the Parkers do what he says. April remained particularly quiet as she waited for her sisters to finish changing. She worried about even thinking of anything lest the new girl reread her thoughts. After her sisters were done, the family sat in one of the comfortable guest rooms. Kaine closed the windows' blinds before turning to the Parkers and announcing, “There’s a monster loose in this city.”

April flinched at such an announcement, a reaction that came almost instinctively. Her uncle Ben quickly responded, saying, “It’s New York City, Kaine. You’re going to have to be a bit clearer.”

“How’s this for clear? Each of you has a target on your back, and this monster has its sights on all of you,” Kaine hissed.

April stared at Kaine as she walked past her, a fear growing in her heart, yet she knew not why it was there. “Despite trying to track down its trail, it left a spree of mayhem to anything and anyone unfortunate to cross its path,” Kaine uttered, and then April noticed Annie starting to creep out. “It’s a monster who does not think, does not feel, and will not stop until its prey is dead.” April tried to hide her fear while glancing over at Mayday, unable to tell if she was hiding hers or maintaining her resolve in the face of this description.

“Am I being clear now, brother?”

“Crystal,” Ben replied, recognizing the gravity of Kaine’s tone.

April saw her father step forward. “Kaine, you still glance at the news, yeah? You wouldn’t happen to be talking about the same culprit behind a spree of random attacks, are you?”

“Seems so,” Kaine answered, “several spots I investigated ended up being called by the news as the handiwork of some elusive attacker.”

“Of course, we can’t go a month without something bad happening,” Peter sighed.

Ben asks, “Alright, Kaine. You made your point. Now, how did you learn about this threat in the first place?”

Kaine nodded to Aracely, who had been floating beside him. “I only recently begun to master my powers, trying to extend my reach and find ways to help others with their emotions,” she said. “Then, almost three weeks ago, I was in deep slumber when I suddenly sensed an intense spike of someone’s emotions. She was unlike anything I felt before.”

“She?” M.J. asked.

April leaned forward as Aracely vividly recalled, “Uh-huh, she was so far away, yet the immense wave of her emotions made it felt she was right next to me. Her mind was clouded by fear, her heart filled with rage. She wanted to lash out against the world itself. I woke up moments later, tears rolling down my eyes. My heart ached like it hadn’t had in years, probably because I felt what she felt.”

April was stunned at such a reaction, and an unnerving fear grew in her heart as if the tension in that room was directed at her.

“I’m sorry you had to go through something so…visceral,” M.J. said gently.

Mayday asked, “Why would something so dangerous, hurting many people, also suffer so much pain?”

“I don’t know,” Aracely admits.

“As unhealthy as it is, Mayday, that’s how some deal with too much pain,” M.J. said.

“This thing is very odd,” Aracely continued. I sensed her emotions, but her mind was blocked. That is partly why I insisted on Kaine helping: to find this source of rage and despair that sprung up nearly every night.”

“Good to see you still care, Kaine,” Ben said.

“Hardly! I only did it so she and Annabelle would stop bugging me. We’re only talking to you because the trail’s gone cold, and I’m about to run out of money for the motel we’re staying in. So, I bit the bullet and finally came here to get this nonsense over.”

“Then you came to the right place; dealing with nonsense is a Spider-Man specialty, after all,” Ben said. “What does our elusive culprit look like?”

“Won’t lie, you ain’t going to like what I’m about to tell you. From what I gathered myself and discerning what Aracely senses…I believe our problem is a symbiote one.”

Peter and M.J. tense up at the mere mention of the alien species. April freezes entirely; the name is utterly foreign to her, yet she suddenly feels she has known it her whole life. April ends up so stunned that she barely catches the look of worry her mother has toward her. ‘Why did Mom glance at me like that?’

Annie squinted at such a name, tapping her chin as if trying to remember something while asking, “Dad, aren’t those the creepy alien things you fought as Spider-Man?” April remembered clearly how their dad tended to share little about the symbiotes. All she knows is they’re why the formidable Venom exists, one of the most terrifying and formidable foes her father ever faced. Though she knows little of Venom, there is a sense of familiarity with him that April's unable to discern why. 

“Unfortunately, yes. Kaine!” Peter said, “You’re sure it’s one of these things? Like, completely certain it is?”

“I’ve beaten Carnage with the help of our old symbiote-covered football star buddy once, brother. Don’t insult my ability to recognize a symbiote when seeing them.”

“But I drove them out,” Peter said, talking to himself, “there shouldn’t be any more on earth. Unless…”

“Pete, are you sweating bullets?”

“N-no, Ben. A concerning thought crossed my mind, is all.”

"Well, either way, I think Kaine's right on his approach here,” Ben continued.

Suddenly, Aracely, who stared at Peter, blurted out, "He's trying not to think of something—something about one of his daughters."

"Aracely stop that! That's very rude," M.J. said assertively, almost urgently.

Innocently, April asked, "Dad, what's wrong?"

"Yeah, brother," Kaine said insistently, "what's eating at you so badly that you want to withhold it?"

"Everyone, just be quiet!" Everyone but Kaine flinched at Peter's sudden outburst. April kept her mouth shut, watching her dad pinch his brow. "It not your concern, Kaine. It's only personal stuff."

"He's thinking—" Aracely said before Kaine spoke. "Stop," he said. "Okay, keep your secret. Just know I'm taking the first plane out of here as soon as we kill this monster."

“NO,” M.J. suddenly shouted, causing all the brothers to tense up in shock. April felt her mother hug her, and the warmth and grasp of it felt very protective. “I mean…you heard what Aracely said. It sounds like whoever this is needs help, and she hasn’t killed anyone.”

"Yet. She hasn’t killed yet," Kaine said, "All three of us seen and bonded with these things at one point. I guarantee you that anyone with a symbiote knows fully well what they're doing, whether they can or can't help themselves. The symbiote will not stop because it needs to satisfy its host to stay strong and survive. When one’s life is on the line, it ain’t going to leave us with much choice but to destroy it.”

Neither Peter nor Ben rebukes this. Both refuse to kill this new symbiote, but these aliens are also complex and, thus, tricky to talk to. That’s not even going into how, from their own experiences, they tend to bring the worst out of their hosts. The kind of tendency that leads the two to resort to deadly means to stay bonded.

Annie raised her hand, asking, “Sorry for interrupting, but I remembered something from this morning. Aracely, is there any chance you caught a glimpse of the alien?”

“Vaguely, yeah.”

“Did it look small and have long hair with blue swirls everywhere?”

“It did, but how’d you—Oooh, I see, your mind contains glimpses of events before they transpired.”

“Annie,” Peter said, “you had a vision about this?”

Annie proceeds to explain herself, “I wasn’t sure until now. I’m still trying to figure out how this power works, and it came to me while sleeping. I couldn’t tell if it was a nightmare or a vision.”

“What did you see?” Mayday asked.

“First, I saw an old building covered in webs,” Annie shared. "Laughter echoed everywhere before a big thing leaped out of the darkness, claws like razors and teeth like dinosaurs! The monster scared me so bad I woke up crying.”

"Just like how I was crying," Aracely pointed out. “What could this mean?”

“If Annie saw it, and it attacked her, then it means Kaine’s right. This alien’s going to attack Annie,” Mayday said. April winced at such words, the pain in her chest growing faster.

“Mayday, I know that look, don’t get any ideas,” Peter asserted.

“Dad, Annie saw it! It’s going to happen unless we change it, and I refuse to let this alien hurt my sister.”

Her mother whispered, “April?” upon noticing April was taking quick, sharp breaths. The pain in her heart began to strike her head, and she didn’t know why, nor this sudden compulsion to NOT tell anyone.

“Pete,” Ben said, “if this host is after us, then we gotta take action now and get the kids somewhere safe before this thing does.”

“I’ll do it,” M.J. proclaimed. I’ll take them to the Baxter Building tomorrow.” Everyone turned to see her trying to comfort a stressed-out April. “I think the girls heard enough of this.”

“Of course,” Peter said.

Kaine looks away, scratching his beard while looking quietly guilty over scaring the girls.

“Just leave this one to us, okay? Annie, stay close to your sisters.”

“Yes, Dad,” Annie said, her head down as she tried not to think about this mysterious threat.

“Mayday, stay put and no heroics, understand? They need you here, not out there.”

“Yes…” Mayday answered, looking over to her sisters.

“And April,” Peter said, gently touching her shoulder, “everything will be okay.”

April stays silent, trying not to let the lingering headache get to her. “Pete, she needs some air,” M.J. said.

“Take her to the car. We’ll be right there.”

Clinging to her mom, April tried not to tip over from the dizziness. The outside provided some relief, more so when the two sat by a bench in front of the car. “I’m sorry,” April mumbled.

Concerned, her mother gently asks, “What for, sweetie?”

“I don’t know,” April said somberly, “it feels like I’m always screwing something up.”

April's gaze stayed glued to the floor, even as her mom pulled her in for a warm embrace. “I don’t think that’s true, April, but I get how hard it must be for you to think that,” her mom said. She wiped a tear from April’s cheek, saying, “You are a human being, April, and humans aren’t perfect. It’s okay to feel scared by this, but you have all of us here to help you.”

“Hasn’t felt like it recently. I’m barely ever normal compared to Mayday.”

“April, normal isn’t molding yourself into what everyone else thinks or into someone else. Normal is being who you are.”

“But…” April stammers, “But what if who I am is scary?”

“And why would anyone ever find you scary?”

“Because…I feel like I did something horrible.” For the first time in April’s memory, she felt her mom tense up as she held her in her arms. It was only for a few moments, but as April looked up, she saw worry and trepidation in her mom’s eyes. M.J. was speechless; something was gnawing at her intensely, something April sensed she was hiding from her. “Mom, are you scared of me?”

For a long, agonizing second, Mary Jane was silent. April felt as if there was a splinter in her heart. Then, out of the corner of her eye, a man suddenly appeared behind her mom—an old man in a dark suit with the most sinister sneer she had ever seen.

His slimy voice echoed, “See? All it takes is a little fear to toss you away.”

April screamed, both at this man’s presence and from her headache spiking in pain. She falls onto the sidewalk, trying to crawl away from the specter haunting her.

Her mother is quickly beside her, trying to hold her as April squirmed in fear. “April, baby, what’s wrong?!”

April points to where the man stood. Yet, upon a single blink, he vanished out of thin air. “I…I don’t see anything, April,” Mary Jane said, confused and concerned.

Tears began to fall down April’s cheeks, rubbing her eyes as she sobbed, “I’m going crazy.”

“Shhhh,” M.J. hushed softly, embracing her daughter. "There's nothing wrong with you, sweetie. Just focus on me. Whatever’s going on, we’ll be there beside you. You are April Parker, and that’s all you need to be.”

As she clung to her mother, April wanted to believe every word she told her. Yet, a gnawing feeling in her head drilled into her that every word was a lie.

Part II: Monster, am I?

[That night…]

To the family's luck, the owners of the famed Baxter Building were able to take them in sooner than expected. Their entrance was a low-key affair compared to their past visits. Mayday and Annie were jovial, barely able to hide their excitement toward seeing the famed family again. April, meanwhile, kept quiet and focused on finishing packing her stuff. Upon greeting the kind receptionist, Roberta, they were guided to the resident levels. April and her sisters were accompanied only by their mother. Their father, meanwhile, was at Parker Industries and using its systems to do his part in searching for this threat by being his brother's eyes and ears. 'Worried over a dumb alien,' April thought with a tinge of resentment.

Upon the elevator doors opening, a great light shone on the family, the light as powerful as the sun. April returned from such heat, but her family smiled as the man on fire landed and welcomed them, "Hello, hello! Welcome to Casa del Baxter!" With a snap of his fingers, Johnny Storm, known to all as The Human Torch, extinguished the flames that once engulfed his body. He sported a finely cut mustache, complimenting his well-combed blond hair, and wore his signature blue and white FF uniform.  

Before any of them could say another word, four young kids popped out behind Johnny, each jubilant at the sight of the Parker sisters. April groaned at the sight of them, but her sisters had already run up to give a big group hug.

"Franklin! Valeria!" Mayday cheered, hugging the son and daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Richards. Though she had hung out with them only twice so far, they quickly built a great ripour. It'd also helped that they were roughly within the same age range, with Mayday only one or two grades behind them. 

"Mayday, it's so cool to see you," Franklin said. "talk about a surprise visit! Is everything okay? This is super sudden."

"Observant as always, Franklin," Valeria said sarcastically, stepping between them. "Let's see: the odds of the Parkers dropping at this time of year were thirty-seven thousand and eighty-three to one. Thus, the two most plausible 'Parker' scenarios to create such odds are either a powerful alien symbiote is after them, or they failed to pay the mortgage and are now homeless."

"Umm, it's the first one, Val," Mayday answered.

Valeria began to shake her hand, saying, "Congratulations, Parker, on beating those odds and not being homeless!"

"Jo-Venn! N'Kalla!" Annie giggled while Ben and Alicia Grimm's adopted children hugged her.

Though they were very young for their respective species ages, the two eight-year-olds were as fierce in battle as they were adorable. N'Kalla used her Skrull powers to stretch her torso around Annie, a hug exclusive to best friends and family in Skrull culture. "Salutations, Anime the human," she greeted.

"Nicki, it's Anna-May," Annie said, annoyed.

Nicki's brother, Jo, asked, "Is that not what my sister just said?"

Slapping her forehead, Annie sighed, "Okay, I give up. Call me Annie from now on."

"As you wish, Anniefromnowon," Jo loudly stated, "amazing, humans never cease to have the worst names in the galaxy."

While her sisters walked ahead and chatted with the other kids, April kept her head down and stuck close to her mom. "Thanks so much for this," M.J. said sincerely.

"Of course, this isn't the first time I've helped Pete with symbiote shenanigans. This one's a first, though," Johnny said.

"We just want the girls to feel safe," M.J. reasoned, protectively tightening her grip on April's hand. "We never...we should've told them of this sooner."

"Better late than never is what I say," Johnny said, "hey, when Reed, Sue, and Ben get back, I'm sure they can offer some help themselves. Perhaps break out the ol' sonic blaster?"

"I...would rather wait and see how things develop."

For the rest of the evening, there was little time for the two families to have a proper get-together. April focused on eating her dinner alone while her sisters asked the FF kids about their adventures since they last met. She found it annoying that they casually chatted with the alien siblings despite those two being on Earth for barely a year. ‘Bet they wouldn’t be so chatty with’em if they had sharp teeth,’ she grumbled. It may seem like an odd, vindictive comment, but it was another sign of a rift between them in April. ‘A rift that’s always been there,’ she thought.

A few hours passed before Mary Jane, somewhat hesitantly April noted, told the three of them to go to bed early. Her mom pulled April aside before Johnny showed them to the guest room where they could bunk together. Sharing a hug, she said, “April, there's...I think there's something you should know."

April tilts her head, "what, mom?"

Mary Jane pulled back, looking at her daughter. April could see the ends of her mom's lip twitch, unsure of what to say and how to say it. "You..." she sighed before forcing on a smile, "you get a good night's sleep, okay?"

"O-okay," April mumbled, feeling like she'd been lied to. M.J. kissed her on the forehead before sending her off to bed. Of course, rather than sleep in, April and her sisters naturally huddled beside a warm, orange lamp and lay on the floor, staring at a holographic projection of the night sky on the ceiling.

"Uncle Kaine," Mayday whispered, "he seems less angry but more angry. Does that make sense?"

"Maybe it's an uncle thing," Annie commented."Hey, Mayday, do you think he's right about destroying this thing?"

"It's not up to heroes whether one should be destroyed, Annie. Besides, Dad, Ben, and Kaine can handle this. I mean, they're three spider-men. Who can stop them?"

"No one's invincible, May," April muttered. "Not even them."

"Yeeesh, a bit dark, April."

"Hey, if everybody's being honest about their true feelings today, why can't I?"

Annie nervously twiddles her fingers, asking, "Why is it after me? I barely even thought about symbiotes."

"Maybe it's an old foe. One Dad hasn't told us yet," Mayday suggested.

"Wouldn't be surprised," April whispered to herself.

"I'm not sure," Annie said, "you know, thinking about it harder, there was something...scary about that vision. I think it tried to speak to me."

"Woah," Mayday quietly gasped; even April's interest was piqued. "What'd it say?"

A chill ripples across Annie as she recalls to them, "It was warbly, but it sounded hurt. Then it screeched, 'kill you.'"

A heavy silence fell over the sisters. April could almost sense how unnerved they were by such an ominous reminder. For herself, she couldn't deny that this symbiote sounded creepy, but there was something else she felt was missing. Perhaps it was a stretch, but April can't help but wonder if her nightmare of being chased by a monster has something to do with this symbiote. 'But why? And why do I feel a strange...kinship with this thing? It's like thinking about an old friend.' 

“We should go camping out west,” Mayday suddenly suggested, lying on her back. "I heard Yellowstone has spots where you can see the Milky Way. Can you imagine that?”

“There’s something after us, yet all you can think about is camping. Brilliant,” April said dismissively.

Annie quietly asked, “Can we not talk about it?”

“Exactly,” Mayday concurred, “we’re not helping ourselves worrying about it. So, let’s think of something else.”

April rolled her eyes. “Like what?”

“Like, what adventure are the other Fantastic Four doing now? Oh! What if they’re in the Phantom Zone, wrapping up their latest expedition in some unexplored land!”

“Or maybe they’re in another universe,” Annie happily suggested, “maybe they saw how quickly the world’s supply of chocolate is diminishing and traveled to a dimension where everything is chocolate!”

“Both are dumb,” April huffed, “how does that even work, Annie? How does a choco-version of you even talk?”

“It’s not dumb! With the multiverse, anything is possible; that’s the point of a multiverse!”

“Well, the multiverse’s dumb, too, 'cause it made me exist in a world where I always get the short end of the stick!” April turned her back to them, and her sisters were stunned by her outburst. ‘She’s gonna ask,’ she thought, ‘she’s always butt in.’

Knowing her twin well, she hears her ask, “Hey, where did that come from? April, you okay?”

"Like you care, May.”

“Course she does,” Annie said to her defense, “we’re asking, aren’t we?”

“It ain’t something either of you will get, so drop it.”

Mayday scoots closer. “Not even a little?”

“Not even! You two made that clear when you made friends with those stupid Osborns.”

“We were just trying to be friendly,” Annie insisted.

“And, like doofuses, you nearly got killed!”

“Hey,” Mayday said assertively, “don’t blame us for not expecting a freakin’ supervillain attack.”

"Oh, sorry for assuming the brat who can see the future could see the danger those creeps bring with them.” From the corner of her eye, April sees Annie shrink down with guilt, which stung her with a tinge of regret.

“There you go again,” Mayday huffed.

“What?!”

“Being a jerk for no reason! We’re always there for you, but you can’t help being ‘you.’”

April sat up, her back still turned at them. She can hear a slight hiss from Mayday; she said more than she meant to say, but it meant little to April. With a cold tone, she asked, “And just what does ‘you’ imply, May.”

“I didn’t—”

“Don't lie. I heard you. What does ‘you’ mean, May?”

“Stop fighting again,” Annie said, urging.

April ignores her completely, pointedly saying to her twin, “Let me guess, the ‘you’ means me being the runt of the litter.”

“No! April, just because we have powers—”

“It’s not even the powers. It’s just you. All of you!” April shouted, “You don’t get into trouble, you don’t hurt someone, you don’t make yourself look like a disappointment."

"I don't-?! April, I saw my new friend get paralyzed because of me! I screw up too, but I don't shove all my little problems onto others like you do."

April clenched her fists, her teeth gritting as her oil fueled the fire of anger in her. "Little...little?! I lost five years of my life! MY LIFE! And what did you two then do? Forget all that and be friends with those who took all those years away from me!”

Annie covered her ears, tears welling up at all this fighting. Mayday stared at April, who was so upset that her clenched hands were quivering. Shock and regret displayed across Mayday’s face as she said, “April, I didn't...I don't mean to make you feel like an outsider. You're not some freak to us.”

April scoffed, “You sure like to pick and choose when and what you think a freak is. You two shiver over an alien you see as a monster, and a second later, you chat it up with those two alien kids. How can I be sure you won’t ever do the same to me?”

“Because there’s nothing wrong with you,” Mayday insisted.

April almost wanted to laugh at such a naïve answer. “Then you still know nothing about me,” she whispered.

Having had enough of them, April climbed up to the top bunk and pulled the blanket over her. Her sisters whispered to each other but neither dared to disturb her. They respected her enough to know when she wanted to be alone.

‘You idiot,' she thought. ' Why did you have to make Annie cry? Why am I always like this?’

Before long, the weight of her eyelids grew heavy, and the utter exhaustion from today finally caught up to her as she drifted off to sleep. A sliver of her hoped she would be given a break and have one peaceful night, but fate had other plans. Once in deep slumber, April finds herself back in that dark, ooze-ridden corridor, the growls of some beast echoing from behind. "You again," April gasped, seeing its shadowy silhouette against the faint light looming closer. "Leave me alone!" The same old routine then plays out: the dream beast gives chase, and April runs down this maze-like corridor, hoping to escape. It did not matter, ultimately, what she did. Whether she turned right twice or made only left turns, April would still be stuck in a maze of her subconscious creation, running from a beast she didn't even know what it looked like.

It wasn't just hopeless; it was suffocating. The isolation, the fear of the unknown, the directionlessness of everything. April was trapped in a collage of her worst fears, with her greatest fear chasing her now. "I'm not like you," she whispered, hugging the slimy walls while hearing the echo of the beast's screeches. "You're not me." Every word uttered came naturally to her despite never knowing why she spoke them in the first place. A deep, buried part of her was finally speaking, and it said, "I'll never be you. You nothing but...a monster!" April shivered as the beast's shadowy veil was lifted as it entered the light.

What she saw could be described as nothing but an outcast from beyond the stars, one almost indescribable. All April could discern bright, silvery chains from that looming mass of blue and black ooze. Coming from the void above, these stainless metal chains were clamped onto all of the beast's appendages, not too dissimilar to strings on a wooden puppet. This was the first time April saw this beast, and for all the harsh words she had spat at the beast before, she couldn't help but feel almost sorry for it. "Why are those on you?"

The beast, suddenly more subdued, answered by reaching out its hand. Suddenly, the chains yanked the beast's limb away, and bells clamored from above. April could feel the beast's pain as the chains dragged it away. Before she could process any of this, hands formed from the walls and gripped her arms. April was pulled into the wall and saw only darkness.  

"She's lying to you," that elusive voice speaks. One could practically hear the corner of his mouth curling into a malicious sneer.

"They all are. They don't love the real you. Don't believe me? Go and see."

April's eyes shot open, and she awoke in the guest room. Her wide-open eyes gazed down to find her sisters asleep on the carpet floor. It appeared barely an hour had passed. Then, almost as if possessed, April quietly leaped out of bed. 'Mom. I gotta see Mom,' was all she thought. In her mind, it felt like the right thing to do. Due to the low fear of danger in such a highly secured building, April easily slips past Johnny, sleeping on the living room couch, and finds her mother's room. Her hand is compelled to open the door, but there's a moment of hesitation. 'What am I doing?'

 "Do it..."

As if she jumped forward in time, April's hand was suddenly on the door handle, now slightly open. 'What? I...need some sleep.' Unfortunately, before she could leave, her ear caught the concerned voice of her mother.

"This isn't a discussion, Peter," Mary Jane said, "we are telling April the instant she's awake. We should've told her when we learned Mayday got her powers."

"We can't jump to conclusions, especially for a matter as big as this one," her father's voice echoed from the phone. "Yes, Kaine and Ben haven't reported any sightings of this symbiote, but we can't possibly take it to mean-"

"Peter, listen to me," Mary Jane earnestly urged, "I saw the look in your eye when Kaine, and especially Annie, described what this symbiote looked like. Those were the exact patterns her blood had the day we found her. You saw it, I saw it, and Doctor Conners confirmed they moved exactly like your old suit did."

"He also said those cells were all docile, practically acting no different from any other cell activity," Peter refutes. "April's human and that's all she needs to know. We agreed on this-"

"Because that's what it seemed like she was, I know," M.J. sighed, "but things change, Peter. Our little girls have changed so much these past few months, and I think April will be next. I'm just afraid that she's doing this alone. She's hiding something, and I want to respect her privacy, but if it has something to do with this symbiote..."

"Two days," Peter said, "let's look for two more days, and we'll decide. Doing so now with Kaine here is too risky, and by that time, Reed should be back so we can do another test. If anybody can give a solid second opinion, it's him."

"April hardly seems to be in the mood to do one."

"Well...Reed will only need a lock of hair."

"Peter Parker, what are you thinking? Are you even suggesting that?" Mary Jane said with shock and slight disgust.

"M.J., it's a simple confirmation test. One of which we probably already know the result."

"I don't care if it's even a lock of hair; I will not do this without her consent. That's the end of this."

"I'm sorry," Peter said in a low, worried tone. You're right. Of course, you're right. I can't see her doing all this. You haven't seen what I've seen. People are in emergency care because of how deep and traumatic these wounds are. Forgive me for wanting to believe April, the little girl lying next door to May and Annie, would never inflict such mayhem."

"I believe there's something bigger to this too," Mary Jane said, "but I don't think we're helping her anymore by hiding this."

Peter is silent for a long time, long enough to make one think the line got cut. Finally, he answered, "Two days, just to be sure. It's not like you told her we'll share the truth."

"No..." Mary Jane said with deep remorse. "I'll sleep on this, but we'll continue this when once you get back." Exhausted over this decision, Mary Jane hangs up the phone and sits down, her mind eager to sleep. "What's wrong with me?"

"Mom," M.J. shoots out of bed, and her heart drops. She sees April standing beside a fully open door. The look on her face could be nothing else but one of utter betrayal. Her hands quivered, gulping before she asked the biggest question she had ever asked: "What are you hiding from me?"

"April..." her mother gasped. Her mouth was agape, but she did not answer. 

"M-mom," April stuttered, "w-what's wrong with me that you and dad need tests?"

Mary Jane shut her eyes, clenching her jaw, trying to find the right words at such a critical moment. 

SLAM!

April loudly shut the door behind her, unknowingly creaking a crack in the wall and busting the lock shut. It was just the two of them now. "TELL ME!" she roared, a second voice reverberating with her own. Her mother looked in shock at what she witnessed; the power to break metal and her voice meant only one thing. This something nearly awakens a deep, traumatic fear in Mary Jane. "Please," April whimpered, tears and snot streaming down her cheeks, "just say you're scared of me already."

Such words from her daughter shattered Mary Jane's heart. "April," she cried, rushing to hug her little girl. "No, god no. I would never be-"

"Don't touch ME!" April screeched, shutting her eyes and swatting away her mother's right arm. Tragically, this was no mere swat. It never is for a symbiote. April's eyes shot open the instant her mother let out a cry of pain. The first thing she sees is red, not the red of her mother's hair but the red of her blood. April has inflicted a terrible cut wound on her mom's forearm. "No," she gasped in pure horror. A horror that's only just begun as April looks at her arm to see a black and blue layer of dark skin sporting dagger-like claws engulfing it. She fell to her knees and cried out in anguish. The visceral intensity of such despair made only her symbiote side stronger, strong enough to spread across its eternal host rapidly.

"April!" Mary Jane rushed over to stop the spread, but the symbiote effortlessly shoved her off.

Now almost totally consumed, April could only cry out for her mother. "No! You're just a nightmare! Mommy, help me!"

"APRIL!" Mary Jane screamed, watching the symbiote completely engulf her daughter and quickly morph into a fully awakened Symbiote hybrid. The long, curly dark hair M.J. would help comb was now a large clump of black ooze, each strand capable of becoming razor-sharp. The sweetest smile she'd ever seen was rows of sharp teeth with toxic green saliva dripping. Mary Jane couldn't see her daughter's bright blue eyes, which were replaced with blank white eyes aimed directly at her.

"Kill."

April clenched the sides of her head, hearing this order echo in her skull until she completed it. With struggle, she inched closer to her mom and turned her arm into a large, deadly blade. "April," M.J. urgently said, "April, stop. It's me, April, your mother. Do you remember? Please, don't do this!"

April raised her blade arm, aimed directly at her mother's heart.

"I'm sorry!" The earnest apology snaps April out of the command, her voice guttering from pain. "I'm sorry for hiding this from you, April," she sobbed, extending her hand and gently placing it on April's cheek. "I'm so sorry for hurting you."

"M-mom," April's distorted voice uttered before reeling back from a surge of pain. She squirmed on the ground, her mind locked in a battle over what to do and who she was.

M.J. tried to comfort her daughter, but April's strength was too strong, and she was shoved aside. "April, I'm here. I'm not leaving you! We'll get someone to help you!"

"I don't need help!"

A fully awake Johnny Storm kicks the broken door open. He sees a new symbiote thrashing on the floor and blood on Mary Jane's arm. With a cry of "Flame on!" his body becomes as hot as the sun, and he aims his arms to fire a heat blast.

"Johnny, no!"

Mary Jane's desperate plea gave April time to morph her arm into a large hammerhead, which she bashed against Johnny. The FF member was slammed through the wall, and April made her escape. 'Need to get away,' she thought, 'dangerous to mom. dangerous to everyone!' With the help of her fingers, now dark talons, she climbed up the Baxter Building until she found a good vantage point to swing away. A voice echoes in the distance as she spots a good jumping-off point.

"Oh no you don't!"

April sees her suited-up twin, Mayday, swinging right toward her and kicking her square in the jaw. April screams in pain as she plummets, barely stopping her descent by digging her armblade into the side of the building. She cringes from the throbbing pain of such a kick and looks up to see Mayday sticking to the building, ready for a fight.

"Kill."

"Yes, father." April shoots towards her sister like a bullet, nearly striking her with her arm blade. Mayday narrowly dodges the attack, but she would be lying if she said such an attack didn't scare her half to death. Seeing her sister try to fire a web, April leaped high into the air. "Oh no, you don't," she shot back, firing a web that stuck onto Mayday's back and slamming her against the building. Mayday barely moved before April stretched her arm and torso to grapple with her sister. "We're not done yet!" April's massive fist squeezed her twin's body before steering her across the building as she raced towards the top.

Mayday's face grided against metal and rock until they reached the roof and were thrown against the floor. "So...strong," she gasped, barely lifting herself and trying not to cry from the pain stinging half of her face. April dashed at her, but Mayday's reflexes were fast enough to fire webs at her foe, ensuring she had a funnel of steel-like strings. "Try getting out of that, freak," she gasped.

"Freak," April muttered, a dark chuckle creeping out. Then, Mayday watched as thin dark tendrils slipped through the webs wrapped around April, growing into two axe heads. "FREAK?!" April cut through the webs like butter and stretched out her arm to entrap Mayday. Reeling her in, April charged towards a metal supply crate and slammed her sister against it.

The immense strength of it completely knocked the wind out of Mayday, and her head slumped down. With that one attack, any energy left in her was gone. Barely conscious and the grip around her torso squeezing the life out of her, she could only ponder to herself, 'What is this thing?'

"Mayday."

Mayday gasped over her foe, seemingly having just read her thoughts. Even worse, this thing seemed to know her name. She coughed out, "Y-you know me?"

"Why wouldn't I? You said it yourselves all those years ago..." April stretched over to the twin's ear and whispered, "Only family calls you Mayday."

Her heart sinks, and any coherent thought ceases after she processes such words. Mayday's eyes are shot open, her body frozen, as her mind instantly flashes to the night their family was complete—the night her twin returned. With a quiver of shock and despair, Mayday gasped, "A-april?"

"No," she replied with a low growl, "No April. Only you, only Mayhem!"

Morphing her arm into a blade, Mayhem lifts it and aims for her sister's head. Seemingly obedient to her silent command.

"Hey!"

A blast of searing heat nearly hits Mayhem, causing her to lose her grip and flip away. She roars upon seeing the Human Torch in the air, arms extended, ready to fire another blast.

"Escape."

Mayhem quietly obeys. She looks at Mayday one last time before leaping off the edge and swinging away.

"No! April," Mayday screamed, "APRILLL!" Her cries were fruitless, and her twin vanished into the night. Johnny flies down to her and carefully burns the organic webbing off Mayday.

The staircase door bursts open, and Mary Jane & Annie rush out. "Mayday! April?"

"Over here!"

Hearing Johnny yell, she and Annie run over to find Mayday. Her mind is worlds away when she realizes who she is battling—her twin, whom she just called a freak.

"Oh, Mayday," Mary Jane cried, seeing the bruises and cuts on her daughter. "Where's April?"

"She ran off after she nearly...nearly killed Mayday," Johnny said, his upbeat attitude gone.

"Go," Mary Jane ordered, "before we lose her. Go and don't hurt her!" Without a word, Johnny did as she said and flew off.

Annie, weeping over her hurt older sister, grasps Mayday's hand and hugs her. Mayday blinks as she registers the love emitting from the warm hug. "Annie. Mom."

"We're here, hotshot, " M.J. somberly comforted.

"Was," Mayday stuttered, "was that really April?"

Her head was down low, and she felt deep shame toward herself for driving her daughter away. Somberly, Mary Jane said, "Yes. That's your sister."

A chilling gust of wind blows over the Baxter Building rooftop, a deafening silence hanging over the Parker family. Broken apart once again.

To be Continued...

A/N: Yep we're turning the angst up to the eleven with this one. Hope you enjoyed :D

Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments

Chapter Text

Part III: The Truth

[Winter 2001]

A chaotic anthem of cheerful music and colorful laughter filled the air of the famed Brooklyn theme park, Thrill World. Abandoned decades ago, it saw a resurgence and now sees thousands of happy visitors every night, including one unhappy visitor. Huddled inside a bright red phone booth in the middle of this cacophony of whimsy stood a tall, blond man. He was so huge that many visitors mistook him for a circus strongman; he also smelt like he crawled out of a sewer. The putrid smell and the wide, white emblem plastered on his dark coat and grizzled look unnerved many attendees.

“Listen, these things happen. I’m not happy about this extension either. If this job didn’t pay good cash, I’d be—” he said, exhaustion clear in his gruff tone.

“Eddie Brock, you’ve been away for almost two weeks now,” a woman said over the phone. "Dylan misses you.” Eddie leaned against the phone machine, using one arm to clutch his abdomen. He could tell from her voice that she, too, was tired.

“And do you miss me?” Eddie winced at how desperate he sounded and from this nagging gut pain. He was ready to slap himself over such a creepy question if not for his ex-wife’s mature response.

“I miss you making Dylan happy on the weekends,” she answered. “And I know he will miss you if something terrible happens. I’ve long moved on, Eddie, and I'll be alright, but I worry he wouldn't. Have you at least tried calling?”

“I’ve been calling him, Anne,” Eddie insisted, twiddling the phone cord. “You know, like, asking about school and stuff.”

“He would rather you ask him that over at the local diner than on the other side of the country.”

Eddie Brock smacks his head on the glass, the breath of his sigh fogging up the panel. His heart practically screams at him that she is right, and he’d love to leave this godforsaken city on the first plane he can take. However, the searing pain in the gut reminds him that his ‘job’ is far from done.

“Look, I gotta go, okay?” Eddie grunted, “You’ll be getting the support money in the mail soon, Anne.”

“Eddie,” Anne urged, “promise me this isn’t about your…obsession.” Either from guilt or the pain in his abdomen, Eddie can’t bring himself to speak. “Right…I knew you had that look on your face the day Spider-Man vanished. If that has anything to do with you leaving—”

“It ain’t about that, Anne,” Eddie insisted.

“Then what, Eddie?!”

“A hunch,” he answered. A second, familiar voice spoke harmoniously with his. "Or it was a hunch. Now, we know we must be here. We know what to do when we find the lunatic lurking around this city. To finally settle the score and keep you two safe.”

After a long pause on Anne’s end, she said, “Don’t die out there,” then hung up.

Eddie opens the door with his head down low when a sharp tingle is felt down his neck. His mind recognizes a familiar whiff that makes their whole beings tense up in spiteful anticipation. “There you are,” they growl, crushing the phone as a dark ooze morphs his hand.

Attendees hear cracking and growls from the direction of the phone booth, their gazes staring as what was once a man transformed into the infamous lethal protector who once called New York City home. The sight of the white spider across their chest and back was enough to send the crowds running. Their large maws, containing rows of sharp teeth, let out a guttural roar as they terrifyingly cried out, “No one escapes Venom!”

Firing their webs, Venom leaps over the dazzling neon lights of amusement and into the cold, dark skies of New York City. Black tendrils wiggle on top of their upper back, their vibrations directing Venom to where their target is heading. They did their best to ignore the pain from their fresh wound from a recent battle. Venom swung high into the air, filled with a fiery determination to make this the night Carnage died. It all began on a regular day for Eddie Brock. He was at his dingy apartment in San Francisco, doing another tabloid assignment beneath him as a writer. Suddenly, he stumbled upon an article from a fellow writer. He’ll never forget the chill down his spine upon reading that Cletus Kassidy, the psychotic Carnage, had escaped from prison. Eddie felt his other half seething with anger, that something must be done.

Now Venom's tracking senses have brought him to Queens, the home of his former rival, Spider-Man! Eddie swore he could sniff out Peter if he stopped, but upon finally fixing his wound, the symbiote was urging him that Carnage was heading northward. Eddie understood and swung away. They knew Carnage was undoubtedly the most dangerous foe they’d ever fought. Their first battle went so bad that they even needed help from Spider-Wuss to beat him! That alone made Venom utterly despise Carnage. Eddie would’ve jumped into action immediately in his younger, more reckless years, but the picture of his son and Anne Weying made him pause.

However, the suit wouldn't stop warning him that something was different, that Carnage’s movements weren’t a random killing spree but a hunt. Eddie was still willing to look the other way. It was only when the suit insisted that his innocent family would eventually become a target of Carnage that Eddie finally agreed. Before boarding the first plane to New York City, he left money and a note for Dylan. Venom quickly believed they had located Carnage, only to realize too late that Carnage had found them instead. Their secluded first battle in years was epic. It would’ve been weirdly nostalgic for Eddie if he weren’t left half-dead by the end of it. It quickly became a cycle. Carnage would either already give them the slip, or they would battle, only for Carnage to slip away anyway. Venom swore this time would end this vicious cycle with Carnage's death.

Venom could faintly sense some heroes on nightly patrol, but they knew better than to ask for superheroes' help. Not only do they always misunderstand Venom's unique code of honor, but Venom also wishes to uphold their last promise to Spider-Man.

‘Let’s make a deal! You don’t come after us, and we won’t come after you!’

Even if Peter were somehow dead, which they doubt, Venom wouldn’t sink so low as to defile a dead man’s deal. Keep a low profile, steal only what needs to be stolen to survive, and never lose track of Carnage’s trail. This has been Venom’s mission, and they vow this will be their last fight against Carnage. ‘There!’ Venom thought. Carnage’s scent had brought them to the cold shores of an abandoned Manhattan dockside. A shanty pier devoid of life, not even a sewer rat dared to cross here. At the center of this little dark corner of Manhattan lay the tall, abandoned ACME warehouse where Carnage’s scent led.

‘Why here?’ Venom wondered. They knew Carnage could hide anywhere, but Carnage wasn’t dumb. That psycho should know better than to use this desolate place. ‘There must be another reason. Perhaps we can beat it out of him before we finish him off!’ Venom’s senses bring them to an ordinary brick wall on the sixth floor. Eddie didn’t get it until the symbiote guided their hands to a slightly sticking-out brick. Venom's lenses widen in shock upon pressing it, revealing a hidden door with an elevator behind it. This was no old-timey elevator either. It looked too advanced, too recent. The echo of Carnage’s cackling was all it took for Venom to step into the shadowy lift and be lowered to the bowels below.

When the lift stopped, wide metal doors opened to reveal something that made the unusually unfazed Venom ask himself, "What have we gotten ourselves into?” Venom liked to believe nothing could truly shock them, but discovering a secret laboratory filled with the brim with dusty tech was close to doing it. Aside from some equipment in the walls, the steel room was empty. ‘Nothing but generators and big, fancy machines,’ Venom observed, their gaze catching one monitor showing life signs readings. Life signs of...something, something Venom will soon find out. Venom senses were going haywire, signaling that Carnage was just on the other side of a broad, thick steel wall leading to "The Experiment Chamber." However, what was confusing the symbiote was something- no, someone else in there. “Bahh! It matters not who Venom must face; we’ll destroy them like we will this door,” they declared, sinking their claws into the door and pulling it open. “Nowhere to run, Carnage! This underwater tomb will be your grave!”

Venom breaks the door’s locking system with his enormous strength, and upon opening the door, he takes a sharp gasp at the sight of the massive machine in the center of the experiment chamber. This laboratory's power and tech were funneled into a single stasis tube. Carnage stared at what was inside this tube, the sole inhabitant of this cramped, cold place shut away from the world: a little girl. ‘A…innocent,’ Venom thought, frozen over such a discovery. As if in slow-mo, they watched Carnage look back at them, devilishly smiling before morphing their arm into a blood-red axe. It's raised in the air, aimed directly at the girl in stasis.

“NO!” Venom fired a barrage of webbing, catching Carnage’s arm and swinging him into some machines. With barely a second to think, Venom knew this strange girl's presence made it too difficult to deal with Carnage directly. Venom also sensed something familiar about the girl Carnage had seemingly been hunting. Eddie knew this wasn’t the time for questions. Now was the time for action, and their first goal was to save this girl before Carnage could get their filthy hands on her. ‘That’s it,’ they realize, ‘we can’t defeat Carnage by ourselves, but even Carnage can’t survive metric tons of earth and water crashing down.’

Their bitter rival was already back on his feet, so if Venom was going to tear this place down, they had to do it quickly. If there’s one thing Eddie knows, it is movies, and the best movies always show that secret lairs have an emergency self-destruction system, and Eddie has a plan to set it off. “Hang on,” he said, leaping over to the girl entangled by wires while floating in green liquid. Clenching his fists, he bashed open the bulletproof chamber, releasing a flood of some strange serum and hot steam. The stench of the serum reminded Eddie of the scent of a long-dead rival to Spider-Man. Their hands carefully caught the girl, and Venom smelt a familiar scent while tearing wires off her.

A scratchy laugh from Carnage echoes in the room. “Keep your eye on the Birdie!”

Venom’s unable to shield themselves and the girl as Carnage throws a hulking generator at both. Buried beneath its nearly two-ton weight, Venom is tossed to the other side of the experiment chamber and feels the heat of a fire breaking out.

[SUBJECT’S VITALS GONE] the primary security system announced, [INITIATING SELF-DESTRUCTION SEQUENCE]. Venom was right, but unfortunately, it won't be Carnage who'll be trapped underneath here. Carnage quickly turns the tables by redirecting the fire around where Venom and the girl are trapped before letting the security system do its thing.

“Well, lookee, lookee! It seems Daddy’s little plan is falling apart. Literally!” Carnage crackled. "But look at the bright side of things. You two will make for an adorable pair of crushed red paste in a minute. Sayonara, ya two, have a lovely death!” The echoes of Carnage's laughter soon vanished as he escaped, closing off their only exit.

The situation worsened with each passing second as Venom struggled to push away the falling debris above them. All the while, they were protecting the girl in his arms from drowning as water flooded in. Even as they brushed away the last of the rock and metal falling on them, the fire spread across the walls, and the icy water was up to their knees. “Can’t die like this,” Venom said, looking down at the unconscious girl in their arms. He growls upon noticing a streak of blood leaking from her forehead. “Can’t let you die like this.”

A new hole tears open in the high ceiling, releasing a waterfall onto them. Venom then formulates a desperate plan. Knowing they had only seconds, they wrapped the girl in airtight webbing, hugged her to their bodies, and leaped into the rushing waterfall. It takes all their will to force themselves against the force of the sea pouring against them. They are so deep underwater, so strained by the climbing, that they barely maintain air for Eddie.

Nonetheless, slowing down means letting the girl suffocate. They will not allow that! The innocent must be saved. Venom WILL live! Eddie and the suit pick up the pace, digging their claws to fight the stream, fight to protect the innocent! After a grueling climb up, Venom finally reached open water and hurriedly swam to the surface. Eddie gasped for air upon reaching the surface, tearing the webbing off the girl, who instinctively took a sharp breath. Venom carried her back to the rocky shores of Manhattan.

Any signs of Carnage’s presence were gone, for now.

“We’re safe, kid, we’re safe,” Eddie sighed, leaning against the rocks as he cradled the child. Now that the danger's gone, Eddie got a good look at the girl. She appeared to be no older than five and wore a simple, one-piece black test suit. He gently brushed away a lock of her long, brown hair until something incredible happened. Merely a second after touching her forehead, the girl’s hair shape-shifted from brown to black, and she opened her eyes. Eddie swore he saw her with blue and green eyes, only for her to blink again, and they had changed to just blue. She exhaustedly glanced at Eddie and his white spider symbol before passing out.

This proved a sneaking suspicion Venom had the moment they saw her. Eddie and the symbiote didn’t know how, but this girl's ability to shapeshift her appearance like that proved she had a symbiote. However, she didn't just have a symbiote; the pair were completely fused. ‘A hybrid,’ Venom figured. Gently placing their forefinger at the temple of her head, the symbiote glimpses the youngling’s codex, the psychic core of a symbiote that contains the host's DNA. ‘A perfect symbiosis of man and symbiote. Not just any symbiote, not just any child. The codex of this symbiote's structure reads like an evolution of ours and Carnage’s. An evolution of our bloodline.’

Eddie could see all this, too, and the detail that baffled him the most was who this girl was. “And this girl, that look in her eyes…they’re exactly the kind of look Parker has. This girl is his daughter!”

Amid this bombastic series of revelations and the questions that still linger in their minds, Venom wiped away the trickle of blood from the girl’s head. ‘Blunt trauma. Must've been while buried under debris,’ they reasoned, sensing the girl’s symbiote not doing anything to stop it. ‘Must do something. Can’t leave an innocent so young alone, but how?’

Venom knew Carnage was out there, and a child staying by their side 24/7 would only mean the girl would never know peace or safety. Even if they did skip town, what then? Eddie’s barely scraping by being a tabloid reporter, doing only the occasional merc job. Most importantly, Eddie’s already dedicating himself to supporting his family, regardless of the divorce. His home was neither big nor safe enough for a little girl, especially a girl who's undoubtedly Peter Parker's lost kid.

The sounds of approaching sirens echo in the air. The locals likely called them in, frightened of a potential sighting of Carnage. Venom still has a lot of thinking to do, but Eddie’s consciousness will never be at ease until he is confident this innocent girl is safe from Carnage. He gently laid the girl at the foot of the warehouse and patiently waited until the authorities found her. The moment paramedics carried her to the ambulance, Venom disappeared into the night.

Part IV: Poor Wandering One

[Back in the present...]

Within the Baxter Building’s mission briefing room, Mary Jane Parker and Peter Parker were in front of a crowd. The parents are about to finish recounting everything they know about their daughter April Parker's origins. Their audience consisted of Reed Richards, Sue Storm, and Ben Grimm, each of whom had recently returned from a mission. Alicia and the FF kids remained in the guest quarters. Next to them were Ben, Kaine, Jessica, and Aracely. Finally, their children, Mayday and Annie, sat in the front row. Annie held onto her sister's hand for the retelling, trying to wrap her head around this revelation.

While a great weight felt like it was slowly being lifted off M.J.'s and Peter's backs, an even greater weight of shame and guilt replaced it. M.J. herself has struggled not to be dissociative over this nightmare scenario in which April and the whole family have found themselves. Even as her mind could barely comprehend the fact one of her daughters had vanished in a fit of betrayal and rage, her heart knew April and the family needed her more than ever before. She needed to focus and do something to make things right, and she started by telling everyone the truth about April's true nature. "For the next three months," M.J. said, "Venom became a guardian to April. Always checking up on her from a distance, keeping Carnage from finding out she's alive and investigating why she was there in the first place."

"The whole time, April didn't know. She couldn't remember anything. Not a clue to where she came from, why she was there, or even who she was, " Peter said. He noticed his siblings share a look of understanding over April's situation, for they knew better than anyone here over being dealt with such an existential crisis. "When Venom finally tracked Mary Jane down, he tried to approach her gently."

"And though he and that symbiote scared the living daylights out of me, I decided Peter and I should listen. Venom told us everything that we are now telling all of you. After showing us which orphanage April was being housed in, he said, 'And now our business is over, Parker. The girl's fate is up to you two, so do what you do best,' then he vanished. Neither of us has heard from him since."

"After wondering if Eddie's story was true, M.J. and I went to the orphanage. The little girl who stepped forward not only matched Venom's description...her face was exactly like Mayday's. A quick test from Doctor Conners double-confirmed that April has the exact genetic template as Mayday's."

"Because she's my twin," Mayday said, drawing everyone's attention as they looked in anticipation concern. "April's my lost twin. She looks kinda different, but we were both born that day..that's what you told me." There's a pause from her parents, as nearly everyone in the room already knew what Peter and M.J. would say.

Annie looks around, asking, "What's wrong?"

"Identical twins aren't genetically the same," Peter answered. "Early in life, a twin's genes will mutate and alter their DNA sequence. Tiny differences, yes, but they are still different. April's DNA, however, is precisely like yours. Everything about her is like you: her blood, bone marrow, cells, brain patterns, everything--a copy so perfect you wouldn't be able to tell the difference."

"But then that'll mean April is..." Annie said casually before the last word of her sentence utterly stunned her.

"A clone," Mary Jane revealed, looking straight at her eldest daughter, whose eyes widened in shock as the life she once knew changed forever. "April is your clone, Mayday."

While stunned by such a bombshell, Annie gripped her sister's hand to offer comfort, but Mayday looked like her life was flashing before her eyes. In Mayday's head, every memory of April ran through her head like a film reel, but every piece of memory wasn't the same because April the twin, was now April the clone. To her, this recontextualized everything: why they share the same toys, the same interests, the same diet, and even the same fears. Mayday sometimes, in the back of her head, felt as if talking to April was like talking to herself. In this spiral of existential crisis, she sees only her reflection whenever she tries to remember April's face. She pressed her clenched hands on her forehead, barely able to whisper, "My clone. April is me...or am I her?" 

M.J. and Peter were quickly by her side, shooting down this line of thought. "Mayday, no," Peter said, "I've been down that road before, and it'll only lead to bad things."

"You and April are your own persons," M.J. urged, feeling like this was one of the most important things she had ever said. Mayday nods, but her continued silence is worrisome to the whole room.

Annie then processed what her dad had said. "Wait, what'd you mean by that, Dad?"

Peter's brother, Ben, stood up and told them another secret. "Your Aunt Jessica, Uncle Kaine, and I are clones of your father. How and why we're clones is a long story for another time, but Mayday, look at us. The three of us are clones, but you never saw us as copies of your dad for your whole life because we aren't your dad."

"That's right," Aracely said, "Kaine is still your irritable, gruff uncle."

"Yeah, I am," Kaine reaffirmed.

"I'm still the same aunt you knew, Mayday—the same woman. Being a clone will never change that," Jessica said, more sure of herself than ever.

"And I'm still your Uncle Ben." Approaching her, Ben gently placed his hand on her elbow, reassuringly saying, "It's not the face of the person that defies them, Mayday. It's the content of their character."

The whole room knew this moment was critical for Mayday, not only to process all this but also to make it clear that she and April would never be viewed differently. Mayday takes a breath and calmly says, "Thanks, everyone, but...I still don't get how that symbiote latched onto April."

"I can help explain that," Reed said. Using his incredible powers, he stretched his rubber body to the front. With a snap of his fingers, the lights are dimmed, and a digital screen is projected in front of the audience. "What you see is what your father sent me upon his arrival: a complete readout of April's DNA he and Dr. Conner recorded annually."

Annie gasped, "So that's why only Dad took her to the doctor."

Reed continued, "Like all DNA structures, especially for human mutates, it was a little tricky to analyze in such a short time. However, I can positively confirm what Peter and Dr. Conner have initially theorized: April Parker is a human-symbiote hybrid." Mayday and Annie both couldn't believe what they were looking at. What should be a typical DNA sequence instead was nearly entirely coated by a dark substance. Next to that was zoomed-in footage of April's cells; all had their membranes and nuclei coated by the same alien genetic material. Both of which functioned perfectly, a complete symbiosis. "My family and I encountered some of these hybrids across a few parallel earths, but April's certainly a first for this universe."

"How fascinating, Doc," Kaine said sarcastically. "Now, can you tell us if the same weakness still applies?" Though his insensitive comment earned him some glares, Reed answered his question with a nod. "Good. Don't get in my way," Kaine said before attempting to leave the room, only to smack his face into an invisible wall.

He sees Sue's eyes glowing white and asks, "And where do you think you're going?"

"Yeah," The Thing said, standing up, "Watcha' mean by that, pal?"

Kaine shakes his head, "Aracely."

The room glanced at Aracely, and she quietly gasped as if Kaine had given her a signal. Hesitatingly, she shook her head. "No, Kaine!"

"There's only one true way of subduing her, Aracely."

"Subduing?!" Mary Jane yelled, standing up.

"You're trying to get the sonic rifle!" Jessica realized.

The Thing immediately grabs Kaine, restraining him. "What's wrong with ya?! You must have rocks for brains if ya thinking of using something so deadly on a kid!"

"For all we know, Johnny's on his way back with her," Sue suggested.

"He's not," Kaine grunted, fruitlessly trying to escape The Thing's grasp. 

"Then we'll find her all together," Ben said. "We have to. I can't only imagine what she's going through right now."

"I can," Kaine said. "She feels the whole world's out to get her, that her existence is just one bad joke, and would lash out against anyone in her way. But, want to know the key difference between her and us, brother? At least we're not one of Osborn's weapons now unleashed." The whole room is stunned at such an accusation. The FF are confused and disgusted at Kaine seeing April in such a way. The Parkers are appalled at his words, but a tiny bit of doubt could be seen in Peter's eyes.

"What on earth are you..." Jessica said before memories of that fateful night against the Goblin sprung up. Pieces things together, she quietly gasps, "Oh god."

Amid the quiet dread rising in the room, the mention of the name and her worry over April cause Mayday to recall a talk her family recently shared. With all this new knowledge about her twin's true nature as a clone, Mayday asks but one question: "Dad, you said the Goblin kidnapped April, but what really happened?"

"Go on, Peter," Kaine said, "You knew the whole time and kept it from all of us. I know who I saved that day, and it was only Mayday."

Mayday and Annie turn to their parents, as does the rest of the room. All the adults begin to realize the truth behind the last secret Peter and M.J. have kept. Mary Jane, thoroughly sick of keeping such secrets from family, looks back at her daughters. The room is dead silent, waiting for her to tell them the last bit of truth. With a heavy heart, she tells them, "Norman, the green goblin, is the one who cloned you. He created April."

Not even a second later, an alert from the Baxter Building's systems snapped everyone's attention to the window. A large window opened as Johnny Storm landed inside the room, partially out of breath. "I looked," she gasped. I swear I was on her tail, but then she..."

While Sue is quickly beside her brother, Peter stands up and asks, "Johnny, what happened? Where's she?!"

"Where's my sister?!" Annie worryingly asked.

"I don't know," Johnny said, frustration and shame evident in his voice. "It's like she turned invisible, just up and vanished." 

Upon this dire news, everyone looked out the evening skyline of New York City, where an urban laboratory April was hiding somewhere. A labyrinth filled with a bunch of scared citizens and angry cops eager to dispense swift and permanent justice to a terrified child whom they see as a monster. Without a moment to lose, the adults of both families quickly sit up and get a move on. While the Fantastic Four prep the Fantasticar for search & rescue operations, the Parkers head to where Johnny last saw her to begin their search for April. Peter kept a close eye on Kaine as he dons a replica of Ben's Spider-Suit to search for his daughter. He prays this would be the last time such a horrible event would happen to them, but the Parkers are rarely so lucky. All he can do is ensure this emergency doesn't spiral into a tragedy; he and his family couldn't bear such a horrible ending.

Mayday remained almost dazed while all this was happening, staring off into space as one remorseful feeling spiraled in her mind: 'April...May...I'm so sorry for making you feel alone.'

[Later...]

April Parker loudly sobs in a dark alley cluttered with trash while shivering behind a garbage container. The cold wasn't making her shiver. No, it was this grotesque, creepy skin that consumed her entire body.

Everything felt so alien; she could see, hear, and smell almost everything in humanly impossible ways. It was utterly dizzying. Perhaps the most vile smell was the blood on her hand, the blood from her mom and sister. No smell before has filled her with such shame. "What's happening to me?" She carefully rubs her eyes because her fingers remain stuck as razor-edge talons. A part of her supposes it doesn't matter because when she stares at the puddle beside her, all she sees is the face of a monster. Instead of her brown skin, she had this dark, blueish rough flesh. Instead of her bright blue eyes, she only had sharp, white lenses for her eyes. Her pearly white teeth were now black fangs. The only thing that was the same was her long, dark hair, but even that was off as it hovered in the air, each strand capable of moving on her command.

It all disgusted her, made all the worse; her attempts to tear it off were futile. No matter how much she tried to scratch at this strange new skin, ignoring the pain she was inflicting on her face, her nails couldn't tear it off. "Get off! I hate this face! I just wanna be me!" she sobbed, digging in her nails and tugging her face like taffy. Such pain from attempting this could only be described as trying to tear off one's limb. As if a cruel joke was being played, her 'face' slaps back, and April falls flat on the pavement. She wished she could scream out in despair, but April didn't have it in her anymore after the sixth attempt. So there she lied: Alone and empty.

People treated her differently for as long as she could remember, even after her parents discovered her. To feel alienated by classmates, called ugly during recess, and deemed 'troubled' by adults, April has been met only with cruel words from those who don't care about understanding her. How else would a child respond to such cruelty other than to lash out? Who cares if it justifies their opinions? It's not like she cared about them anyway. Looking at her black and blue hands, she now sees that everything they called her was true.

"Even my twin sees me as a freak." Any rage she had left in her burnt itself out, leaving only despair over what she'd done to the only people who loved her. "I hurt them," she sobbed, her throat burning up as she remembered the red of her mother's blood. "I hurt Mama...I hurt May." Curling up, April sobbed, but there were no tears, for her new form had also taken that from her. "I can't go back," she cried, staring at her twisted reflection, "I'm alone again. Stuck as some ugly, stupid monster..."

Then, a shadowy figure appeared in the reflection behind her. "That's not what I see," a voice uttered, their tone distorted as it echoed in April's head. She turned to see a tall humanoid cloaked in darkness, like some specter, looming over her. Panicked, she crawled back until her back was against the wall. "Wanna know what I see?" April shielded her face from the specter who walked up and kneeled beside her. "I see potential. I see power." April's eyes glance up to see this stranger's face, only to see nothing but a void. "I. See. Perfection."

April felt a strange sense of deja vu, causing her head to ache. The sharp pain is disturbingly familiar. She tried to squirm away, but the specter calmly approached her. "Hey now, no need to be afraid. I'm here to help you. I'm the only one capable of setting you back on the right path."

Despite the seemingly kind words, part of April doubted every word he said. "S-stay away..."

The specter leans closer, whispering, "Why?"

"Or I'll hurt you!" she roared as she climbed onto the roof, scurrying away on all fours like a tiger dashing at full speed. Upon leaping across a few rooftops, April's eyes widen, and she skids to a halt, a familiar figure casually appearing out of thin air in front of her. 

"Running won't help you," the specter from seconds ago said, a smile across their face. "Where could you even go? The second the masses see you, torches and pitchforks will be everywhere."

April crawls back, frightfully keeping her distance. "How'd you get up here so fast? What are you?!"

"The answer may be too complex for your little head," they replied. "For now, see me as the angel on your shoulder, an angel looking to win back his wings."

Angels didn't look like shadow demons the last time April checked, and his smile was hardly welcoming. A tingling feeling rang in her mind, but it was such a new and irritating sensation that April couldn't tell if this was warning her of this specter or something else. "You want to help me?"

"Of course. I've seen you tossed away just now. Those Parkers must be heartless to shun someone as magnificent as you."

"No, no, you're lying. They wouldn't...," April said, yet her doubtfulness wavered upon remembering the fear in her mother's eyes. Her jaw still stung from the impact of her twin's kick. "No. You're not real."

"They did."

"I'm not listening," April yelled, turning away while clutching her head. "You're only in my head. I-I'm seeing things!"

"Well, it wouldn't be the first time that happened, or have you already forgotten?"

Upon the snap of his fingers, April's head snaps back; her eyes widen as a strain of memories plays inside her head. In that brief moment, she relives key moments in her nightmares, her glancing at some distant phantom and her warning Mayday of some incoming flying person. The one relation each of these memories had was a shadow, the same shadow who was standing behind her. She turns around, the phantom looming over her. "You," she gasped.

He raised his arms in a boastful manner. "Bingo, kiddo, me! Be it the park, the training course, or your nightmares. Like a good angel, I'm always watching over the exceptional."

She growled with her claws out; whoever this phantom was, she knew he was responsible for invading her dreams. "You call this exceptional? I don't even have a face anymore! I'm not human anymore!"

"Is that so bad?" April gawked at the stranger's brushing off her concerns as he pointed at her claws. "You're now stronger than ever before. You can morph any body part into a weapon. You can even turn yourself invisible. All this, and you've barely even scratched the surface of this power."

"Who cares about power!? Look at me; I'm ugly!"

"No, my dear," he said, trying to manifest a sense of comfort behind his words. He kneels, hovering his hand over her head while April clutches her face, sobbing over what she sees as a repulsive form. "You're now who you're supposed to be. This is the real you—the side of you that sorry excuse of a family tried to repress."

"R-repress? No, Mom and Dad wouldn't..."

"I'm sorry, kiddo, but they did," he said, each word reinforcing this claim somehow subtly convincing a confused and frightened April. "Your dear old parents practically said so on the phone."

Upon the man snapping his finger again, April tried to shut her eyes as another flood of memories was forced into her mind. Unable to stop it, she saw her mom on the phone again. The words coming out of her mouth felt familiar, and the rush of memories made it hard to remember what was exactly said.

"She's hiding something. What if it has something to do with the symbiote..."

"Forgive me for worrying that April, the little girl lying next door to May and Annie, could inflict such mayhem."

"They didn't," April struggled to say, "they never said...!"

"They have, remember? You're dear mother & twin sister said so themselves."

"Try getting out of that, freak!"

"What is wrong with her?"

April falls to her knees, no longer able to resist what her memories are showing her. Though her heart tries to deny it, her brain will never lie. Even if these memories aren't exact, a voice in her head enforced how the sentiment was all the same: Her parents were afraid of her. They knew and yet must've been scared enough to want to hide it, only for April to transform into the very thing they feared. "Mom...! Why?!" Wallowing in despair, the push the phantom needed was the reality that April's family seemingly saw her as an outsider and in such a guilt-ridden state she was in. This was accomplished smoothly.

The phantom hid his sneer behind his sweet words. "It hurts to say it, but it's the truth," he sighed. "The fact is that your parents see that side of you as a mistake."

"Why?" she cried, "I didn't mean to hurt people."

"People refuse to accept something they don't understand, kid. They pretend to love, and your family pretends well, but it's all shallow love. Lies to keep you in line, but even they can't control you forever. You wanna know why they still tried?" April remained silent as the man extended his hand and tightened into a fist. "Because they're afraid. They're all afraid of you."

"Even my sisters?"

"Especially them!" April flinched at the upsurge of ferocity in the specter's voice. He calmed himself when asked, "And what do you think they are afraid of?"

Pondering momentarily, April winces at the times she frightens Annie and feels regret at every fight she has with Mayday. "That I can hurt them."

"Close. They're afraid you're better than them, stronger than them. Is it hard to believe they're afraid you'll be a better hero than they'd ever be? One day, they'll snatch away the legacy that belongs to you because they believe you'll never be a real daughter to Spider-Man."

"I'm just as real as they are," April grumbled.

"I believe you, but those phonies never will unless you prove it to them. What better way of showing them than by revealing just how superior you are?"

April paused, practically hearing a broad smile from the specter's voice. It was as if he knew something she desperately wanted to know. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that I can show you the truth," the shadow revealed as he pointed at April. "The truth about why this is happening to you, why you have such a large gap in your memories, why you were gone all those years, and who you really are. All these answers can be yours if you let me help you."

Despite the kind, friendly tone, April isn't some foolish child. Even if everything he said was true, April was weary enough to trust this phantom to follow him to who knows where. However, April assumes she can't say no to him forever, given he can appear just about anywhere. There was always the prospect of returning to her family, but the fear of retribution lingered in her mind, picturing the worst that could happen. They could toss her back to the orphanage, force her never to use her powers, or worse, they'll try to 'cure' her. As much as she despised her powers and appearance, the prospect of removing all of it sickened her to her core. She can only describe this feeling as comparable to tearing away her very identity, leaving only a shell.

The more she dwelled on this, the more tempting the possibility of discovering why all this was happening. Still, coming from a suspicious figure like this phantom, April is at least cautious enough to ask him a few more questions.

"Why did I almost kill my Mom and sister over at Baxter?" Her voice rose with each word she uttered. "Why did I hear a voice in my head? Was it you?!"

"Gotta earn your trust, eh? Smart girl." His compliment rang hollow for April until the specter explained. "Simply put, your symbiote-half instincts kicked in."

"S-symbiote..." she whispered. The name felt familiar, as if she had heard it all her life. "Was it the one speaking?"

"Correct. Those creatures' brains operate very differently from humans. They're more complex in some ways. More often than not, they're primal beasts ready to pounce at the first sign of threat. They're smart enough to see your family as one, will you?"

"But how am I one of them?" April demanded, tugging her slimey arm. "How did this get on me?!"

"You got your free sample, kid. Do you want all the answers? Then come with me."

In one last moment of doubt, April asked, "Why you?"

"Because no one understands you as I do," he said, "If you see through this to the end with me, it'll all be worth it."

Nothing told April this specter was lying, whether it be her intuition, gut feeling, or spider-sense. She stared as he lent a guiding hand to unearth who she was. With a mind of its own, April's hand reached over to take his offer until he suddenly retracted it. "Ah, it seems they're already hunting you."

"APRIL!"

That familiar voice made April turn to see her father in disguise, swinging over to her alone. "He's not alone. You can sense it. Be careful," the specter warned as the specter's presence proved invisible to her dad. 

"Thank god I found you," Peter sighed with deep relief. When he extended his arms and saw that smile he always does, a part of April wanted to jump and hug her dad. However, after everything she's done, what her parents likely have done, a part of her didn't see it as a hug but a trap. April retreated on all fours, her shoulders tense while tendrils popped out and defensively shielded its host. "April...it's me, your dad," she said, his tone warm. "You're safe now."

If only such words were true, they couldn't be to April. Not when it feels like every fiber of her body could so easily hurt anyone and everyone. She curls up, her head hung low. "Nobody around me is safe," she mutters.

"You were scared and confused," Peter reasoned, "I felt both those things when a symbiote bonded with me, but that's over now."

"Say that to Mom's arm," April whimpered, her voice cracking over such an awful act she committed. "I hurt her. I hurt May...they hate me now."

"We don't hate you, April," Peter said with all the earnestness in his heart. He kneels, removing his mask and showing the utter concern that plagued his eyes. "Come back home, and you'll see how much they still love you. You won't believe how relieved they'll be to see you again."

April sees her father's extended hand, her eyes capturing its gentle, welcoming gesture before glancing down at her hands. "But I'd be too scared even to touch them, Dad! Look at my hands!" 

"I know, sweetie, I know," Peter said reassuringly while acknowledging his daughter's distress. "What's happening to you is surprising to all of us, but you don't have to go through it alone. We can help you."

"Like fixing you?" the specter voice echoed in her head. "As if you were an animal?"

With every word the specter uttered, April felt compelled to repeat them without question. "Like fixing me? Like some wild animal to be tamed?"

"No," Peter quickly rebuttals in a gentle tone. "April, that's not what I'm saying. You're not an animal."

"Then why the 'special' tests?" Peter shuts his eyes in shame, wishing his past, scared self had never said something stupid. "What am I, Dad? Do you even know? Am I even April, or is that just another lie?"

"You're our daughter!" Peter's raised tone almost echoed across the rooftops, but this was no annoyed anger but a passionate declaration fueled by a father afraid of failing his daughter. "That's all that matters, and nothing will change that."

"Daughter..." April mumbled. 

"Ah yes, one of the daughters of Spider-Man," the specter's voice echoed, "at least, that's how it's supposed to be, right? But what's the reality? Come on, say it. You know your mind speaks the truth." 

April's teeth grit, showing off her fangs. Her previously defensive, scared posture shifts as she rises to her feet. Her hair flutters high as tendrils sprout out of her back, lifting her high until she's looming intimidatingly over her dad. April aggressively growls, "The daughter you all forgot until you couldn't! The daughter whose powers scare you while May and Annie get all the love and support!"

"April, I was never scared of you," Peter urged, "I was scared of who gave you those powers and what would happen if they ever took control of you!"

"No one's controlling me! The only one doing that is you, Dad!" April looks at herself again, realizing what her anger is doing to her and her body. Her guilt, sadness, and the pity of others were holding back her potential. However, fueling herself with hate and rage made her stronger and more confident. It made her feel like herself, her true self. "Maybe...maybe this new power is good for something after all."

"You're not the first one in this family to say that, April," Peter said, "I thought my anger with the symbiote would make me better, but all that new power means nothing if you don't have the-"

"Shut up! I don't need your sappy speech! It's probably just a copy of what you told Mayday anyway." With every hate-fueled word she uttered, April's tendrils extended, becoming stronger as her voice mixed with her symbiote's. "This power is mine, and you're not taking them away!"

"It's not the powers, April. It's who made them. I know it sounds crazy, but it's possible the Green Goblin did something to you. Gave you-"

"Stop lying!" she roared, her now longer hair whipping over and entangling around her dad's neck with its intense grip. Peter struggled to find a grip to free himself from the hair while resisting being lifted into the air. "You told us he's dead! You're just using him to trick me!" April raised her arm and shapeshifted it into a sledgehammer before stretching it towards her dad. "If you still won't tell me, then go away!"

Peter shielded himself with his arms as her surprisingly strong hit struck him, nearly throwing him off the roof, but he quickly stopped his fall with a quick web shot.

April's lenses widen when her spider senses tingle. Her tendrils instinctively lash at someone hiding behind a rooftop entrance, the attack destroying the brick structure, but the assailant dodges out of the way. April whipped her head back to see her Uncle Kanie carrying some magenta rifle before an intense ringing noise rippled across her entire being. Her body froze, and her tendrils flailed about. Every cell in her body wanted to run, get away from this excruciating pain. She barely caught herself upon collapsing, and the second she did, Kaine stopped firing. "I...I got her," Kaine said, a wince in his voice, for he shut his eyes the entire time he fired. 

Peter reached the roof, and a fire erupted in his gut upon seeing Kaine with a sonic rifle and his daughter on the floor hurt. "Kaine!" He leaped after his brother and the two were soon in an intense struggle, throwing punches and trying to restrain one another. Kaine isn't sure if Peter wants to beat the crap out of him or the sonic rifle. Most likely, it's probably both.

Amid their fighting, April squirmed where she lay, her limbs twitching while struggling to get them moving. Her vision is a blur, and her ruptured ear drums make it impossible to hear what's going on. With her body stunned and her senses dulled, April almost wanted to shut her eyes and fall back to sleep. The hate from before felt so far away; with it gone, she was left with nothing to feel besides shock over what happened. 'Dad...he tricked me...'

"I told you. It's a trap," the specter whispered to her ear.

April's hand twitched until she could clench it into a fist. That fire of hate has found new kindling and was ready to be re-ignited. A low guttural growl emitted as she thought, 'He...hurt us!'

"Like a hunter to an animal."

April slowly began to move her arm enough that she smashed it into the ground and lifted herself back up. 

All the while, a rage-blinded Peter decks Kaine across the face. He got him pinned to the ground and was close to prying the sonic rifle out of Kaine's hands. "I don't know how you snuck up me," Peter yelled, "but I'll make you regret what you just did to my little girl!"

"She was losing control, you blind idiot!" Kaine argued, seeing from the corner of his eye that April was already recovering. "I had to stop her, but she'll escape if you don't move out of my way!"

With a deafening "NO!" Peter tore that blasted rifle out of Kaine's hands and ripped it in half. He vehemently said to his shocked brother, "I WON'T LET YOU OR ANYONE HURT APRIL AGAIN!"

Kaine stared, stunned at his brother's reaction. It was like seeing the old Peter, the one he first fought many years ago, briefly return. One look in Peter's eyes, the same look Kaine himself has whenever protecting Aracely, was all he needed to see and consider that perhaps a line was crossed. Glancing back at the girl, he tensed up as his spider senses tingled intensely. "Have it your way, then. Good luck against this tantrum..."

Peter turned and stood back up at seeing his daughter's symbiote powers unraveling themselves. April stood hunched over, snarling at them as her dagger-like fingers twitched with hate. Half the tendrils out her back lifted her several feet into the hair while the other half stretched across the rooftop floor, encircling Peter and Kaine. Something within this pitch-black surface was moving, like a group of sharks swimming around its prey. While Kaine anticipated April's retaliatory attack, Peter's previous anger vanished as he tried to earnestly, desperately reach out to his daughter one more time. "April..."

"Not April," she said, "I. AM. MAYHEM!"

Within a split second, the whole symbiote-infected floor flung up and attacked them. Over two dozen piranha-like fangs flung up, biting and ensnaring the brothers, cutting into their flesh while shredding pieces of their suits. Kaine wasted no time tearing the vicious mouths and tendrils off him while Peter tried not to lose sight of April. Mayhem, however, used her newfound powers to leap away at incredible speeds. Her trap intended to buy her time to put distance between them until she could rely on her immunity to spider sense to stay under the radar. As she got further away, she could faintly hear her father pleading, "APRIL, I'M SORRY!" 

'Dad...' she thought. Maybe it meant nothing, only an acknowledgment of their blood ties, but even now, she can't find in it to call him Spider-Man. 'I need the truth. If I must do it alone, then fine. Who needs ya. I'll get my answers soon enough, and then...' Mayhem sighed, unable to find an answer. Nonetheless, she continued to go where the specter was guiding her.

[Soon After...]

The Baxter Building was deafeningly quiet to Annie. All the adults were gone, even Mom, who joined Sue in the Fantasti car to search the city for April. Franklin and the others were in the building's command center, listening to all city frequencies. It's only been roughly an hour, yet each passing second feels like an eternity. Her mind was buzzing with thoughts; she couldn't sit still, so she drew. At first, she tried to make sense of all this new craziness, page after page of writing and drawing all she'd been told and seen. Of course, after a while, her writings began to look like a crazy person drew them, and she quickly crumpled them all up. "Urgh! I can't just sit here!" She usually loved the quietness, but something about it was different. It was unnerving, and it was like something in the very air was wrong. "Was this what it used to be without her?" she mused.

Her memories were fuzzy, but she still remembers when it was just her and Mayday—just two and only two. That's what it seemed life was supposed to be. And yet, there was one memory Annie recalled that was never true in the first place. She was around a year old and had been walked back to bed by Mayday in the middle of the night. As she was tucked into bed, Mayday suddenly stared off at the full moon. She remembers asking Mayday if she had a bad dream, and her sister shrugged. "I'm sad," she mumbled.

"Why?"

"I don't know. In my dreams, it's like...something's gone." And that's all Mayday would've shared about it, putting on a smile for all of them while hiding her sense that something's missing in their life. Then came the day April appeared at their front door, and life was never the same. For a while, Annie didn't know what to make of April. This girl looked and sounded like Mayday, yet was also loud, proud, chaotic, and borderline mean. She was unlike any kid Annie had ever met, almost too different, as if her home life had been thrown out of wack. For weeks, Annie found it hard to really like April, and feelings were mutual for the big girl. April wouldn't even call her Annie or Anna-May, but Anime! Yet, Mayday was happy, more than ever before. Even in the worst of times, when the two end up in a brawl, Mayday always gets back up and offers a middle ground between them, which April almost always accepts. Annie's little head didn't understand it. Just how was Mayday able to see eye to eye with this weirdo?

It was then Annie began to understand what Mayday sees in April. Those loud outbursts started to look like pleads for attention. Her proud, mean attitude on the playgrounds hid past bruises, and the hurt others were quick to dish out at her. And when all that chaotic energy dies down, Annie sometimes sees April look lonely. One night, when Annie found her particularly lonely in the backyard, she asked if she could brush her hair. April was stingy about who touched her hair, so it was a dangerous question. April sighed and said, "Don't ruin it, or I'll break that brush." With a nervous gulp, Annie did her sister's hair, copying what her mom taught her and gently combing it. April subtly grew less tense with each brush stroke until she finally relaxed into it. It was the first time she trusted anyone but Mom to fix her hair.

"Not bad, Anime," April said with a shrug.

"That's not...forget it," Annie sighed, "kinda jelly now. Your hair is way cuter than mine."

"Yeah, it is," April said. Annie frowned, staring at her long, dull red hair. April was unusually quiet, pondering to herself, until she grabbed Annie's hair. Annie flinched, but when she realized April's light touch, she shifted around and let April grip her hair. "Well..." she said, carefully separating and twisting the locks of Annie's hair, "since there's no way your looks can match mine, why not try this one?" When April was done, Annie gasped as she saw her reflection to see her hair tied up into two pigtails.

"So cute!" Annie bounced with joy, flinging and twirling her new hairstyle. April looked on, proud of her work, until Annie hugged her. "I love it! Thanks, sis!"

April pats her on the back; she's new to all this but not exactly hating it. "Uh, sure. Annie." Everything naturally fit into place from then on, and Annie fully embraced April as her new big sister.

That's how life seemed like it was supposed to be. Now? Well, that's what Annie's been contemplating for the past hour. Who was April to her now? What even was April? 'Is she...bad now?' Now, there was a question that perhaps scared Annie the most. 'Mayday would know. She always does.' So, to clear up these questions, she gets up and heads to the other room. She opens that door, expecting her sister to not only have all the answers but that she probably already has a plan to help find April. So when she opened that door, she was surprised to see Mayday sitting by the table, quietly crying to herself.

Stepping forward, the crunching noise of paper draws Annie's gaze to the floor, and she sees several crumpled-up papers. Picking two up, she sees they're half-finished and are messages of apology but to two different people. "Uhh, why does one of these start with your name, but the others start with April's?"

Mayday rubs her eyes, saying with a tired sigh, "Because I don't know anymore."

"Know what?"

"Which one of us is even the real May." Annie's eyes widen in shock, even more so when she sees Mayday's tear-stained face. With such a heavy sentence like that, Annie almost didn't know what to say, and she thought today would be another dull training day. She awkwardly hurries over to her sister, her fingers nervously tapping the papers in her hands. "Yooou wanna talk about it?"

Mayday sighs, "What's there to talk about? You're probably talking to a fake..."

"D-don't be silly," Annie said, a nervous chuckle over how absurd that thinking is. The kind of thinking she briefly applied to April minutes ago. "I mean, it's you."

"But what is me?" Mayday asked with such genuine concern. "Am I just some secretly evil freakazoid, flesh golem made to replace the real Mayday?" The bomb that their parents dropped about her and her twin's birth has shaken her resolve. It's almost funny to her that, once upon a time, she saw herself as an ordinary girl to an average family. Even when her powers manifested, they didn't radically change her perception of her family ties or sense of self. She knew who she was, and she had control of her life. The mere thought she never did, that someone like the green goblin potentially made her, is devastating. She can't even look at herself and see Spider-Girl; she sees a weapon, one last cruel joke by a phantom. 

She flinched when Annie suddenly poked her cheek."You don't look evil to me."

Such an answer only frustrated her further. She shoved Annie's hand away. "Urgh! I'm serious, Annie!"

"Well, so am I," Annie insisted. "Things are weird and scary now. April's powers are insane, and most of our family is clones. I get that you're afraid-"

"No! You don't get it!" Annie gasped at the raw fury in her sister's voice; this was perhaps the first time she'd lashed out at her. "My whole life, I thought I knew who I was. When my powers appeared, I thought I knew who I should become. Now? I...I don't know anymore." She slumps her back against the wall, hugging her knees with her head down low. "Was I ever truly your sister? Or am I just some dumb little puppet? Maybe the real May was out there, trapped all alone for five years. Turned into something against her will." She lifts her head slightly, looking at her hands before seeing her reflection on the window. "Apr...or May, told me the night she returned that she felt I stole everything from her. That this was supposed to be her life. Maybe she was right, and she's all the sister you need." Her throat began to burn as these dark thoughts settled in, and her mind couldn't shake the pain in her sister's eyes. "I called her a freak, Annie, a freak. I've hurt her, might have been for my whole life, and didn't even know it...some sister I turned out to be."

Watching her sister crumple up, crying and shouting about all the mistakes and unfairness, nearly pushed Annie to break down, too. Witnessing her sister hit such a low was like a punch to the gut. She was always brave and confident, even more so when her powers appeared. Sure, she sometimes had bad days and a short patience, but everyone did. It didn't change how Annie viewed her. Suddenly, Annie saw the true fork in the road. What were her sisters to her, and what will she do about it? There was no spider vision to tell her the outcome; this was something she had to decide on her own right now. Was April's powers turning her bad? Who was the clone? And finally, should they all continue the family legacy if this is what it'll inflict on them for the rest of their lives? Pretty heavy questions for a nine-year-old girl like herself. She stared at the crumpled paper, her sisters' names scribbled on, confused yet earnest. Seeing her sister quietly sobbing, she's reminded of the nights April would cry the same way. Suddenly, Annie felt a fire ignite in her heart.

"Uncle Ben and Dad's siblings thought the same way," Annie said, squatting before her sister. "Still, it didn't stop them from being heroes. Didn't stop them from being themselves."

"It's because they're adults, Annie," she sniffled. "Even then, it took them years to settle things. Your real sister likely doesn't ever want to talk to me anymore, and who can blame her? I called her a freak to her face!"

"Yeah, things are...not great right now," Annie admits. She sat beside her sister, closing her eyes as she collected her thoughts, trying to keep herself from crying. "I have been thinking about all this and, in that thinking, I got scared. I was especially terrified of one thought: that one of you was bad now. But I see now that was a stupid thought."

Her sister was quiet until suddenly she asked, "Why?"

"Because you're scared too," Annie answered, "and if you're afraid, that means April's just as scared too. If I know anything about my big sister, it is that she acts tough and means to hide her loneliness. I don't think she meant to hurt anybody, just as you didn't mean to hurt her."

"What are you saying?"

Annie took a deep, steady breath. Suddenly, she shot up to her feet and declared at the top of her lungs, "I'm saying: who cares which one of you's the clone!"

"Annie!" her sister gasped.

"No, listen to me!" Annie demanded, pointing out the window. "Our sister's out there hurt, and she needs us, but you just want to sit here sobbing all night because of an honest mistake? Because either of you could be a clone? Nuh-uh! The Mayday Parker, I know, would spring into action and help her sister in her time of need! She wouldn't just write a letter; she'd march up and apologize to April on her face and remind her that she's family no matter how different she is! Where's that hero? Where's my big sister?!"

Annie was never a super quiet girl, but seeing her speak out boldly and passionately left Mayday almost speechless. Still, the lingering crisis plaguing her compelled her self-doubt side to ask, "But what if I was never your sister? What if I--"

"If, if, if!" Annie groaned, frustrated. "That doesn't matter because even in this crazy mess, nothing will ever change that both of you are my sisters!" If Annie's previous words didn't leave her speechless, then this declaration and the tears in the corner of Annie's eyes did. Annie grabbed her hands, clinging so tightly as if she'd lose her sister if she let go. "These hands, you carried me with these hands. Does that suddenly mean nothing now that you might be a clone? My hair, April braided my hair. Does that mean nothing now that she might be a clone? All our memories together...are you saying they mean nothing to us now?"

"...no, never," Mayday answered.

"Because these hands are still your hands," Annie said, smiling as she locked Mayday's fingers together. "Your eyes are yours. Your heart is yours. You are your own person, a Parker! All that's true for April, too. There's just one April Parker, darn it. She'd punch anyone in the face if they said otherwise! And if there's only one April Parker in this world, then there's only one Mayday Parker." Pointing her finger to her sister's chest, faintly feeling her heartbeat, Annie earnestly declared, "your name is Mayday Parker, and your only twin is in trouble. What are you going to do?"

Annie sees her sister frozen, baffled, over what she told her. For the first time, Annie experienced a glimpse into the weight of sisterly responsibility Mayday carries daily. Annie stands back, looking at her sister in a new light, understanding her better and feeling prouder to call her big sis. Mayday Parker turns to her reflection in the window. What stares back at her isn't some stranger or a copy but Spider-Girl. 

Hearing a "Hey!" echoing from the elevators, Annie whips her head to her right to see the four fantastic children of the FF arrive on the scene. The young teen Franklin is holding a datapad in his hands while Jo and Nikki are holding back his sister Valeria. "Brother," Valeria protests, "time is of the essence. This is not a smart idea!"

"Let's at least show'em first," Franklin urged.

"Show us what?" Annie asked, "Is it something about April?"

"Val believes she located your lost sister," Nikki said.

Franklin shows Annie a recording; Mayday peeks over from where she sat. Valeria rolls her eyes and indulges in her sibling's insistence. "Look," she said, "some street cameras posted near Lower Manhattan caught these shadows. We've slowed down and enhanced them and saw this." The four kids point at the small screen as the blur transforms into a humanoid shape with familiar long, dark hair.

"That's April!" Annie confirmed with great relief.

"She's going pretty fast if our computers narrowly found her," Franklin added. "At her current pace and if she hasn't radically changed course, she's likely heading straight to the docks within the next five minutes."

Valeria jumped in with a "buuuut" before informing the group. "The problem is that over a dozen buildings are lined up in that district. She could be in any one of them."

Pondering these recent findings, Annie's memories flicker at the mere mention of the location. "The docks..." she murmured, squinting at the map, guessing April's current location. With a snap of her fingers, Annie turned to her sister. "Mayday, what place did Dad say he chased that burglar down to after his uncle was shot?!"

"Lower Manhattan...into the ACME warehouse," Mayday muttered before she shot up to her feet, having just reached the same conclusion Annie did. "She's heading to where Dad stopped that burglar?! But Why?"

"I don't know," Annie said, "but remember that vision I shared when Uncle Kaine showed up? The place it showed me was dusty and filled with old machinery, looking like an abandoned warehouse."

"That...might be right," Valeria hesitantly admits, "the ACME structure should still be standing, and it's the only building at the docks listed as a historical site."

"Then that super means April's hiding there!" Annie said confidently.

Mayday turns, her fingers tapping her brow, trying to imagine herself in her twin's shoes. 'Dad told the both of us that story. I remember your face when he did. Could it be his story briefly jogged a repressed memory? Is that why you're going over there?' She took notice of a keyword, memory, and saw where that line of thought went. 'Memory is very precious to you. You always liked taking photos and proclaiming how good your memory is. That's why it hurts so much that so much of your life is just blank. Then...is that why you're going to ACME? Is it to find out your past?' Mayday felt she was onto something but felt a critical step was missing: how did April connect the dots? Without their parents sharing the truth, how could April know the warehouse was where she was saved? 'It couldn't be a coincidence,' she thought, 'she's moving with purpose, almost as if she's being...pulled towards there by something.'

“He wasn’t there…Why was I the only one?”

Mayday gasped upon remembering what she overheard April mutter after training. 'Something, or someone.'

A "Hey" from one of the FF kids snaps Mayday out of her deep thoughts. She turns to see the kids look at her, waiting for her call on what to do. "We're going after her," she proclaims.

"Yes!" Annie cheered with a fist pump.

"You crazy?" Valeria asked. "Did the butt-kicking you received on our roof make you forget how powerful she is?"

"She won't kill me," Mayday responded with dead seriousness.

"Given symbiote's short tempers and aggression patterns, the odds of you being right aren't in your favor."

"But none of those symbiotes act like my sister. Either way, we don't have time to argue. Annie and I are going after her before something down there hurts her or worse. Maybe with the both of us, we can calm her down enough to return home."

"And if that doesn't work?" Franklin asked, voicing a bit of his concerns.

"Thirty minutes," Mayday said, "give us thirty minutes to get there and talk. If you don't hear from us, alert everyone where we are." The FF kids exchange looks for a while before Valeria groans and clicks her watch, and the countdown starts. Mayday and Annie share a look, with the former looking on with some concern. 'Annie, you ready?' she asked through their shared spider-sense.

Annie looks back with great determination. 'With you? Always!'

With no time to lose, the two grab their spider suits and other gear before heading to the roof. Thanks to Franklin and the others, Mayday's suit is fixed, while Annie's armor is quickly reinforced. Mayday taps the mic in her ear, hearing Valeria's voice on the other end. Annie puts on her Force Field glove before giving the thumbs up. "Remember, double tap to release and thwip it out again," Mayday advises.

"I remember."

Mayday sees how high up they are, feeling the chill of the winter evening brush her before she leaps and fires her web. Fighting against gravity to complete her swing, Mayday suddenly felt some old self-confidence return. Glancing to her right, Annie swings beside her. The two are on their way to help their lost sister, with the help of the FF kids instructing them on where to go. With this being her last moment to think to herself, Mayday took this time to reach out to her other. 'April,' she thought, 'or Mayday...we can work that out after. I want you to know how sorry I am for how bad things got. I don't know how to patch things up yet, but that won't stop me from doing something about it. So please, I beg you to listen and tell us. Tell me what's wrong. What do I do to help you? What could I do? What do I need to do?'

Such questions linger in Mayday's mind as she and Annie swing to where Spider-Man was truly born.

Part V: Project Changeling

[Later...]

Here it was, the truth she'd been desperately seeking, somewhere within this decrepit ACME warehouse. Standing twelve stories tall and with an Art Deco-inspired design, the building looked nearly a hundred years old. A slightly smaller building connected to its right, and right next to that was a tall industrial chimney, its insides nothing but ash. "Don't get distracted. It's in that main building right there," the specter pointed. Begrudgingly, April does as he says and crawls inside. She gags at the amount of dust in the air; in fact, the whole place was pitched black if not for her senses and inherited ability to see in the dark. She walks by rotten wooden beams and glances at big, heavy machinery. She looks down upon stepping on some old pistol shells, and it draws her eyes upward to spot old bullet holes. They were riddled across the walls and ceiling like the target was crawling on them. April asked herself, 'Spooky, but is this it? Nothing around here is ringing any bells.' She grits her teeth as her patience thinned. 'I swear if this weirdo's in my head or tricking me, I'm gonna-!' 

"Right there," the specter said.

April turned her gaze to a brick sticking out of the wall. Upon pushing this secret button, she gasped as a hidden door revealed itself. Inside was an elevator that'd seen better days, with a chilling breeze from beneath, but it wasn't any kind of cold. April's limbs tensed, feeling her body shiver at the mere touch of this strange wind. 'What is this wind, and why is it scaring me?'

"Go. You're so close."

Building up her courage, April steps onto the elevator. The machine shakes until its motor systems activate and begin lowering her into the abyss, the light from the open door above fading away. She nervously clutches her arms, lingering unease growing as she stands in this darkness. 'I can't turn back now,' she thinks, ' I gotta see this through to the end.' Finally, the elevator jolts to a stop. She hears the door begin to open, but instead of light coming in, it is freezing water. April hissed as the water rose to her waist, but thankfully, the doors short-circuited and only opened partially, allowing her to push against the wave and shut the doors. 

"Huh, not that's not supposed to happen." Before April could ask what the hell was going on, a sharp pain stings her head and causes her to stagger back to the wall. Hearing a distinct pinging sound echo in her head, April endured this headache until the specter chuckled. "There we go." April felt the pain vanish as a red light flashed, followed quickly by the sounds of rushing water outside the doors. Heavy mechanisms followed their programming until a distinct ding echoed outside, and the doors slowly reopened. No longer were there metric tons of seawater outside. Instead, a new, unbearable force called memories struck April as she stepped into the ruins of an abandoned facility.

Though the flooding systems drained the room, nearly everything had fallen into decay. April trod carefully, barely noticing how quiet the specter had become. To her left, she sees some big cracked egg-shaped capsules. Wiping the grim from the glass, she peeks inside to see...something lying at the bottom. Within each capsule was a clump of rotten meat about the size of a fist mixed with a dark goo. April felt sick to her stomach at the sight of it. She turns away before she can throw up but accidentally knocks over some test tubes. After flinching from the loud noise, her eyes locked onto a closed drawer, and opening it revealed a stack of papers. Carefully pulling them out, she skims through to see that most are just formulas and notes on genes. April tosses away a ruined page, only to find an old handheld tape recorder beneath it and a photo of two identical babies beside it.

April sees the recorder is beaten up, so carefully she presses play and hears a voice that sends chills down her spine.

"Journal log number twenty-one," the voice of a middle-aged man said, "this was not how things were supposed to go, and I'm running out of time. Smuggling the package to Europe is now impossible, and I've barely completed all the necessary parts required for the suspended animation process. Why? If that blasted nurse didn't fail me! If that idiot Brock didn't turn his back on me! My enemies...they're all around me, they're surrounding me! Damn them, damn all who's abandoned me!" April could barely continue to listen as the speaker became increasingly more insane. She saw a faint smoke emitting from the recorder as the speaker chuckled sinisterly. "They don't know. None of them know that I can never indeed die. If this be my fate, to haunt all my enemies for eternity, then so be it! They don't know about my ace in the hole, my final revenge! Finally, after several failures, I've created her! My perfect changeling, my perfect weapon. Things have fallen into place for my grand endgame, but so long as one of these brats remained holed up here, I'll still have pawns on the board. Now that I've meddled with both girls' DNAs, my favorite task is at hand."

April's breathing quickens and great anxiety builds up in her chest when she hears the cries of two babies in the background of the recording. Those cries were nearly deafening to her, and she felt scared. The speaker snickers with delight as he says, " Now then, which of you will stay here in your new home, and who will go and play house? What's the perfect way to decide such a thing filled with untold consequences that'll radically alter the course of an infant's life? Ah, I know how. Shutting my eyes and...Eeny, meeny, miny, moe. Catch a spider by the toe. If she hollers, let her go. Eeny, meeny, miny...you."

April was clutching her throat, barely able to breathe over the utter cruelty she was hearing. The cries of one baby grew louder as she heard it being taken away, the other baby crying hard as well like she was reaching out for her sibling being dragged away. These cries would be the last shred of the past April would hear as the recorder died, its ruined state finally breaking it. April trembled, her mind reeling over every vile word this man uttered, her rage building, imagining the slimy smile he had while deciding her fate. All this rage funneled into her enlarging fist before she bashed it into the capsules, destroying them and the content within. "C-created," April sobbed, suddenly feeling like her whole world was crashing down. The only thing grounding her was the photo in her hand. Holding it like a delicate flower, an air of melancholy swirled around her while staring at the first-ever image of Mayday and her. The baby on the left was crying, like it knew it was scared and alone. The baby on the right stared at her sister while her tiny hand reached out, trying to help and comfort her.

This moment was then captured in a material image, not as a record or memory but instead objectified and ripped away from her and Mayday. This moment was captured because some greedy, petty man believed this belonged to him. And now, this man feels compelled to speak, thinking whatever he has to say is something April should listen to.

"If it's any consideration," the specter said, "I believe I've made the right choice. You turned out to be truly exceptional."

Tucking the photo into her skin, April morphs her arm into a sword and furiously slashes at the specter. But there is nothing to hit, for there is nothing there, at least not physically. Tiring herself out, April lowered her blade and asked, "Who are you?"

"Guess the disguise ain't necessary anymore." With a snap of his fingers, April's eyes buzz with static, briefly clouding her vision until she sees the specter has revealed his proper form. "Welcome to your true home, sweetie," said the voice of Norman Osborn, the original Green Goblin. "Your daddy missed you."

April nearly fell over in utter disbelief, and it was like experiencing a nightmare. "N-no," she stuttered frightfully, "y-your-"

"Dead? Well, sorry to disappoint, but I did die," Norman explains, "however, my endless intellect has discovered a new form of immortality: artificial intelligence." Tapping his head smugly, he continued, "And ever since then, I've been cooped up alongside you. Seething as I awaited the day you and this project will enact my final revenge."

"You trapped me in here," April uttered hatefully.

"Indeed. More precisely," he said, snapping his fingers and unlocking the door to the main chamber, "I kept you in there." April felt like she had entered a trance when she stared at the large chamber in the other room. She stomped forward, moving stiffly as she raised her arm and eventually touched the broken glass of her stasis chamber. All that remained were hanging cables, spikes, and tubes.

"I...I was stuck in this?"

"Stuck? You act like this was a prison," Norman scoffed, "like any good father, I gave you everything a growing girl needs. I didn't trap you in some void to go crazy in. I gave you paradise." April clutched her head as a painful memory briefly resurfaced. She couldn't see much, but the feeling of it reminded her what it was. "Ahh, you're remembering. Yes, my dear, a whole virtual world suitable for providing you with all the learning and training you need."

"All I remember," April shuddered, "was how cold it was. S-so cold, with no love at all."

"That's what made it the perfect environment to teach the ways of the Goblin. Your symbiote half made it so any hostile scenario or setting would be a breeze to survive in," Norman proudly proclaimed. "Besides, only the weak believe that love is free. Love is earned, and my dear, I say you've finally earned it."

April's claws scratch the glass as she asks, "I did, have I? Then I deserve to know this: am I the clone?"

Norman sighs and shakes his head, "You know, the darndest thing is, I think my original self forgot to program in that memory." His form crackles as April turns and slices at him, but he merely applauds her even as she furiously roars at him. "Now there's one gene trait I'm glad you inherited! That ol' Parker rage. Good, hold onto that rage. Let it burn within you until it's pure hate."

"Osborn," she shrieked, "I'll KILL YOU!!"

"Urgh could do without the tantrum," Norman bemoaned. "Oh well, I suppose you deserve a cookie. While I don't remember, I hinge my bets that you are likely the true daughter of Spider-Man. It's possible, too, that the baby that your murdering uncle snatched was the clone, a perfect copy of you, before all the alien goo that is. Either way, the baby sent back would have her DNA spliced up to ensure she grows up to be but an ordinary little brat for the Parkers to love." Norman could barely hide his disdain when he continued, "But the subconscious barrier the supercomputer supplanted to suppress her powers somehow broke. Regardless, if the baby sent back is the clone, then the Parkers raised but a simple doll. Utterly unaware of the possibility that perhaps their real daughter would remain confined in stasis for the next twenty-one years."

April almost went numb at the number he uttered. Her mind was trying all it could to repress any memory she retained of her time in stasis, but all she did remember was nothing short of primal, testing her will to survive and conquer any environment. Imaging five years in such a place is stomach-turning for April, but imagining twenty-one years is too much to bear.

"Yes, that was the plan," Norman frustratedly admits. "Sadly, your twenty-one-year plan was reduced to only five when those blasted Venom and Carnage nearly ruined everything! I suppose an unexpected side effect of using the captured symbiote samples to complete you."

"Venom," April whispered, clutching her head as she remembered her first memory. She opened her eyes and saw a giant white spider over her—the same white spider she'd seen during those lonely nights at the orphanage. "He brought me to the real world," April said with a small smile. "He was the white spider. He looked after me until Mom and Dad found me. He freed me."

"Oh, don't be too proud of yourself," Norman talked down. "Five years should've been enough to program your kill mode. You were still my weapon, and that mode should've activated when you first saw those Parkers, tearing them into shreds. Accessing your cranial structure, it seems a random bump to your head saved that pathetic family...but not this time."

With a snap of his fingers, the remaining electronics in the lab flickered on and emitted a loud humming noise. April's eyes dilate as a sudden, searing pain course through her. Her head pounds, colors too bright to see. Whatever Norman's done has caused April's whole body to turn numb. She can barely move. "Nnrgh! Wha-?!"

"Time is of the essence, my dear," Norman said, pacing around April, "so from now on, I must insist I take the reigns from here. Even the most loyal steads need a reminder of who their master is. Your core programming will come to fruition after I utter the final sleeper phrase, and the world will see the true you." 

"I'll...kill you for this," April defiantly growled.

"No," he said, squatting down with the slimy grin, "you'll kill what I want you to kill. The next question is: who should be the first lucky Parker to die?"

April's eyes were inflamed with rage. She tried all her might to fight against the programming, but every fiber of her body grew increasingly numb until she felt nothing, and this cold, unfeeling nothingness was close to enveloping her mind. 'No! Screw him! Aaargh, could all of this get any worse!"

"April!"

"April, it's okay. It's just us!"

Her heart stopped upon hearing the telepathic echo of two familiar voices. An expression of pure dread filled April when Norman curiously looked up before his mouth slowly crept back into a sinister smile. "Well, my dear," he shrugged, "ready for a little sororicide?"

Instinctively, April shuts her eyes and fights all these cold programs to tap into her spider-sense, desperately shouting to her sisters, 'Run! Get away from me before he-!'

"So peacefully they've slumbered, but I never sleep..."

Upon uttering the trigger phrase, April's iris shrunk, and a sharp static string zapped her head. Her mind falls subservient to an insidious sleep, and it traps her in a new kind of nightmare. Her body collapsed to the floor as her symbiote form shapeshifted, all while Norman looked on the same way an industrialist looked at a brand new product rolling fresh out of his factory. 

Part VI: Evil Reborn!

Spider-Girl and Spiderling's senses rattled in her head upon April screaming into her minds before going deathly silent. "What was that?" Franklin said on the comms, "You two okay? What happened?"

"We're fine," Spiderling answered, squinting as she looked around what appeared to be the primary assembly floor in the middle of the building. "We think something terrible just happened to April! It sounds like she's in--" Before she could finish, Spider-Girl grabbed her shoulder, gripping it tensely as she asked, "You feel that?" Spiderling shook her head no. She felt nothing, but Spider-Girl could feel a tingle ringing in her head.

Spider-Girl protectively pulled Spiderling behind a metal mechanism, turning her head left to right as if trying to pinpoint something. "Hey, what's going on? Mayday?" Her sister remained silent; she placed a finger in front of her mouth shortly before a creeping echo was faintly heard. Annie looks up to see that, with each faint echo, dust from the ceiling glides down to her helmet. Spiderling's spider-sense still wasn't activating, but her gut told her to run. She follows Spider-Girl's lead as the two quietly move away and hide behind a stack of wooden crates. "That can't be April," Spiderling whispered.

"I don't know. Something feels wrong here." 

Unable to tell what her sister meant, Spiderling nervously readied her shield gadget as the silence turned eerie. Quietly, she followed her sister to the window so they could wallcrawl up to higher ground. Though Spiderling felt a tad exposed outside, the cool breeze and her sister's presence began to ease her down, that perhaps they could handle this. 

CRASH!

A window Spiderling just crawled past suddenly and violently burst open, a geyser of black goo spewing out. An utterly terrifying shriek reverberated inside, rattling Spiderling's bones as such an alien noise petrified her. She barely heard Spider-Girl shouting at her to dodge from above, but a tendril wrapped itself around Spiderling's ankle and pulled her inside. Though dazed by the speed of these events, her heightened eyes could see a large pair of sharpened teeth lunging at her in time. A sharp gasp escapes her as her shield glove activates just in the nick of time, the deadly maw chewing on the reflective energy before quickly throwing her into a stack of crates.

Her device took most of the concussive force, but the sudden attack shook Spiderling. Her resolve is further tested when she stumbles to her feet and sees who her opponent is. "A-April?" she whispered, though what stood before her barely resembled her sister. It was like a beast as it stood on all fours, its back limbs adorned with talons while the arms were shapeshifted into bladed weapons. She was over two times larger in size thanks to the extra mass of symbiote flesh generated, creating a thick layer of gooey skin that looked almost impenetrable if one were to even get back past the dozen or so flailing razor-edged tendrils spewed out of her back. The only thing resembling Annie's sister was the humanoid symbiote's face, but even then, its dark teeth appeared longer while its long flowing hair was now like a lion's mane.

Looking into April's white eyes, Spiderling hoped to see even a tinge of her inside there, but what she was met with instead was the eyes of a predator eyeing its latest target. 'It's mine now,' a strange new voice crept into Annie's mind. Right as it did, April pounced to attack, and all Annie could do was hope her shield could take it. "Annie!" a familiar voice shouts as Spider-Girl swings through one of the windows and kicks April away. Though minimal damage, it threw off April enough for Spider-Girl to fire a barrage of impact webbing, ensnaring her sufficiently to trap her for a few brief moments.

It happened so fast, but Spiderling snaps back to reality when Spider-Girl grabs her hand, and the two dash away. Just when it seemed they put some distance between them and April, Spider-Girl saw a window in front of them suddenly be enveloped until it was boarded up. The two sisters skid to a halt until both could feel the floor suddenly turn squishy. They look down to see a thick layer of dark flesh spreading everywhere, including all the windows, until the room is pitch black. "We're trapped," Spider-Girl cursed.

"What's happening?" Spiderling muttered, "April wouldn't do this."

'You're partially right, brat.' The sister flinches at the new voice invading their heads, and a chill runs down their spines until Spider-Girl fires a web and carries them up. Spiderling follows suit and fires some webbing at the walls to create several web lines for them to crawl on. 'Ah, you picked up that my weapon can sense you through contact with the infected floor. Clever little spiders, but it will find you soon enough.'

'Who are you?!' Spiderling thought

'And how are you speaking to us? Only the three of us could talk like this.'

The voice cackled in thier minds, a cackle that particularly unnerved Spider-Girl as if it picked on an old wound. 'I suppose you can call me this thing's special imaginary friend! Conjured up by a man who once owned this city and whose dying wish was for me to enact his final revenge.'

The name suddenly appeared in Spider-Girl's throat, leaving a choking feeling just by its mere presence. "Goblin," she seethed.

'What a lovely reunion this is.' Spider-Girl's senses tingled quickly; she leaped and grabbed Spiderling as April's arms cut through the web lines. They tumble across the floor, but Spiderling re-activates her glove in time to block several strikes from April and allow Spider-Girl to try to web up her twin. 'Ha! New Parker but same old tricks!' Norman mocked as April burst free from the webbing effortlessly. 

'What have you done to our sister!' Annie demanded.

'Who?' Norman asked.

"APRIL PARKER!" Spider-Girl screamed.

'Mmm...ooh, you mean my latest weapon. Quite an exceptional one, I must say. It even gave itself a name, MAY-HEM, ohoh I like that.'

Spider-Girl balled her hands into fists and furiously leaped in to strike. "She's not an it!" April easily swats her away. 'Annie, run!' was Spider-Girl's last thought before she's hurdled through a nearby wall. Annie does so, swinging from room to room while April gives chase.

'Swing, swing, little spider,' Norman chimed, 'make these last moments of your life fun for me!'

While trying to stay alive, Spiderling almost couldn't believe what was happening. The Green Goblin himself, somehow still alive in the form of a copy inside April's head? That he wanted to turn her sister into a weapon?! It left her gawking at the absurdity of the whole thing as if it were some bad comic book story. But it was real, scarily real. Fear instinctively told her to keep running, but her mind was already scrambling to figure out how to free April. Although her mind thinks fast, her body isn't so lucky, and her back is whipped by one of April's tendrils, knocking her onto the floor. "My back," Spiderling hissed, glancing back to see her reinforced armor narrowly saved her from a terrible wound. Then, in less than a second, the guttural roar of April shook the room as a huge messy fist came down on Spiderling.

The shield glove activates just in time, but Spiderling is trapped beneath April's constant barrages, barely able to move with each hit struck. Spiderling's heart sank when sparks began to fly from her glove; it couldn't take this punishment any longer. April's latest hit cracks open the dome, exposing Spiderling as the redhead desperately tries to reactivate it. April's large fist quivers momentarily before raising to squash Annie like a bug. Spiderling looked up and froze up at what could be her imminent demise. She was so shocked that she didn't notice her glove going haywire and making a loud popping noise.

REEEEEE!!!

An agonizing ringing noise, sounding similar to scratching a chalkboard, loudly emitted from the glove. Spiderling winced at the noise but saw April nearly paralyzed by it. Her sister screeched and trembled as if she was about to fall apart. Seeing April try to shut her ears while glancing at her glove makes Spiderling recall a key trait about her sister that's been there since her return. 'Loud noises,' she thought, 'Mom and Dad said never to have April near them.' It all clicks together. Her glove could only form a barrier through soundwaves and condensing them into a powerful vibration, but the damage inflicted on it meant those soundwaves were now going everywhere. A short circuit briefly ceased the glove's sonic attack, allowing Spiderling to run for it while April struggled to recover.

'Mayday, I'm climbing up! Where are you?'

'Climbing up the opposite side. Where's April?'

'She's stunned for a bit. She's always been sensitive to sound, and now I know why.'

'Sounds,' Spider-Girl mused, her sight falling upon the ACME property's industrial section. 'Annie, head down and hang back. I'll draw her attention until we're deep inside the ACME factory. On my signal, we make it as loud as possible!'

'But we'd be hurting her.. .'

'Green Goblin's already hurting her, Annie. Our plan will only stun her long enough until help arrives; then, we can free her.' Taking Annie's silence as a yes, Spider-Girl lands near a window and loudly bashes it open. "Heeey, April! You keep acting like this, I'm telling Mom!" Spider-Girl leaps away just in time as April's beastly form bursts through the wall, swiping her claws at her twin. Spider-Girl lets gravity take her, a disturbed ache twisting her stomach not at the monstrous form her sister's taken but who was controlling her. She fires her web and swings away, propelling her body towards the factory and towering chimney stack, glancing back to see April chasing her. "Are you still that slower than me? I know you can do better than that, April!"

She gasps when one of April's tendrils grabs nearby debris and begins lodging them at her. Spider-Girl remembers her morning training, pulling out all the moves like flipping over and backward, somersaulting, and eventually slingshotting herself through a window and into the old factory. Pipes, handing platforms, and chains dangled above. The faint moonlight reflected off them. The main floor was cluttered with wartime-era assembly lines and machinery, including wires trailing off somewhere. Spider-Girl sprints off, following the cables into the factory until she's met with an old five-ton generator. "Come on, make some noise," she whispered upon grabbing the large lever and pulling it, releasing electricity discharge. Sparks spew from the generator until it's reenergized, and the whole factory slowly returns to life.

CLANK!

BANG!

ZAAAP! 

All these noises echoed across the factory floor, and she could already hear April's groans of discomfort. 'April, just hang on for a bit longer,' Mayday thought, hugging the wall while sneaking back into the main floor, concentrating on her spider-sense for any clue to where April could be.

'You can stop calling it that silly name,' Norman echoed. 'Heh, April, what a lazy way to name something.'

'I know what you're doing, and I won't let you manipulate me like you did my sister,' Mayday thought, leaping behind a loud stamping device. Her spider-sense told her April was stepping back. 

'Since when, and under what convention, did a clone become classified as a real human?' Norman asked. 'In fact, is it possible I'm talking to a clone right now?'

Mayday takes a sharp breath and ducks her head as an object is thrown as a loud machine, shutting it down. 'I couldn't care less what you think, Norman. There's one April and one Mayday. That's all that matters.'

'Maybe to you, but will this 'April' feel the same way as you? How long until it turns on you? When it grows bored of your family or sees them as they are: all failures underserving of such your powers!' Spider-Girl's spider-sense goes ballistic, and she narrowly backflips away from a swarm of symbiote tendrils crushing her. April quickly closed in, not giving Spider-Girl a chance to escape again. Indeed, Spider-Girl felt she was slowly being cornered herself, dodging and countering every attack by April, becoming slowly overwhelmed by her sheer power. 'So quick to hit back, I see!' Norman mocked, 'any clever planning you have won't stop my weapon now, leaving you with only two options, kiddo: perish or stop me by killing the monster before you. Now, choose!'

Spider-Girl is struck by April's arm, sending her into a storage crate. Her head runs from the blunt force while her sister's shadow looms over her. Seeing an axe head morph from April's hand, Spider-Girl's hand grabs onto something metallic while her eyes squint to see some barrels beside her. The axe heads swung down, and Spider-Girl rolled away before striking the oil drum with a metal pole.

BONG!

April reels in pain from the loud noise as Spider-Girl shouts, "Annie, now!"

At her signal, Spiderling leaped out from a shadowy corner of the ceiling and pulled a heavy chain that dropped a stack of large pipes across the factory floor. None struck April, but the banging and clanging they emitted was agonizing to her. 'Kill that brat!' Norman ordered. April wildly swung as the pipes dropped, blindly throwing them at Spiderling, but every missed throw created even more noise. One near miss, however, caused Spiderling to lose grip on her chain and fall to the floor. Spiderling saw April dash to her, but Spider-Girl stopped her by hitting her pole against the pipes surrounding April. Spider-Girl leaps from place to place, dodging April's attacks while banging the pipes. April grew more and more overwhelmed until she screamed, "STOP!!"

The dying echo of the banging was heard as April collapsed. Her sisters and even Norman were utterly stunned that she spoke. "April," Spiderling gasped, her throat suddenly tight as she looked at the mess around them. "We did this," she said with utter dread, doing the same thing the Goblins were doing to April.

Spiderling witnesses the weapon in Spider-Girl's hand fall out of her hand, her breath shaky as a pang of tremendous guilt washes over her. Her sister looks down at her trembling hand before watching her pull off her mask. "No," Mayday says, "not like this." Mayday approaches her weakened twin, delicately placing her hand on April's cheek, no longer inflicting pain but displaying love. "You're strong, April," Mayday urged, "You can fight this. You're not his thing."

'Enough!'

When April swatted Mayday away, Annie gasped, leaving a dozen feet gap between them. It was like time came to a slow when her eyes saw a large blade form from April's arm, aimed directly at Mayday's heart. Annie's body moved before she even conjured a thought: her sister was going to die, and she was not going to let that happen, no matter what. Within a second, Annie swung and shoved Mayday out of the way. A splatter of blood flies across the air.

Annie felt her body flop to the ground, briefly feeling a cold numbness in her lower abdomen. She suddenly recalled that exact section from her biology class and guessed her appendix had just been cut off. She hissed when the numbness faded and was replaced by pain. A tear fell Annie's cheek when she saw her reinforced armor was punctured with the one-inch tip of April's blade arm puncturing her skin. Without her armor, without the reinforced material the FF kids added, this would've turned out unthinkably worse.

"ANNIE!" Mayday screeched, scrambling to her wounded little sister as April pulled out the blade tip. She frantically cradled Annie, webbing her wound to stop the bleeding. To her tremendous relief, her little sister was still breathing and awake.

"May..." Annie hissed, whimpering from the pain. Her green eyes turn to her attacker, who, for the first time since this fight began, appeared to be in disbelief. "April...?" Annie gasped, clutching her wound.

The blade vanishes as April looks as if she's choking up, mumbling to herself until she clutches her head and falls to her knees. Her body begins to shrink, ridding away the beastly form until she returns to her symbiote self. Her sisters wince when April hits herself as if it were the only way to stop herself. 'Impossible! Its psyche is fracturing. It's going out of control!' Norman gasped. 'Beast! Obey me! Obey!'

A defiant "NO!" roared out of April's mouth before she suddenly sprouted a pair of wings out of her back and flew out the window into the night sky.

Mayday sat speechless at what she saw until Annie asked, "Where's she going?!" Carefully carrying her sister, Mayday got them near a window. Glancing down, Mayday picked up something April dropped: an old photo of two twin babies. Peering through the window, they saw the FF and their family arriving, but beyond the clouds, they barely caught a glimpse of April. The two saw there was one direction their sister was going, and in its path was the source of April's pain: Alchemax, the home of the Osborns.

Sneak peek of the grand finale:

April lies in the darkness. It almost looks like she is sleeping, but really, she's trapped in an awful nightmare with terrible apathy numbing her mind and spirit. "Maybe this is where I belong," she mumbled, utterly exhausted, as the darkness suddenly looked more comforting. That is, until a faint golden light glimmers through her sealed eyelids, and a great warmth is felt on her cheek.

"That's not true. Don't ever say that about yourself," a kindly voice as sweet as honey whispered.

This warmth embraces April's whole being, and her eyes peek open. A pair of arms carefully cradles her as if she were being pulled out of a deep, cold pool of water. "So warm,' April murmured, feeling this kind stranger carrying her someplace far away from the dark. April grips this person's finely knitted coat, and this kind person reassuringly kisses her forehead. The next thing April registered was being placed on a blanket, the sounds of burning wood crackling against her ear. "Fire," she gasped, now wide away, as she shifted away from the flame until she saw a person on the other side, dropped in a white robe.

"Don't be afraid," said the stranger, her voice sounding like an older woman. "Hmph, think of it as a symbolic fire. It doesn't hurt."

She spoke differently from Norman, with a genuine sense of love in her tone, like she couldn't lie to April even if she wanted to. Feeling the dreaded apathy beyond the shadows, April scooted closer to the fire and felt the cold fade away like a bad dream. Rubbing her eyes, April saw she was back in the dark maze but wasn't alone this time. She faces the cloaked woman and rises to her feet, "Alright, grandma," she said, "you better start making sense very quick. What's going on here, and where am I?"

My guardian angel or something?"

A sad sigh escaped the woman as April caught a glimpse of her eyes, which were as blue as hers. Though something was troubling the woman, she still carried an assuring smile that possessed a genuine warmth. April felt comforted just seeing it as if everything would be okay. "What's going on, April, is that a great storm is brewing within you, threatening to tear your mind and spirit apart."

Rubbing the side of her head, April struggles to remember until the memories of that terrible crackle echo. "Norman..."

"Yes," the woman confirmed, "and while your family is doing everything to help you, you still need help here."

"Which is?"

"To accept yourself."

April felt chills down her neck and arms, scared at the mere thought. She tried to hide her fear by scoffing at the woman. "Hmph, so what does that make you, then? Are you my guardian angel or something?"

The woman chuckled heartily. "Something like that, April. Though, I prefer to be called Maybelle."

April looks on as the woman lowers her white cloak, and her eyes widen with disbelief at the elderly woman's true identity. She could barely stutter out, "G-great Aunt May?"

TO BE CONTINUED...

Chapter Text

CW: Mentions of Suicidal Feelings

Part VII: Revenge

Mary Jane felt like she was about to throw up as her grip on her seat tightened. After the recent transmission from the others, she tried to keep her eyes on the sky for her missing daughter, but her head ached as if a hammer were banging on it. The Fantasti car, piloted by Sue Storm, hovered to a stop, briefly snapping M.J. out of her dizziness. "Sue, why are we stopping? Keep flying!"

"Not when it looks like you're about to fall right out of your seat," Sue expressed, a look of concern in her eyes.

But each second spent not searching for her daughter riled up M.J.'s anxiety as if it were clawing up her insides. She lost her again. She lost her again! And April sounds even more in pain. Things are happening so fast, and matters are seemingly only getting worse. If this keeps happening and the world sees April as nothing but a monster, then something terrible beyond her imagination could happen. All this fear racking her mind and body threatened to tear her spirit apart until Sue grabbed her hand. Then, M.J. realized that she was on the verge of hyperventilating. "Breath," Sue steadily said as she took a deep, sharp breath. M.J. focused her eyes on her as she mimicked Sue's breathing. Her heart rate normalized, and her head cleared up but a bit.

"If it eases you, Reed and I lost Franklin in the Phantom Zone for what felt like days," Sue shared, her tone trying to mellow the mood of this dire time. "It was barely a few hours for him. The universe's chaos will push you and those you love to your limits, but even dimensions beyond one's understanding can't break the bonds between us and those we love." 

"But you got powers I'll never have," M.J. somberly whispered, "being a mother seems so easy to you, always having something in your labs or that big brain of yours to give you the answer, no matter how bad things get—always having the power to protect them against any threat. Me? I'm just some poor, powerless, runaway girl with delusions of becoming something bigger, someone who is loved so that I can finally cover up the scars left by my family. Look at me now. I've done the same terrible thing my father did to me, and I don't know if I have the power to fix this! Now April, Annie, and Mayday are paying the price for it...like my sister and I had."

Sue's hand gently grabs M.J.'s shoulder before pulling her in for a hug. "Power isn't what's gonna fix this, not on its own," Sue said. "Use the one thing your father never gave you: love." M.J. wipes a tear from her eye and pulls back, remembering all the times April's moments of distress were soothed by her presence and words of reassurance. She nods to Sue right as the Fantasti car emits an alert. "We got something," Sue said, scanning the map displayed on her console, "April's made a sudden detour too...your home."

M.J. quickly points the way, and Sue re-ignites the engines, speeding to Queens. Thanks to the vehicle's incredible velocity, the two arrive at the Watson-Parker residence quickly. Setting down by the quiet front lawn of her family's home, Mary Jane sees the window to the upstairs bathroom was now broken. "Hurry," Sue said, "I'll be ready out here."

M.J. rushed inside, sprinting up the flight of stairs. Squinting down the pitch-black hallway, she saw the bathroom door half-open, and from it came the soft echoes of someone crying. M.J. approached the door, poking her head in as she quietly asked, "April?" She heard a scuttle while slowly laying her hand on the light switch. "April, sweetheart, I'm going to turn the lights on. Is that okay?" The darkness remained silent until she heard a gurgle or perhaps a snarl or murmur; M.J. couldn't tell. "Flipping the switch." M.J. winced from the flash of light before her eyes adjusted to see her daughter hiss from the light and scurry behind the bathtub's curtains. "Sorry! I'm..." M.J. sighed, hearing a distressed whimper from April. The curtains they had showed M.J. a blurry shadow of her daughter, whose form barely resembled a human. April's shadow was twitchy, and parts of her body were shrinking and growing uncontrollably. Most worryingly, M.J. could make out black goo falling out of April's body as if she were breaking down.

"Sweetheart, what's wrong?" she asked softly. "Why are you in the dark? You hate the dark, dear."

"D-d-d," April stuttered, sounding like a struggle to speak. "D-don't come near me."

"Can I sit here then? I won't open the curtains unless you say so." M.J. takes April's silence as a yes and squats beside the curtains. "April, why are you crying? It's okay, you can tell me. I won't tell your sisters."

"E-e-e," April groaned while the sounds of flesh shifting echoed behind the curtains. "E-everyone hates me. They always had. The kids at school...the other supers...May and Annie...even you and Dad!"

"That's nonsense, April," M.J. firmly rebukes, brushing her hand against the curtains. She sees April's shadow flinch away while clutching her head like she is restraining herself. Seeing her daughter in such pain was breaking her heart. "Your father and I," M.J. said with deep regret, "we're so sorry for keeping this from you. We thought we were helping you by ignoring this side of you when we were only making you feel like an outsider. Those best intentions barely meant much if we still treated you like a clone in some way when we should've fully treated you as our twin daughter."

"Mmmom," April gurgled, her voice barely resembling the one M.J.'s heard since she found her. "I...hurt Annie. I hurt everything I touch. I don't know if she's...she's..." M.J. hid her sharp gasp at this news, but April's further distress showed she still heard her. "Deep inside, I just wanted a family...but n-nothing worked out like I planned. Nothing ever works out for me. I don't know if I'm real or just a clone."

"That isn't important," M.J. urged. "That's never been important to us. You're April, my daughter." Despite what she said, April's shadow shifted wildly, shaking the room like an earthquake while black and blue goo began leaking over the tub. "April, I'm opening this curtain. You look like you're falling apart!"

"Then maybe it's better if I...disappear. It's what traitors deserve!" April sobbed, but this suddenly turned into muffling before evolving into full-on growling.

'Not on my watch!' M.J. brushed away the curtains and was met with a terrifying display that made her reel in horror, seeing her daughter become a tall, winged humanoid symbiote whose face was on the verge of melting. Seeing those pale white eyes staring at her initiated her mind, recalling her first encounter with the dreaded Venom. A guttural fear, the same one that plagued her this whole night, wanted her to run. You're a failure just like him, practically heard whispered in her ear. Look what you let your kids become. Monsters. You should never have had a family. You should have never even tried to be your true self. All these cruel, awful words tried to punch down Mary Jane's spirit, but just as one look left her trembling, it was then one look that told her to hold on with all her strength.

Half of the symbiote's face melted to unveil the blue eye of April. She looked so scared, so alone, just like M.J. was all those years ago.

"April Parker," Mary Jane said, her tone raised as those defeatist thoughts faded. "I never want to hear you say that about yourself again, young lady! You have never keeled over bullies before, even when they spat out vile venom or gave you black eyes, and you are strong enough not to give in now. And all we want is to be there by your side as you do and lend you help!"

"You don't get it, Mom," April uttered. "I don't want help! I want revenge!" M.J. saw April raise a fist, aimed squarely at her, but it didn't matter to her. Be it a fist or deadly claws; Mary Jane refused to let silly fear make her scared of her daughter, no matter what form she took. April's hesitance allowed Mary Jane to duck under the punch and hug her daughter. "No! That's not you, April. You're not some dangerous sociopath out for blood, and you haven't betrayed our family. I know you never willing hurt Annie, just as I know you won't hurt me."

M.J.'s eyes were shut as she desperately hugged her daughter, never showing an inch of doubt about April's goodness even as she heard the twitching of April's claws over her. "Parker...kill," April growled before sputtering names like a computer glitching out. Mary Jane looks up in confusion about what is happening while April stutters, "Osborn...? Parker...kill...Osborn! Parker!? Osborn!? Parker!!"

'Osborn?!' M.J. thought as her grip was finally broken, and she was shoved to the bathroom floor. She watched her daughter let out a violent roar.

"OSBORN!" April cried, hurrying out the shattered window and flapping her demonic-like wings into the air. She's encased in an invisible bubble by a quick-thinking Sue Storm below. April clawed and stabbed at the bubble with surprising power and ferocity.

"Reed!" she said into her suit's communicator, "We found April at her home, but she's growing stronger! Even the old symbiote didn't make me break a sweat!"

"Sue! Watch out!" M.J. warned as a funnel of symbiote goo slung itself out of the window and at Sue. She threw up another hand and encased it into an invisible box, but only most of it. April controlled a tiny piece to slip through the attack and latch onto Sue's suit, surprising the invisible woman when it quickly grew, restraining her and threatening to envelop her. Resisting its immense grip and fearing being controlled by it broke Sue's concentration momentarily. April used that moment to shatter the invisible bubble and fly high into the sky. Sue uses her powers to blast away the goo off her but sees the other goo barreling towards her before a funnel of fire stops it. During all this, Mary Jane grabbed a flammable spray bottle and her old lighter before leaping down and blasting the improvised flamethrower. The mindless goo burns until it disintegrates.

Sue quickly informed the others where April was heading while Mary Jane stared at the glimmering Alchemax skyscraper. "Osborn," she whispered before her mind returned to the night goblin tore her daughter away from her. I remember all that time she was gone and then recall how April, ever since she entered their lives, has suffered nightmares of man and a green monster. Then the answer came to her, and she gritted her teeth in rage. "Norman," she growled.

"Mary Jane?" Sue asked, rarely ever seeing her this angry.

"That retched Norman Osobrn's controlling April!" Mary Jane clenched her teeth in hate at the mere thought of that man, shutting her eyes as a tear fell down her cheek. "He's in her head, I think, making her attack us." M.J. shuddered in fear. "Sue," she uttered, "I'm afraid April will do something horrible to herself!"

Sue grabs Mary Jane by her shoulders and, as a mother, shares in her fierce protectiveness. "Then we must end this madness immediately," Sue said, "We know now who must be stopped. We know where she's going, and we all are stopping this tonight."

"Once and for all," M.J. fiercely said, wiping her tears. She'll save them when April is finally free. Knowing where this must end and who they must stop to free April, M.J. lets this renewed fire burn, fueling her resolve to fight harder than ever for this family, for her family. "You still got that experiment Reed and Peter worked on stored somewhere at Baxter?"

Sue gave a firm nod and rushed to get'em back to Baxter immediately.

[Meanwhile, in the Codex of April Parker...]

April didn't expect paradise; her frequent nightmares were a hint that whatever was going on in her noggin wasn't exactly peaceful, but she at least expected her mindscape to have some more personality. Instead, she's stuck trudging through knee-high black water following her supposed-to-be dead great aunt to navigate a maze with skyscraper-high walls, all the while her former captor is out there probably influencing her body to do who-knows-what kind of evil. "I'm gonna be stuck attending that therapy thing for months after this," April grumbled.

"Consider this a kind of preview of therapy, dearie," the seeming ghost of her great aunt May spoke. "I attended them myself after your great uncle Ben died, and they were quite helpful. Your father told you all about those fateful days, yes?"

"Endlessly," April groaned, the water reaching her waist as she followed her great aunt May down a new path.

"Even if I didn't know it then, my Peter was never the same from the day onwards," May said reminiscently. "Still, I saw he preserved his kind heart and responsible mind, and I'm proud to see those gifts carried on to you and your dear sisters."

"'Gifts,' yeah, right. I don't know if you've been paying attention, old lady, but I haven't acted like a model citizen with this 'gift' the past few hours." April stopped waist-deep in the murky water, looking at her reflection to see her symbiote self staring back at her. "I thought I could make it a gift...but it was just a ruse. This gift is nothing but a curse." April shut her eyes, unable to bear looking at herself until she felt the floor beneath her shoes vanish. Suddenly, she was underwater, feeling the chilling waters of the dark world pulling her down. In a panic, April tries to swim up, only to be able to thank the great Aunt May for pulling her up.

April coughed out water, now suddenly feeling a floor beneath her. "Sorrow in the face of such a painful, dark past is an understandable reaction, April. A very human reaction," May said gently, a tinge of fear over almost losing her granddaughter again. "But sorrow can just as quickly drown you and snuff out your will to do...anything, even to exist."

April shuddered from the cold, from the pull of death.

"I know because sorrow nearly took me when my Ben was gone," May reveals, with April looking on in surprise. Her dad made Great Aunt May sound so strong, yet even she had her low points. "But Peter," May said with a warm smile, "gave me the push I needed to keep going. I believe your sisters can do the same for you and then some."

"But I hurt them," April muttered,  anxiously clenching her shirt.

"You mustn't blame yourself for the actions of-"

"Annie's blood stained my hands, hasn't it?!" Her cry echoed on seemingly for miles; it could practically be heard in every shadowy corner of this labyrinth. May remained silent. She can't blame the poor girl for feeling guilty. April angrily brushed aside her wet hair, shouting defiantly at the maze, "Where are we going anyway?! You've been dragging me around in circles for, like, forever! Why are you even here? Are you even the real her or another of Osborn's screwed-up tricks?"

April's fit of anger and frustration in the face of this absurdity was answered by a sudden hug. May wrapped her in an embrace so warm and full of love that April almost didn't feel the cold anymore. It was like being hugged by her parents as if trying to tell her they still loved her. May whispered kindly, "Do I feel real to you?"

April doesn't hug back, but her posture relaxes as she sighs deeply. "I guess..." she mumbles, her eyes trying to look away from where she sees something falling above them. "Watch out!" Quickly, May glanced up and pulled April away as a dark boulder crashed into the water before sinking below. As waves pushed and pulled them, April clung onto May, and heavy debris fell around them. Her great aunt's surprising nimbleness and speed guided her past this treacherous corridor until pulling her down a new path right as the collapse above ceased. "Too close," April said, breathless. She then heard rock breaking around them. "Hey, cracks are forming all across these walls! What's going on?"

"This decay you're seeing is exactly why I'm here," May reveals. "As I said earlier, your mind is under threat of being torn apart. The Goblin believes his fight will return control over you, but that blind fool doesn't realize the damage he's inflicting will only lead to complete demise for the both of you!"

"But how am I here talking to ya? I don't feel broken," April said, seeing not even a scratch on her person.

"You're part of the soul of April Parker, saved from the chaotic battle of the mind by me."

"What?!" April scoffed, a brief chuckle in her voice over that insanity she was hearing.

"I just have to believe me, my girl," May insisted. "As for these dreadful cracks, they're here because the mind of April is in a frenzy. Broken by the damage inflicted by the Goblin and your recent actions. Where once before Norman had control, now nothing but fear, anger, and instinct pilot this body, even if it'll eventually destroy you."

April flinched upon feeling the coldness of death's breath creeping down her neck. "I'm dying?"

"Yes," May solemnly said.

"Everything that makes you, you, is falling apart. Perhaps it's a consequence of trying to use untapped power you are not ready for or because some part of you wants it. I'm not eager to find out which."

April gazed up, a thunderous bellow coming from the top of the towering walls of the labyrinth as they fell apart. Brushing her hand against the smooth, dark surface of the wall, April can feel a kind of energy from it. As May said, it felt like a part of her very being. She could even see memories if she shut her eyes. However, with each new crack formed, those precious memories fragment until they become too hard to remember. "So," she sighed, almost resigned to this doomed fate, "I'm just a ticking bomb then. Throwing a tantrum to the very end until that bomb explodes. Then...I fade away."

April felt May's hand grip her shoulder. Her great-aunt looked reassuringly and spoke, "We won't let that happen. Not on my watch, my girl."

'We,' April thought. Great Aunt May believes she still has that fight, and April hopes she's right. Suddenly, a sharp pain stings in April's mind, inflicting an awful headache. April grunts, "Now what?!" as a blue and black vortex swirls in the sky above.

"It's a window through your eyes," May said, carrying April so they could keep moving while seeing a glimpse of the outside world through the vortex. "Oh goodness, you've already arrived at Alchemax."

Despite her eyes being shut like windows, she can still peek through and see what May is seeing. It felt like she was there, which she technically was, but April was only a passive observer of her rampage. She can see her wreaking sudden havoc across Alchemax. She'd defeated dozens of guards with ease. The trail of dark ooze her crumbling body leaves behind swarms and envelopes any guard and employees within their range. She can faintly feel each mind, but they are her sleeping puppets until someone sets them free. It wasn't long until her rampaging self laid eyes on the Osborn brothers.

"What the heck," April groaned, "why are those Osborn weirdos doing there?"

"Your anger has turned to hate, and now that hate is being programmed to the Goblin's family rather than your own," May said.

April's brows flinch with unease. Seeing those boys run for their lives, all their privilege and legacy that came with the name Osborn crumbling around them brought a certain catharsis to April. That feeling her mind felt is something she can't deny. Yet, watching as their mother desperately tried to defend them, pushing them to a panic room before shielding them with her flesh and bones reminded April of what her mother would do. Such a sight tightened her stomach into a painful knot, leaving her with a gross feeling as she saw the dark ooze begin to envelop the family.

April opened her eyes as her window to the outside fogged up. The Osborns didn't look dead, but if April dies tonight, they'll be coming with her so long as that ooze has control of them.

"You understand now what's at stake here?" May asked. "More than one life is on the line, always has been. Letting death win today will only lead to the suffering of those around you, especially the family you love. Mayday and Annie...oh, I can't bear even to imagine such a future where they feel like they failed you. Nor can I bear the thought of you leaving this world. No one your age should even contemplate taking the path to death." May paused when April remained silent. "You look troubled, April. Does a part of you really want this? To get revenge even at the cost of your own life?"

"I...I don't know," April painfully admits. "I just can't believe what that monster did to me, stealing from me something I can never get back. I want Norman dead. And yet, it's like a part of me dies with every step I take toward that goal. I know this, yet I still keep going, not caring if I die so long as every Osborn gets what they deserve."

"Even the children?" May posits.

April remained silent until she murmured, "Not like I can stop it from here. And what else do you expect to happen from a walking death magnet? I'm just working as he designed me to be."

"But that's not his choice; it's never been," May refutes. "It's your body, April, your life. It's your choice now. Do you want revenge, no matter the blood spilled? Even those of your own family?"

April's head snapped up at May. "What!!" she exclaimed as May laid her hand on her head. April felt a memory flash before her eyes; it was her mom in the upstairs bathroom, hugging her even as her talons hung over her head. "Mom!"

"Your mother will find a way to reach you, no matter the danger," May said, stepping back. "And you know your sisters will follow suit. What will happen if they face you once again in this state?"

April clutched her head at the painful recollection of her beastly transformation and imagined it happening again in front of her whole family. She felt it in the recess of her being that her outside self would attack anything on sight, and her Mom may not be so lucky the second time around. She's on the cusp of ending the Osborns, and the April out there won't let anyone get in her way. "Anyone." As if in a vision of a horrible future, April sees her mother and sisters lying before her, their bodies cold to the touch, and Norman's laughing as he gets the final laugh. "No," April gasped and urgently ran past May. "Come on! We gotta hurry before I do something stupid again!"

"We're almost there, April," May reassures, running beside April as she guides her through the maze. "But know this, my girl: even if you pass this trial, you must use all the power you can muster to banish the Goblin from your mind. Only then will your mind be repaired and your body stabilize."

"Fine, whatever," April huffed, "and what even is this trial?"

May turned her head upward, spotting their destination hovering far above in the stormy skies, and answered, "To face the mirror."

Part VIII: Forward!

Though this model of the Fantasti car was a tad cramped, not helped by her mother's section, still being separated, it could fit all 12 of them so long as her uncle Johnny kept flying beside them. They were halfway to the Alchemax building, with The Thing steadily piloting it. In the ship's med bay, Annie inhales sharply as Valeria finishes applying the bandage over the puncture wound. "Don't be a baby," Valeria said.

With them were Nikki and Jo, with the latter saying, "Yes, merely your appendix was severed—the most useless organ in the human body."

"If anything, your sister just saved you a headache decades from now," Nikki added.

"I'll be sure to thank her," Annie sighed. She supposed she had worse trips to the doctors, like that one time she was dared to eat a month-old sandwich for ten bucks. 'Call me chicken, ha!' she thought as a ding from a nearby machine got Valeria's attention. "My armor fixed up?"

"Yep," Nikkie said, grabbing it for her cousin Val.

"Despite how it looks," Jo said, "it's a shame such quality armor will go unused for days, given your father's recent orders."

Annie's brow scrunched, remembering the speech he gave her and Mayday. "We almost got through to her." Valeria could see how frustrated Annie was, a trait she shared with her father, who was a bit more volatile in his response when it was confirmed his old nemesis had indeed returned. None of the kids have seen Peter curse a name as furiously as he did Norman's.

"In such critical times, almost isn't good enough," Valeria said, "you go into something? You go in to win, not to try."

"With April? I'm always going in to win," Annie said determinedly, pounding her fists together as her head buzzed like crazy. "Cruud, again?!" All Annie needed to see that she was having another vision was flashing colors and reality seemingly warping around her. This one didn't feel as crazy but still inflicted a nasty headache as her iris briefly glowed upon witnessing the future.

She saw a night sky like tonight's while standing on top of the Alchemax building she, Mayday, and her dad had visited before. Except this time, symbiotes were everywhere, and they were all screaming. Her sister was before her, but she wasn't moving, for she lay lifelessly on the floor. Before she could even reach her, a three-headed beast sprung up from behind Annie and attacked.

Though it was a mere glimpse, Annie panted anxiously after seeing what could be her sister's demise. "Annie," Valeria said, surprised to see Annie experience a real vision.

Nikki gasped, "Anime, what kind of future have you witnessed?"

"No...," Annie whispered, covering her mouth in disbelief.

"What?!" Valeria asked. Her suit suddenly started to beep, which Valeria recognized as a section of the Fantasti car approaching. 'Finally, mother's back.'

Suddenly, Annie dashed past Valeria, Nikki, and Jo to grab her gear before rushing out of the med bay to the main hull. Mister Fantastic, his son Franklin and Annie's extended superfamily of Ben, Kaine, Jessica, and Aracely were here with her dad and sister. Mayday appeared to be still defending their actions and urging her dad that this was their fight, too, when Annie shouted, "April's gonna die!"

The whole room stopped what they were saying and doing; their eyes widened with shock. "That's...shouldn't be," Reed said, "Norman is an unexpected factor and would severely affect April's brain patterns, but-"

"It's true, Reed," said his wife, Sue. She lept down from her section of the car and walked up behind Annie. "Mary Jane spoke to her, and April told her herself."

It was now Annie's turn to be surprised when she saw her mom enter. She was not in casual clothes but a red and white spider suit with her red hair tied up into a bun. The upper torso, shoulder, and lower leg sections were scarlet red with a white web pattern, while her arms and waist were pristine white. It wasn't just any suit, Annie recognized. Her keen eye for tech showed another layer beneath; the energy flowing through them led to pulsating light gliding across the fabric.

'Fashionable and strong,' Annie thought. 'Totally made by mom.'

"Mary Jane..." Peter said, his mind jumbled by even worse news, such as seeing his wife in a suit he hadn't seen in years.

"Peter," M.J. spoke, "Tonight, it's all of our responsibilities. For April." She reassuringly grabs Annie's shoulder, deeply happy to see her little girl better and back on her feet.

Meanwhile, this personal emergency has turned into a massive one as all the spider people in the room feel the intense buzzing of their spider sense goes off. A second later, Aracely felt it, clenching her heart as she felt a vortex of hate and anguish.

The Thing's voice is then heard over the intercoms. "Hey! You all better see this!" Mister Fantastic activated a console as it rose from the floor to see what was happening. The console's surface projected a feed from the Fantasti car's cameras. Everyone looked on in shock as a series of enormous symbiote tendrils burst out of the roof of Alchemax, slowly entangling the building from the top down. "Aww, nuts," The Thing muttered over comms, and there were no better words to describe how everything went from bad to worse.

"It's already spreading," Ben pointed as the tendrils crashed into the streets, now expanding into nearby buildings and pedestrians. "Johnny!"

"Already on it!" They hear a boom outside as Johnny blasts off towards the streets below.

"Even with Johnny's help, at this rate, those tendrils will envelop the whole district within minutes," Jessica said.

"Five minutes, to be precise," Reed suggested. Despite her age, April's powers have surpassed all her potential limiters." Inputting commands into the console, Reed pinpoints April. She's on the roof, and the fantastic-car's scanners are going haywire trying to calculate her signatures."

"I feel it," Aracely shuddered. She almost falls to her knees until Kaine holds her. "She's dying out there."

"Ben!" Sue shouted.

"Already on it!" The Thing activates the ship's thrusters, and they shoot straight to Alchemax.

"Alright, it's time to think fast," Peter said. "Reed, Sue, and Ben keep this from spreading."

"We can help!" Franklin said as Valeria, Nikki, and Jo showed up, suited up and ready.

"So long as you two are sticking close to the adults," Sue said, "Val, Franklin, go with Dad. Nikki, Jo, stay close to your father. I'll go and form a force field around the district. And Parkers, you all go save that poor girl." With that, Sue hugged M.J. farewell and took off in her pod. Nikki and Jo join their father in the pilot seat as Reed nods to Peter before taking Val and Franklin with him to help out Johnny below. 

The Parker extended family soon saw the feed show a glowing blue dome form in the sky. It slammed down directly in the paths of the symbiote tendrils, ceasing their expansion for the time being. Johnny was already burning away the thick, dark roots inside the dome. However, just as these were occurring, a wave of people infected with symbiotes rushed out of the Alchemax building, their sights set on any in their way. Like a flower, the petals of this symbiote convergence bloomed on top of the building, creating a webbed cage over it as swarms of mindless symbiote-like bats formed out of the web and flew into the air. 

"Okay, that's new," Jessica grumbled.

"Looks like there are several entry points each of us go through," Ben said, pointing at several exposed openings in April's protective cage. "Perhaps best to split up as we swing down, fight our way through, and then all convene inside to get to April." 

"Except April's already making her web several layers thick. You can tell by the web pattern; it's complex even for me to understand," Peter said.

"Like a real spider-web," Aracely commented.

"We're on her turf now," Kaine emphasized. "Her web. If we take the wrong entry..."

"Then we'll be ensnared in her web," Jessica finished.

"There must be a fast way to get to her; we can't waste even a second," Mary Jane urged. "Peter, I've seen how fast she's falling apart. Our time window to save her is shrinking by the minute."

The collective panic and anxiety all the adults were trying to bury were now peeking through. "Maybe we can use this ship's sonic weaponry," Peter hurriedly suggested.

"Maybe, but we can't risk it hurting her," M.J. anxiously warned.

"Aracely, you can conjure fire," Kaine suggested. "Use this entry to-"

"I still can't conjure enough of it, Kaine! Especially in so little time."

"Jess, you got the Ultimates on speed dial," Ben said, "maybe you can call them. The mansion is only-"

"I'm sorry," Jessica sighed, "but Sam, Monica, and the others are halfway across the galaxy. They aren't due back until tomorrow. We're on our own, Ben." 

In the middle of all these haphazard plans and panic, Mayday stared hard at the feed the whole time and could only imagine how much anguish and hurt April felt to unleash this much power to the world she saw, hardly caring about her existence. Every one of those symbiote roots, from the bus-sized tentacles that crushed through empty stores to the ones that were once people who now feel everything she's feeling. All so that she can let out one final death cry at this uncaring world. How can one reason with one so determined to die? How can Mayday, or anyone in this room, get through not just April's mind but her very heart? 'Mind and heart," she thought. She shut her eyes and heard her as if whispered by a ghost. The voice that distantly sounded like her twins, sounding like she was running, worried. Right as Mayday opens her eyes, her sights fall on Aracely, the young woman who came here in the first place because of her empathic ability to sense April's feelings. 'And she read, maybe even enter our minds. Can feel what we feel!'

Aracely noticed Mayday staring at her. 'You have an idea?' Aracely telepathically asked.

Mayday snapped her fingers, shouting, "I know how to get to her!" All eyes turned to her right as she finished with, "And I think there's only one way we can free her from the Goblin, forever!"

"And that is?" Ben asked.

Mayday points at Aracely before pointing at herself. The gears in Aracely's mind turn as she stares at the girl until they are both on the same page. "A mind meld," she gasped. "Yes, yes, of course!"

"Whoa, wait," Kaine said, "a mind what?"

"Is that a spell?" M.J. asked

"Yes," Aracely explained, "the story I told you all was about the spell I was practicing with right before I passed out. That must be why I felt April's turmoil in the first place!"

Desperate about any plan, Peter asked, "And how can this help April?"

"Alright," Aracely sighed, collecting her thoughts as she explained, "it-it's a complicated but doable spell where two minds magically connect through me. Think of me creating an invincible bridge towards April's mind, and I'm the bridge. Your daughter suggests we halt April's breakdown by performing this spell!"

"Then help me through it! Perform it right now, and connect me to my daughter," Peter urged.

But to Peter's surprise, she shook her head. "Nonono, sorry, but I can't do it from here," she stuttered. "I'm still a learner. Plus, April's mind is too shattered and angry for me to form this bridge long enough for you to reach out to her. Plus, given recent events, April might kick you out immediately."

"Kick him out?" Jessica asked.

Aracely pinched her brow, "Yes, the spell can only work if April allows the other inside her mind."

"But you can still do it, yes?" Kaine asked.

Aracely then dropped the crucial component, "yes," she said, "I can calm down April's senses just enough for her to focus and decide. Even then, I can only perform this spell through physical contact of both parties."

'Crud,' all the Parkers thought.

"Goddamn magic and it's goddamn rules," Kaine cursed under his breath.

Ben asked, "So, for this plan to work, we need to get you close enough to grab April and the other person venturing into her head."

"It'll require intense concentration and protection from any outside interference...but yes, it can work," Aracely confirmed. "But it can't be Kaine's brother or any adult. With April's special case, my senses tell me...it must be Mayday Parker."

"What?!" Peter gasped, cursing in his head how danger seemingly keeps coming after him and his wife's kids, and they're unable to stop it.

"Mom," Mayday said.

"No..." Peter muttered.

"Dad!"

"No," Peter said more firmly, even as his siblings stared at him. He can see in Jess's eyes that it was the only rational action. He can see in Kaine's eyes that now wasn't the time to be an idiot. He can see in Ben's eyes to trust Mayday and that this could be the only way to save April. April, his daughter, the daughter he loved the moment he first saw her. Yet he was a fool not always to show it and let this silly clone bias linger in his mind for far too long. And now, in this nightmare scenario, the awful truth is shoved in his face: he can't save her himself. Because of all the fears and lies, now his Mayday has to face the brunt. Peter can't be rational with this because his mind won't torment him with all the ways this can go wrong and how two of his daughters could end up...could end up...

"No," Peter grunted, his anxiety inflicting a pain in his chest until his emotions boiled over, and he yelled, "I won't lose both of you again!" A stunned silence filled the room, and Peter's hands quivered. "I can't...nnnot both of you. Not again, I...I can't lose you two again." 

A tear fell down his cheek when his wife's fingers brushed it away. He faced her and saw all the same fears in her eyes, but he also saw immense faith—faith in this family, faith in her daughters, and what they were capable of. Mary Jane held his hand right as Annie held Mayday's. Those two shared a look before both placed Mayday's and Peter's hands together.

"Dad," Mayday said, her voice determined and face full of courage, "Everything that happened today began with April and me. After all the lies, truths, pains, and love, I...I think this nightmare can only end with the two of us."

"Mayday...," Peter whispered. "You shouldn't have to finish what Norman and I started. If everything Aracely says is right, you will face him. You don't know him like I do."

Mayday's eyes look away, letting her pain show as an awful memory flashes before her eyes. "And you don't know him like I do, Dad. To feel so small and defenseless...him poking needles and his hands loomed over my tiny throat." Everyone felt their hearts sink at her words. Yet, her courage returns as she declares, "Never again. Never will I let my sister be in his clutches ever again. I will free her, and both of us beat him together!"

Peter has peered into many eyes in the years he was Spider-Man. He can see the fires of vengeance with a single look. So, when he stared down at Mayday Parker's eyes, he didn't see vengeance.

He saw justice.

Peter lets go of her hand to pat her shoulder and, with a shaky sigh, says, "Okay, hotshot. We're with you, all the way."

"Yeah," Annie exclaimed, hugging her brave older sister before Mary Jane pulled them and Peter in for a hug, one last moment of peace to settle their minds and save thier lost girl. She and Peter shared a look, and both knew the other was ready to protect their girls with all their strength and will. 

A sniffle suddenly echoed from the ship's comms. "You Parkers a real tearjerker," Ben Grimm sniffed, "now, how about more punchin' and less talkin' here? We're getting kinda swarmed out here."

"Right!" They all exclaim.

"Mayday," her uncle Ben said, "can you get us in?"

"Uh-huh! Annie and I's spider senses are connected to April, so follow us, and we can all bypass her web to reach her," Mayday explained.

"Your father and I will cover the front," M.J. said.

"And us three will cover your rear," Kaine said. He turns to his daught--, his prodigy, and offers words of reassurance. "Aracely, just treat this as any other previous mission. Stick close to Mayday, no matter what. Use your powers to cloak yourself from April. Wait for an opening and initiate that spell."

"Roger, Roger," Aracely saluted, floating over to Mayday and Annie's sides.

"I don't know why she does that," Kaine grumbled. In his head, this reassures himself. 'She got this, Kaine, she does.'

The lights of the interior changed from a bright blue to a deep red, signaling The Thing was about to open the main ship's doors. All the Parkers grab a loose collection of sonic weaponry loaded into by the FF. Mayday snaps on sonic gloves to her web-shooters while Annie holds her modified gloves to shield and ward off symbiotes. Ben and Jessica loaded up some sonic rifles, but yet Kaine didn't take any. He looks away from the weapons with a sigh of regret. Peter grabs some sonic pistols for his wife. "Remember," he whispered, "your suit will transfer my powers to you, but I'll be only half as strong out there. You remember our training?"

"Like it was yesterday, tiger," M.J. said, and the two shared a quick kiss before joining their daughters and the others.

"GO!" Ben Grimm ordered.

"Hang on," Peter and M.J. said, holding their daughters tight as the bay doors opened. With one grand leap, the Parker family dives, gliding across the air before a collective Thwip! is fired from all their web-shooters, and the family swings into action.

As Sue kept the symbiotes from spreading and the rest of the FF took care of the situation on the ground, the Parkers directed all their efforts toward the peak of Alchemax. Mayday has grown not to be a stranger to swinging, but tonight, it felt like she needed to make every web blast count. Every swing needed to be the fastest she could make it, and no movement can't go to waste. She glanced over at Annie and saw she felt the same way because her mobility was far more efficient. She knew, too, that they had to put their all into this; now was the time to put their training to the test. 

Everyone's spider-sense tingled before Ben was the first to shout, "Watch your four o'clock!" The Parkers briefly split up to dodge a swarm of symbiote drones that lunged after them from the surrounding rooftops.

Mayday stuck close to her dad and Aracely while Annie was with their mom. Mayday dodged a symbiote who lunged at her but saw a dozen more hurling towards her. Aracely eyes glowed a soft green, and her voice echoed, "Otlaxochiuiltletl!" A great gust of enchanted green fire is blown out of Aracely's mouth, dowsing the small swarm with intense fire. Mayday sighs at the sight of the people in them freed and landing safely thanks to the help of Mister Fantastic below. "Hey, we're already a great team!" Mayday said with a thankful nod.

"Yes, but compliments later. Fight now," Aracely said, echoing Kaine's teachings. Mayday swings, frontflips, and backflips from any stray drone after her while Aracely launches fireballs to keep them off their tails. Just straight ahead, Mayday saw her father and mother fight together. Annie's leg was by the head of another splinter swarm, but before they could fully ensnare her, M.J. swooped in and kicked away the head drone while grabbing Annie to safety. The swarm tried to pursue, but they were bombarded by web blasts and the fists of Peter Parker, pummeling them while also ensnaring them with webbing until the drones were trapped in a large ball of web. Though rusty, Peter still had it in him.

"Woah," Mayday gasped in awe.

"Keep moving," Peter told the family. We can't waste time fighting them!" Of course, Mayday's aunt and uncles were already on the same page as her dad.

Jessica acted fast and agile, but her punches were no less strong while barreling through drones like they were paper to her. All those years on her own, then with S.H.I.E.L.D. and now the Ultimates, have molded her into a veteran hero in Mayday's eyes, truly as fearless as she was powerful. Her only equal and current Spider-Man, her brother Ben, leaped in the air as gracefully as a dancer while striking any drones in his way with the coordination and power of the world's greatest boxer. He perfectly balanced all the skills and strategies that make Spider-Man a formidable hero to all. To Mayday, Ben's Spider-Man was one perfected. His movements were so in tune with his spider-sense. A strategic mind amplified his incredible strength. His years standing alone as a hero led to him handling any situation independently, no matter how dire. Finally, Kaine was the silent one shredding through drones with his spider talons. Nothing got in his way, and his ferocity made him more of a villain than a hero. Mayday didn't have a clear answer, but she knew Kaine was fighting for both of them, fighting for April, which was enough.

WHAM! To her far right, Mayday sees Spider-Woman uppercut a passing drone.

POW! Mayday sees Spider-Man knock out a pair of drones to her far left.

BAM! Behind her, Scarlet Spider barrels through a barrage of drones.

WOOSH! To her left, Mayday feels the heat as Hummingbird blasts a gust of fire, shielding the both of them.

KA-POW! To her right, Spiderling kicked off a drone that almost snuck up on them.

Her parents led the charge and shielded her. With a collective THWIP, they fired a barrage of webbing, kicking, and dodging a pack of drones until any foes in their way were ensnared. Fueled by the one goal of saving one of their own, this family has become unstoppable.

"We're closing in, Mayday," Peter said.

Then Mary Jane asked, "Where to go next, hotshot?"

Mayday glanced at Annie; the two nodded before squinting their eyes at the dark web, their minds buzzing from all the chaos around them. Amid all that noise, Mayday is the first to hear the faintest of voices: a cry. "Annie," she said.

"I heard her too," her sister said.

"Alright. Everyone," Mayday exclaims, "forward!"

Part IX: Facing the Mirror

April and Aunt May traverse the maze and reach the symbiote, which April must accept.

Within the depths of April Parker's shattered mind, her last hope lay in a fragment of herself whose mission was seemingly ending. After miles of traversing the maze, April and her great aunt May arrived at a stretch of hovering platforms, each entangled and made of cold metal. It led to a platform high above, where April could only faintly see a silhouette on top of it. As they begin their ascent, April looks back to see the one mighty maze in ruins, resembling more like a crumbled, desolate city. Her mind was fading fast, all those painful memories lingering even after all the good ones vanished. April questioned herself how she still knew who she was and why she was doing this. She still had no answer, yet something within her told her never to leave her great aunt May's side, lest she fade away forever.

The soles of April's shoes squeaked, causing a sharp gasp from her as gravity tried to pull her down. She's narrowly grabbed by May; if not for her, April would've plummeted into the dark city, the center of which was flooded with dark symbiote goo. "We're almost there, my girl!" May reassured, tugging April along as both could see the top just a few yards away.

"I," April exhaled, her heart pumping from her constant close calls. "Hate. Everything. About. This!"

To herself, May whispered, "Welp, you're certainly not going to like this next part then." Her quiet attempt at humor ended when heartless laughter echoed across this shattered domain, a laugh that even inflicted fear on May. April was frozen still by that laugh that echoed in her head every day for five years. She wanted to crumble at such a terrible trigger, but as her hands quivered, she clenched them into fists and pushed onward. She even passed May, powered by her utter hate of Osborn and her fear of her rampage ending up taking her family with her.

After what felt like an eternity, April arrived at her fated trial, but what awaited her was not a person or even a beast; it was something more—something alien. In the middle of this twenty-foot-wide platform was a smooth-surfaced dark orb, about five feet wide and six feet tall, trapped in the same metal the platforms she climbed were made of. Punctured onto its top were metal rods resembling needles, and a ring of fire surrounded it, the embers of its dangerous flames always an inch away from hurting it.

May soon arrive, looking at the orb sadly. April, unable to look away, asked, "What...is this?"

"That is your reflection, the other half of your soul," May revealed, "this is your symbiote."

A nervous gulp escapes April. Subconsciously, she knew exactly what she was looking at, but it didn't make hearing it any less gut-wrenching, not only at her symbiote but also in the pain of looking at the machinery that trapped it.

"April, you must release it."

"I-I can't!"

"You must if you wish to help your family, April," May gently urged, placing her hand on her grand niece's shoulder. "And to finally feel whole again-"

April swats her hand away, shutting her ears, refusing to listen. She may not have anticipated what was waiting for her at the end of this road, but she would instead take anything than face the very curse inflicted on her. However, she soon is reminded of something undoubtedly more evil than this curse. That same manacle laughter echoed across the sky; the once blue and black stormy skies had now begun to morph into a shade of sickly green. April's fear at such a sight was shared, not by May but with her symbiote. It was a screech of distress that felt like it was happening inside April's head, like her screaming. 'It's just as afraid, this...is its prison,' April realized, 'just like stasis was mine.'

Then, as if moving by its own will, April's hands reach the symbiote. It roared, its dagger-like fangs briefly flashing, but April pulled back. Instead, April gripped one of its chains and yanked it off. One after another and another, the symbiote's chains were broken by April's sheer willpower. The symbiote shattered with every vile chain shackling, and April's eyes began to water. Every sinking moment, being in stasis, trapped in an unfeeling, unloving fake world, flooded back in, threatening to drown her in despair.

She did not. Not this time. She will burn down any last fragment of that heartless world.

This was her world, April Parker's world!

She shattered the last chain with a guttural, somber yell, the kind one screams from the deepest part of one's aching heart. With this act done, April is left staring at the symbiote orb in its raw form, fixated at the sight of her reflection on its smooth, dark surface moving on its own. She squints her eyes at it, but her reflection turns her head away with a pained expression, like it was scared, too. Placing her head on it, April felt it wasn't just afraid. It was ashamed. This gentle connection between the halves of one being unearths a deep and unbreakable bond, then a strand of the symbiote crawls up April's arm.

"There you are!"

Great Aunt May gasped from the echoes of that familiar, awful voice. In the distance, she can see a trail of smog emitting from a flying machine, with its pilot flying straight for them. "April, hurry!" However, neither her words nor the voice of their former captor reached either the symbiote or April. The symbiote slowly engulfed the girl, not with a strangle but like a warm embrace. April stared on, unsure what to expect, what to say, or even if she genuinely wanted this new her, but she did know she can't fail now. If still not for her own sake, then for the sake of her family, and so she can finally punch Norman's smug face.

"You're too late," May's words echoed as April's head was shrouded by the symbiote's tendrils.

"NOOO!"

Norman's rage-fueled scream vanished as April was engulfed in the orb.

[Earlier...]

"Uncle Ben, hurry!" Mayday's urging echoed within the first layer of the symbiote web. Her gaze focused on her uncles and aunt, holding off the endless wave of drones outside.

"There's too many," Jessica warned. Even as they tried to web the entrance, the sheer numbers of the enemy meant their barriers were torn to shreds in seconds.

"Just go!" Ben ordered, swatting away a drone.

"But-!" Annie said before her dad grabbed her.

"They'll hold their own," her dad reassured.

"April's the mission. Finish it!" Kaine shouted. Aracely, Peter, MJ, Annie, and Mayday charged forward at his demands. Mayday slowed only a little when she heard Kaine's voice say to her, "Mayday! Do what I couldn't and save her!" She nodded determinedly, shutting her eyes at the roars of the drones until they eventually vanished.

Aracely lit a flame, lighting the way for Mayday and Annie to navigate the gooey web and numerous directions before them. Whether running down tunnels, climbing obstacles, or avoiding paths leading to more symbiotes, the family didn't let these hindrances slow them down. "We're getting closer," Annie notified, sensing April only a dozen yards down.

"Don't run up too far," M.J. said concerningly.

"Annie," Mayday said, "let Mom, Dad, and Me handle this. Stick close to Aracely and do what she says."

"It won't be like last time, May. With all of us, we can-NNNG!" Annie clutched her head as an intense buzzing rattled her brain. 'Me and my big mouth,' she thought, her eyes glowing upon witnessing the near future.

"Annie," the family gasped. Peter and M.J. were beside her immediately, but they heard a loud, clattering noise around them before they could ask what she saw. Given their spider senses weren't going off, Peter recognized that symbiotes were closing in and, as usual, were invisible to any of their spider senses.

"They're all around us," Annie gasped. Suddenly, she shoved Mayday away. Just as May fell into Aracely's arms, a trio of symbiote humanoids burst out of the thick webs around them, tackling M.J. and Peter and causing them to fall. Annie is grappled by one of the smaller symbiotes and is about to be pulled over the edge. Everything happened so fast, and Mayday realized these were just drones. She barely could get a word out, only able to reach out her hand, ready to fire a web for Annie to hold onto, when her sister's voice echoed in her head.

'Go! This is our fight,' Annie rapidly explained. 'It's supposed to be!'

"No, Annie!" Mayday screamed, leaping forward to grab her, but she wasn't even close, so she watched her be dragged into the depths of the web. "Mom," she called out, "Dad!" Nothing. She heard nothing.

"Mayday," Aracely urged sincerely, "it's time."

Then, with her teeth grit and her blood pumping with utter frustration, Mayday yelled as she charged forward until she finally reached the end of the web of tunnels. She bursts through the layer of dark goo and lands on the rooftop of Alchemax. The whole football field's long rooftop was wholly enshrouded by the dark web, creating a black dome that contrasted the still pristine white of the floor. Scattered across were an assortment of maintenance machines and several white antenna pillars. Mayday noticed how silent it was here. She was completely cut off from the outside world, just her and her sister sitting ahead. April's head was down low, her back slumped over, and her posture showed how tired she was of all this.

Mayday glanced where she had come from, faintly seeing Aracely go invisible and floating in the air, ready to strike. Mayday shakily inhales before bellowing out, "APRIL!"

There was a silent beat as Mayday's echoes slowly faded. Finally, in a low, groaning tone, April muttered, "Leave me alone."

There were several yards between them, yet Mayday's spider senses were yelling at her that the sole person in front of her was her most dangerous foe yet. As loud as this buzzing was, she nonetheless stepped forward. "You know I can't do that," she replied with complete resolve.

"It's too late," April muttered, gripping her head as if in pain from her shattered psyche. "Nothing you say will matter. Nothing ever mattered, so what's the point?"

"The point?" Mayday said, taking another step. "The point is you have the choice to stop this. It doesn't have to end this wa-"

"Shut up! And don't you dare even get near me!" The roars of April nearly cause the roof to shake, but this fails to shake Mayday's resolve, and she takes another step. April growls, showing her teeth as she groans, "This isn't going to end like one of your dumb hero games, and you have no right to blame me. Acting like it's my fault when they had it coming!"

Mayday faintly caught a glimmer of Aracely, who's almost snuck around April. "I'm not blaming anyone but the goblin," Mayday said, "but look at what you're doing!"

"Yeah, and it's the guilty being punished!!"

"So the rando workers here are guilty? The people down on the streets, too?! You're not protecting anybody doin-"

"Who cares about protecting?! Nothing matters now but making everyone who's hurt me suffer! That's all that matters, it's...all I know to do...what I'm made to do." Briefly, Mayday sees April's rage quell. With hands to her face, a rush of despair struck April. "I deserve this," she sobbed, though not a single tear fell down her cheek. "I don't belong anywhere. I'm all alone, and my head feels like it's falling apart. I don't want to live like this."

Seeing such vulnerability in her sister threatened to choke Mayday up. She took a step forward. "You don't have to," she said, quivering in sadness. "I know you're hurting, a kind of hurt I'll never know. And I wish, I really wish, things were different! But all I can do, April, is help you the best I could."

"Help?" April now sounded utterly defeated. "If you want to help me, let me end this myself." In an eerie, low tone, devoid of any emotion, she said, "Let me die."

Mayday's lips quivered. Her teeth clenched. Her eyes were blurry from tears welling up. "April," she said in a pleading tone, "no one deserves to die, especially you."

April suddenly glanced at her, finally looking her sister in the eyes. Mayday hoped anything she said was getting through to her, but one look at the pale lenses revealed nothing but disappointment towards her. "Then you still know nothing about me," April said before her spider senses kicked. With insane speed, April gripped Aracely's neck while using her tendrils to restrain her." Mayday tries to fire webbing but is shoved away by April's embiggened arm hurled at her. Landing some yards away, Mayday sees all that rage and hate return in full force. "You LIAR! THEIF! IMPOSTER!" April hurled Aracely across the whole field until she crashed into the opposing wall, partially engulfing her. "Always! Always in my way," April declared accusingly at her sister. "First, you steal my life. Then, you get to be the hero. Now, you preach to me and try to trick me like I'm some idiot?!"

Mayday shakes her head, her senses screaming to escape the tremendous threat.

"All that nonsense about protecting and help," April uttered with pure disgust. "You don't wanna help. You want to fix me! Get in my head and mold me into your perfect twin!"

Mayday vehemently shouted, "Never!" However, no answer she'd give would change April's shattered mind as her sister began to crackle manically. 

"A liar to the end," April chuckled, "And I thought I was the bad child. You wanna 'help' me so bad? Go ahead, I love to see you try, Spider-Girl!"

It was then it became clear to Mayday that both of them were on an inevitable path. The only way for both of them to go was forward because nothing could stop what was tragically about to happen next. "Fine," Spider-Girl said, shifting into a fighting stance as she asked, "like old times then?"

"Like old times," Mayhem growled, raising her claws in a stance exactly like Spider-Girl's. "let's be sisters to the very end!"

In a cold acceptance, Spider-Girl whispered, "To the end."

[Meanwhile...]

Annie could hear Mayday's cries fade as she plummeted deep into the mess of dark webs. Her assailant clawed at her helmet, but a flick of her glove unleashed its sound barrier, blasting her foe away. Annie narrowly swung away and spotted her mom and dad struggling mid-air against their foes. This fight results in the four of them crashing into the Alchemax buildings, perhaps a dozen floors below where Mayday, April, and Aracely were, and precisely what Annie saw a few moments ago. She saw flashes of the future, more like pictures than a movie. She saw the ambush and her and her parents fighting before seeing a large monster in front of them. Annie hoped she could at least stop the last part from happening.

She swings into the building, entering what seems to be the large party room she attended with Mayday. Annie finds her Mom trying to fight against a monster just as tall as her with long, tendril hair. Annie uses her webbing to latch onto the symbiote's arm, abruptly stopping its punch and allowing her mom to uppercut it several feet into the air. Then Annie kicks them back to the floor. "So cool," Annie gasped, landing next to her mom. "Hey, Mom, does this mean you're a superhero now?"

"Mom's busy right now, honey," Mary Jane reminded, "maybe in another life, but no."

A distant crushing of debris echoed nearby before Peter swung back to his wife and daughter, sighing sharply in relief upon seeing them. Before any words could be exchanged, the family heard something enter the room and saw the hole they had crashed into, which was covered in a dark web. Peter and MJ shield Annie as they hear the three symbiotes scuttle in the darkness. "We gotta get to Mayday and April," Peter whispered.

"I think April knows that," Annie suggested. "She's trying to keep us away. That way, she won't hurt us but scare us."

"Well, I'm hurt she wants to push her own mother away," M.J. grunted. Just then, one of the symbiotes lung at her. She dodged, getting Annie out of the way, and Peter launched a sonic blast at the symbiote. Another symbiote tried to snatch Annie, but M.J. pulled her away, inflicting a painful kick to its legs before firing a quick sonic blast to its face. "And nothing's getting between me and my girls! Not even-!"

M.J. didn't finish her sentence when the Parkers saw precisely where the hosts of these symbiotes were. Peter's eyes widen, seeing Normie's eyes while Annie and M.J. gasp at the sight of familiar blond hair and piercing blue eyes. "Liz," M.J. said. The hosts looked unconscious before the symbiotes enveloped them and regrouped with the third, Stanley Osborn. Though they seemingly appeared like any other drones, something about them made them stronger, faster, and smarter.

"Uhh, it seems April did get to meet Stan and Normie after all," Annie anxiously said, putting up her guard as the Osborns slowly circled them.

"Peter, tell me you know a way back to Mayday," M.J. said.

"Even if we do, it's clear the Osborns will keep chasing us," Peter answered, "We lead them to May, and it'll only make things more messy."

"So what do we do, Dad?" Annie asked, tensing up as the Osborns inch closer.

Though laced with fear, Peter said, "Trust your sister's plan, Annie. She can do this. Let's ensure that by keeping April's new friends busy."

With a tired sigh, M.J. put up her fists and stood back to back with her husband. "Alright. Annie, follow what we do, and don't stray away, not even for a second."

"Yes, mama," Annie said with a gulp, placing her faith in Mayday.

"Tiger," M.J. whispered, "don't for a second think I love you less after today."

"I know," Peter whispered, though his apparent guilt still lingered. "I don't deserve you, but I know. It's one of countless reasons why I'll never stop loving you. Now, let's protect our girls!" 

With a savage roar, the Osborns lunge themselves after the Parker family. Annie does what her parents say, sticking to them like glue and staying defensive while her Mom and Dad block and counter several of Osborn's hits. With so much on the line, her parents hold nothing back in thier punches and kicks, and Annie would agree. All six combatants dash, leap, swing, and dodge across the whole floor they're on, using everything and anything at their disposal if it means getting the upper hand. Even with their sonic weapons, the speed and tenacity of their opponents showed this wasn't going to be a quick fight, but, be this a battle of attrition, then so be it, for all Parkers had survived by their sheer tenacity. After ducking from one of Normie's slashes and putting distance between them, Annie could faintly feel a tremble from the rooftop. 'Please don't die,' she thought, before continuing the fight.

Part X: Symbiosis

How many times has this story been told? Symbiote versus Spider, the cursed child versus the destined child, sister versus sister. Across the infinity of all the seeable universes, it's a tale told countless times with countless endings. How shall this one end? Of all the places in this expanding, colossal universe, the eyes of the beholder stare down at one dark web in Manhattan. Like this all-seeing entity, the entire rest of the universe vanishes from the minds of both combatants within this web; their eyes are focused only on each other. All that ran through thier minds was but one goal: to win. This battlefield was the world now, a battle between an unstoppable force and an immovable object.

Spider-Girl whirls across the air, performing a powerful aerial cartwheel to dodge a barrage of symbiote axe-heads launched by Mayhem. Spider-Girl fired a string of webbing in mid-air, but Mayhem's incredible speed led her to dodge each web as she lunged after her foe swiftly. Spider-Girl only narrowly avoids with a well-timed twist of her body. Her worn-out sneakers burn as she skids across the pale white floor, and then they squeak as Spider-Girl dashes back from Mayhem's talons. Her spider senses had difficulty keeping up with each slash her sister attempted, feeling the pressure from the sheer ferocity of Mayhem's fighting.

Mayhem swirled her body after another failed slash, but Spider-Girl noticed something different. In Mayhem's 360-degree swirl, her other arm morphed into a longer, bladed edge. 'Can't dodge!' Out of pure reflex, Spider-GIrl bends as far as he can, narrowly ducking from the swing that would've cut her in two. Within a split second, Spider-Girl countered by holding herself with one arm, freeing her legs to kick Mayhem back. With her arm, she'd hurled into the air, the distance still close enough to fire a blast of sonic energy from her web shooters. Mayhem screeched from its intensity, nearly collapsing until her rage at Spider-Girl fueled her to blast a funnel of goo at her. Spider-Girl avoided it with a well-timed web swing, but now she's made Mayhem beyond angry.

Spider-Girl winced as Mayhem roared into the air, causing two demonic wings to sprout from her back. 'Oh god,' she thought as Mayhem took off at even more incredible speeds. With a long arm blade, Mayhem swung right as she flew by Spider-Girl, but her sister always had something up her sleeve. Mayhem missed, cutting only the web as her sister used her magnetic touch to tip the edge of her blade, reverse the magnetic pull to throw off Mayhem's stability, and spin her like a dreidel. Spider-Girl swung away right as Mayhem crashed into a webbed wall, but her sister's retaliation was relentless as she quickly flew back up and hurled dozens of hardened spikes from her arms and body. Spider-Girl tried to dodge, but her falling momentum and gravity pulling her down led to one lodging itself into the shoulder, holding the web.

Spider-Girl held back her scream as her web snapped, crashing into the floor. She quickly pulled out the crumbling projectile, but Mayhem already had something special for her sister. "Thought you could run forever, Spider-Girl!? Pathetic," Mayhem ridiculed before her arms grew large, and she dived to punch them into the floor. A tremendous explosion of dark goo burst around Mayhem, rapidly spreading across the whole rooftop.

'Move!' Spider-Girl leaped as high as she could, firing a web with her other arm yet still narrowly avoiding being chomped. Across the whole rooftop, dozens of tiny mouths spring up from the infected ground and snap their jaws at her. Not even a moment later, Spider-Girl's head buzzes, allowing her to backflip from another dive attack from the winged Mayhem. She tried to fire her webbing but Mayhem was too fast, too unpredictable. All she could do was swing away from Mayhem's aerial supremacy as her sister tried to slash, hurl herself, and fire projectiles at Spider-Girl. Excruciating pain speeds from her shoulder with each frontflip, swing, and twirl she does in the air, and the floor looks like it is still trying to eat her. 'Only one way outta this!'

She turned her head at Mayhem, flying straight toward her with her arm blade out. Spider-Girl stared hard back at her sister and her other before not even trying to dodge. With only two seconds to work, Spider-Girl detached one of the sonic pulses from her web shooter, aimed it, and used her magnetic spider touch to launch it like a high-velocity bullet. It lands squarely at Mayhem's head and emits a strong sonic pulse into her skull. Mayhem roars as she takes a wild swing, slashing her abdomen, but Spider-Girl ignores the pain enough to grab Mayhem and use her momentum to steer them into the dark web. Mayhem takes the brunt of the crash, allowing Spider-Girl to perform a long backflip. She latched a web onto her sister and powerfully tugged her foe straight toward her before using her mid-air spin to kick Mayhem down.

The impact resulted in the infected ground to wither away, just in time for Spider-Girl to plummet to the floor. Her head spun, and her body ached as blood spread across her suit. She struggled even to get back up. Meanwhile, her sister crushed the sonic device and stumbled back to her feet. Suddenly, Mayhem began to cough until she nearly collapsed and spat out her blood. Despite her worsening condition, Mayhem's seething hate caused her fire to burn until the last coal turned to ash. "That all you got?! Those were like paper cuts," she yelled, "show me how much of a hero you are!"

Cuts were apparent across her face. Her arms trembled. Her chest struggled to take deep breaths. Yet, Spider-Girl stood back up. She shakes away the dizziness from her head while putting up her fists, earning a roar from Mayhem, but even her roar sounds weaker. If nothing changed, if this battle to the death continued, both would not leave the place alive.

Something needed to change.

Spider-Girl glanced at Aracely, the young woman slowly beginning to free herself from the web. Despite that, her sister was withering away faster with every punch thrown. She can't stop her, and she can't beat her, so what options were left for Spider-Girl? 'April,' she thought, 'please. I know you're fighting there. There's some part of you still going. There has to be. Let it keep you alive just a bit longer. Let it open your mind so I can help you! Please!'

[Meanwhile...]

April Parker opens her eyes to find herself in an alien world, at least a metaphysical representation of one. Dusty red sands coat her shoes, and blood-red rocks tower over her tiny stature. Yet black roots sprout from the ground all around her. It all felt otherworldly to her, yet a primal memory in her mind told her she was here once upon a time. 'This was home once,' she pondered. Spotting a dark, rocky platform, April casually approached it. Upon stepping onto it, the platform raised high into the air, and ooze-coated DNA strands appeared hovering in the air around her.

Close to the dark heavens enough to touch it, April felt the platform stop, and a figure formed out of its tendrils. What morphed in front of her was...her, her symbiote in the form of her but made out of dark goo. For the first time in either of their lives, the two entities bonded to one body meet on thier own accord. All that was left to do was decide what fate shall they choose for themselves.

"Well," April said, arms raised while her breath quivered. "Come on! Bond with me. That's what you symbiotes all want, yeah?"

Her symbiote, however, looked away, even taking a step back.

April grits her teeth in frustration. "I don't get it," she says. "What's keeping you?! You know I got family out there who's gonna die because of me, right?!"

Her yelling only caused the symbiote to wince at her.

"H-hey, I ain't gonna hurt you." She tried to reach out, but the symbiote cowered.

She pulls back. April doesn't know how this works, but she can save another minute. She clenches her hand into a fist, asking, "You got the nerve to react that way?"

The symbiote tried to look at her before April stomped her foot. "Do you think I wanted this?" she hissed, seething with disgust. "I didn't ask for ANY of this! Okay?! I didn't ask to be stuck with some parasite inside me for the rest of my life!" Like a burst dam, a tidal wave of volatile emotions burst out. Every confused thought, every bit of self-hatred, every sense of emptiness was shouted by this hurt little girl. "I didn't ask for these powers," she cried, "I didn't ask to be a disappointment, to be broken, a monster! I didn't ask to be me!"

Her palms cover her face, April hunched over as the gut-wrenching, pent-up feelings she'd just let out. She sobbed her eyes out. Her stomach and face ached from how hard she cried. Amid this somber release of everything gnawing at her, there was a pause of silence before words came out of the symbiote's mouth.

"Neither did I."

April nearly choked from such a confession. "Wha...how can you say that," she muttered. "After everything you did to me. Taking over me, making me fight. You did all that for him." That last word April uttered was spat out with vile venom.

"Prisoner, just like you," the symbiote explained. "I was ripped away from my home, forced into existence. Then, I was forced upon you, as our minds were paralyzed in stasis and slowly engineered to be incapable of anything but killing." April slowly looked up with a shocked expression. The symbiote hugged themselves from the hurt they felt upon saying, "My will, my choice. All ripped away by the monster who hurt both of us."

April wiped her eyes. "So, what I thought outside was true," she said, "that was your prison. Just like how stasis was mine."

"But, all said by you is truth." The symbiote looked at its hands with utter shame. "I hurt you," they said regretfully. "Made to, but still hurt you. Life has been nothing but my mind half off and twisting my host into an animal. From the moment we first bonded, could feel such potential and strength in you, even when so small and alone. Needed me, needed a friend, but instead failed you."

April absorbed every word the symbiote said and, in this epicenter connecting her and the symbiote, any lies shared would be impossible. This only meant one thing: everything her other half was saying was the complete truth.

"Don't," they said, "don't deserve you. Don't deserve to live. Don't deserve a family."

And there it was. This solidifying point clicked something within April. 

"Then," she exhaled, picking herself back up, "that's just one more thing we have in common." The symbiote glanced at her as she continued, "We both feel like we don't belong, even though we both want nothing more than to feel we belong." With her hand over her chest, April said, "My mom, dad, Annie, and Mayday all make me feel like I'm home, but this hole in my chest remains because of Norman, because of what he did to us."

"It'll never go away," the symbiote said grimly.

April shakes her head until a tinge of hope reaches her voice, "But maybe we can still try."

The symbiote's dark eyes widen in shock. "We?"

"Other me," April said, "so long as our family still breaths, so long as the man who hurt us is still alive, there's still hope even for disappointments like us."

"B-but-"

"I know," April said. "And you're right. Neither of us asked for this, but...maybe that's what makes us perfect for each other. We need each other to keep going. I...need you to keep going."

The symbiote gasped, thier whole form wiggling with immense shock yet ecstasy over what their host told them."Do you mean that? Truly? Honestly?"

"Can't exactly lie even if I wanted to," April shrugged. "Being here, seeing you, and feeling what you are feeling, it's like feeling whole for the first time in my life. We both know what it's like to feel alone. Like a part of ourselves is missing. Yearning to become the way we want to be." April grabbed hold of her symbiote's hand. "Curse or not, you're a part of me, no matter how we view it. Either way, we both want the same thing: to get back at the man who hurt us and to feel whole finally."

"I," the symbiote said, voice cracking in joy over this happening. Even after everything, there was still hope for them. "We," they cried, "we can finally feel whole. Feel free!"

"We both will," April smirked, patting her other's shoulder. "Say, uhh, if we're really gonna do this, am I going to...change?"

"No, no," the symbiote reassured. "It'd be like nothing changed for you, but it will change for me. I'll go away, and you'll stay yourself."

"Woah, hey," April said with concern, "don't say that so casually, other me. What do you mean you'll go away?"

"I'm not dying if that's what you're thinking," the symbiote corrected, "I'll be one with you. All my genetic memories, experiences, and powers will finally be under your control. My thoughts will now belong to you. My wants will be whatever you want."

April quietly admitted that it sounded like how symbiotes work, yet that didn't change the fact that she'd never talk to her other again. The thought of it left her sad. "And you sure that's what you want?"

"April," the symbiote said, squeezing her hands reassuringly. "This is what all symbiotes ever want: a perfect symbiosis."

Sensing how much they want this and remembering how much was on the line, April nods and embraces her other. Her symbiote embraced her as long as they could before their form began to merge with thier host completely. April hugged the symbiote to the very end, whispering to them, "Goodbye..."

"No," the symbiote whispered, "this isn't goodbye. I'll always be with you. Because we are April Parker, the daughter of Spider-Man and Venom, nothing can stop us now."

[Elsewhere...]

Great Aunt May is forcibly thrown to the ground by Norman, donned in his infamous goblin suit. The wicked virtual ghost points at her, his fingers glowing as he readies to turn the old woman into dust. "Liar," he shouts, "I designed this body; I know how it works. What you are claiming is impossible!"

A dry chuckle left May's mouth as a small smirk formed on her lips. "You never were an imaginative person, Norman. Blinding yourself by viewing the world only in one way, what you thought was an objective fact, and trying to bend it to your will. You see everything as yours to own."

"Because I have to will to take it," Norman proclaimed, "parasites like those Parkers don't. They don't deserve this power and now look at them: polluting this world with more of their own, turning it upside down, all while doing nothing to deserve it. I'll remind'em once and for all what their place in the world is: me on top and thier faces under my boot, forever."

May sighed, "Your son once thought that too, so look what happened."

"Don't you dare-!" Norman shouts, ready to fire when something dawns on him. "What," he muttered, "how could you know that? If you are a figment of this thing's imagination, how could you possibly know about my son? What are you?!"

"I belong in the past, like you," May smiled.

"H-how!?" Norman demanded. "Why are you here?!"

"Simple, really," May shrugged, "because of the one thing you banished from your heart an age ago: love."

For a moment, he sees his son's face before blasting at May. However, all he hits is her cloak, for this ghost has suddenly vanished. Norman burned up with anger. "Only Parkers could delude themselves with something insipid as love," he growled before turning to the dark orb behind him. Using his stubborn willpower, he conjures a staff with two fiery pumpkin heads at both ends. "Such a failure," he said pointedly at the orb holding what was supposed to be his finest creation yet. "All that capital, all that investment, now down the toilet because you believed yourself to be this April, but that's all a delusion in your thick skull. All that time and resources for nothing...but I'm a businessman and can see where I can still recuperate, even with such massive losses. Now, you thing. You nothing...I've come to collect." He raised his weapons high with a twisted grin across his smug face. "I can always start again after I take over your body and kill those Parkers for good," Norman cackled, "actually, I think I'll leave just one: that sister of yours. May and I will have a hell of a time with her as my new lab rat!"

He swung down with all his self-aggrandized strength, and a shockwave rippled across the entire mindscape.

Norman's chilling smile slowly falters and is replaced with utter shock. A dark hand has burst out of the orb, swiftly stopping his firey weapon by simply grabbing it. He tried to push down as a nervous sweat fell down his brow, yet his strength wasn't enough, and he was thrown back. He can only watch as the orb begins to crack and hatch open like an egg. A cloud of blue and red energy circled the person inside until the aura dissipated to reveal April Parker, cloaked in her symbiote form and appearing to be several years older. She stood proudly, powerful, and free. She looked at herself, her entire being reinvigorated and complete. "Perfect symbiosis," she whispered. Her voice and sense of self are still the same, and her symbiote will follow every command to ensure it stays that way. "So, this is who we'll grow to become. The only thing in our way now," she said, glaring down at Norman, "is you."

It was a fleeting moment, but April's eyes saw a glimmer of fear in Norman's soul. "No," he growled, his form transforming from a man into the monster he is. "I OWN you...you piece of-!"

"You done?" April dismissed, raising her hand to silence him while her demeanor remained unfazed. "Just shut the hell up, will ya? If you're going to keep being annoying as hell, it's about time to send you back to hell. In fact..." She popped her claws and proclaimed at the top of her lungs, "We'll drag you to hell ourselves, starting with finally ripping you out of our fucking head!" 

"Just try it, you little failure," Norman dared, "even now, you alone can't beat me."

April chuckled, "When did we say doing it alone?"

"What are you-?" Norman stuttered until it clicked, and his soul shuddered in utter fear.

[At the same time...]

Spider-Girl could barely feel her arms as she stood slumped over, her mask tattered and knuckles both bloody and bruised. Any reasonable person would look at this child and believe her body and spirit were shattered, but they'd be only half right, for Spider-Girl's spirit has only burned brighter.

Mayhem, coughing up more blood, didn't stop in her flurry of slashes at Spider-Girl. The two fought in the air long enough; any fancy moves they had left were out the window, and even May's web shooters had run out. All they had left were their fists. Spider-Girl dodged and weaved each strike, but she got slower with each slash, still leaving cuts and bruises on her person. Desperate, she arm-locked one of Mayhem's arms, maybe keeping her grappled long enough for Aracely to finish freeing herself. All that was thrown out the window when Mayhem's overwhelming strength picked her up like a leaf before tossing her overhead before slamming down Spider-Girl.

Lying in a divot, almost all her previous energy was utterly sapped out of her system. Spider-Girl could only watch as Mayhem circled her and aimed an arm blade at her neck. "A-april," she coughed.

"Ssshut up," Mayhem groaned, her body crumpling before her eyes. "You...don't get to talk. Because I won." Mayhem raised her blade and punctured the rock beside her sister's head. "You hear me!? I won! I'm better than you! ME, the real one!"

"Okay," Spider-Girl groaned, "you can be the real one. You can have it all—my name, my room, all of it. If it means we don't lose you, I'm okay with that."

Mayhem's right eye suddenly began to twitch. "Even this," she growled, "even my victory, you taint it with your annoying selflessness. Why, Spider-Girl, why!? After everything I've said and done to you. After hurting all the people we love tonight, why do you still put me before yourself!? Why do you still see me as your sister and not an evil monster?!"

Though battered, a hand slowly raises and takes off the tattered mask of Spider-Girl, revealing Mayday's tear stains and red eyes. "Because you still have that same sad look in your eyes," she said, spurring up memories of the day April returned home. I saw how scared you were of me that day, and every day since, I have tried to show you that you have nothing to be scared of anymore. Seems I couldn't even do that."

"Blame yourself for everything," Mayhem said softly, her anger fading. "I was scared of you, but I was also scared of being betrayed. I didn't know it then, but...I was afraid our family would throw me away. Thrown back into stasis."

"We've never thought of doing that to you," Mayday coughed. "I would never do that to you, yet I made you think so. I shouted at you. Brushed off your feelings. Pushed you away. I'm...sorry, April. I'm so sorry."

Mayhem flinched back, the apology ringing in her head, slowly bringing back clarity amid her breakdown. With this new clarity, she stared at Mayday's eyes, peering into her soul. She looked and looked, finding nothing but the truth. 'She means it,' Mayhem thought, 'Every last word...and I've only hurt her more in return!' Angrily, Mayhem began hitting herself as she increasingly looked distressed.

"Stop," Mayday pleaded, but Mayhem only hit herself harder. For all the pain she had done, for hurting her own family. "I said stop!" Mayday grabbed her sister's arm firmly but carefully, too. "Please, April," May sobbed. Her twin looked her in the eyes as she uttered, "Please don't make me watch my sister die."

"I..." April gasped before the pain of her incoming death was too much as she collapsed to her knees. Mayday holds her and sees the whole building rumble as April strains herself. The dark web almost begins to retract but stops halfway, enough for Aracely to free herself finally. "I can't stop it," she groaned, "I'm too weak now. All because of this stupid pain in my head!"

"Then," Mayday said, gently holding April's hand, "let's stop it together."

"Nonono," Aracely gasped as she floated to them. She sensed April's life force hanging by a thread and something else that told her there was still hope. "Ready?" she quickly asked. Mayday nodded, glanced down, and saw April nod as well. Not wasting even a second, Aracely held onto both sister's hands and began the enchantment. All three shut their eyes as ancient words left Aracely's breath, and the powers of a god began to be channeled from her to the sisters. The air around them stood still as all psychic energy was concentrated between the twins. Then, with the final ancient phrase shouted, both sisters flinch as thier eyelids snap open to reveal thier eyes now glowing a soft green.

Just as the mind meld began, a violent burst from the opposite side of the roof blew open a hole and a column of dust. As she flies, Annie screams before catching herself with a well-timed web-shot. She landed on a pillar and quickly saw her sisters. "April! Mayday!" A tremble on the ground drew Annie's eyes back to the fight as her Mom and Dad swung out of the hole.

"Annie! You're okay?" Peter asked.

"I'm fine, dad."

"Our girls!" M.J. gasped, tears welling up at the sight of them.

Another terrible tremble is felt, and a giant symbiote mass clumps out. This was no singular symbiote; however, there were three pilots to this abomination, all Osborns. "How did they do that?" Annie asked.

"Questions for later," Peter said as the trio quickly got between the Osborns and the girls. "Now we buy Mayday and April time to fix all this."

"If this thing thinks it can snatch up my babies, I'll make it lives to regret," M.J. vowed.

'Man, Mom can be scary,' Annie thought.

Aracely felt the other's presence and soon heard the chaos of the battle to defend her. 'Gotta focus,' Aracely thought. 'Hurry, Mayday! I can't keep this up forever!'

Part XI: Freedom

"What are you-?" Norman stuttered until it clicked, and his soul shuddered in utter fear. Here's blinded when an intense ray of green light shines down.

"Took you long enough," April said with an annoyed sigh.

Before Norman's monstrous form could notice, he felt a foot pressed against his cheek, screeching in pain as he was sent hurling down below to the ruined cityscape. The person responsible, who now landed beside April, was none other than her sister, Mayday. She was different too, older looking and dressed in some spider suit that looked almost exactly like thier Uncle Ben's old suit. "Hmph, I guess it fits ya," April commented until a sudden embrace from her sister left her surprised. April doesn't say anything except hug her sister back.

"April," Mayday said, wiping a tear from her eye, "you...Woah, you look badass. Don't tell Mom or Dad I used that last word."

"Maybe, in exchange for some chocolate. Seriously, I'm starving here."

"Heh, still got your charming sense of humor. Do you also still have enough energy to deal with him?" Mayday asked, pointing at the angry green man far below.

"More than enough," April growled, her anger now focused and balanced with a clear mind.

"How'd we get down there?"

"We're in our freakin' heads, sis. Use it," April said before sprouting wings and diving down.

"Use my head. Okay, she got me there," Mayday shrugged before diving after her. Removing any previous rules or concepts from the outside world, Mayday fired a web in the open air and felt herself swing. "Woo-hoo! I'm swinging in the air!"

"Flying's faster, y'know," April suggested.

"Yeah, right. Besides, this is more fun!"

As they were over the ruined city, a great cloud burst out of one of the decaying buildings, followed by a furious roar. Mayday and April made a sharp turn in that direction, landing on top of a rooftop right as thier opponent lept and landed before them. Norman's monstrous goblin form snarled at the sight of the sisters. "You," he hissed.

"Me," Mayday said confidently. 

"I should've snapped your little neck the second you were in my grasp," Norman seethed.

"Yeesh," May groaned, "I see your personality is just as charming as my dad described you." 

"What is it with you, Parkers, anyway? Why can't you admit when you're beaten?!"

"Well, maybe you're not as all-powerful as you think, gramps," April snapped back.

Norman's teeth clenched in fury when a fiery aura wrapped around him until a glider manifested beneath his feet. "I'll show you power, little girl!" The glider's rockets blast off, and the Spider-Girls swiftly dodge out of the way; soon, this battle is taken into the air. The hulking Green Goblin fires several projectiles at the twins, but even his most deadly tools are no match. Mayday easily kicked and webbed them away while April fired her projectiles to blow them up. The Goblin tried to swirl around and pierce April from behind, but Mayday saw him a mile away. Both sisters synched up and turned this attack against him. April backflipped over him, stabbing him squarely in the back while Mayday punched him down with both her hands.

"Gaah! Maybe a change in scenery will help!" With a wave of his hand, the dark world warped into the Brooklyn Bridge. He briefly saw thier shocked expressions, and Norman hoped this move would make the girls realize how fruitless thier efforts were so long as he controlled the battlefield.

However, this strategy comes to a swift end. "Urgh, so cliche," April scoffed.

"Allow me, sis. I think I know how he did it." Mayday concentrated until reality began to warp again, this time into a larger version of a school's basketball court.

Norman looked on in disbelief. "What? But only I should be able to warp reality!"

"Tough luck, Gobby!"Mayday and April charged forward like it was a basketball game. Norman tried to dodge them in a panic through his glider, but his body was webbed and tossed out of the glider.

"If you're in our heads," April said, "then you play by our rules!" She flew up, grabbed the glider, and hurled it at the Goblin.

"Oh, not again!" Norman thought as it punctured his chest and exploded.

"Again? Ha! Talk about Deja Vu!" April laughed.

The Goblin stumbled out of the crater, wounded but eager to crush his enemies. He then suddenly realized Mayday stood right in front of him. "I didn't know it yet," she said, "but this memory is the day I first felt my powers, powers you tried to take away!" Norman raised his fist to squish her, but Mayday uppercuts him before he could even try. Her flurry of attacks hit him repeatedly, pushing him further back to the basket. "But you can't take away my will, Goblin! That's my true power, believing that I could do anything!" She leaped, grabbed him by his horns, and used all her willpower to lift him up and over until his head was smashed through the large basket.

"Haha!" April cheered, holding up a conjured scoreboard. "And Team Gobby are the losers!"

The memory ends, and the combatants return to the streets of the ruined city. Mayday asks, "wanna see another memory? We can do this all day."

Norman picks himself up again. Again, he is humiliated. Feeling cornered, he tries a different tactic. "Peter has already trained you well," he said. "If you survive this, you could even surpass him someday. Doesn't such a prospect entice you?"

Mayday looks back at April, and the two roll their eyes at him. "Is everything a petty contest to you?"

Norman subtly hides his right hand and forms a ball of fire. "It's gotten me this far, hasn't it?"

Mayday gasped when her senses warned her, and a fireball was suddenly inches from her face. Luckily, April swooped in and grabbed her before it could hit her. "You take it too easy on the bad guy," April scolds.

"Gah! Blast you, girl!" Norman sprouted wings of his own and shot towards the girls. The two separated and dodged him, but he narrowly grabbed April, dragging her upwards. "What a fool I was," he said to her face as she struggled to be free of his grip. "I should have realized there was too much Parker in you."

"Eh," April smirked, "being a Parker has benefits. Like having the best friends you can find!"

Norman then noticed April wasn't looking at him, but what was behind him. 'What?! No one's that fast!' he thought before Mayday's knee struck the back of his head, followed by a freed April knocking the wind out of him with her sledgehammer fist.

"Speaking of friends," Mayday grunted, swinging after Norman as he plummets. She webbed up his arms before going back to punching his face. "I think that's why you don't have any, haircut! Your temper keeps getting the best of you." With the ground feet away, Mayday leaps off him only to reveal April divebombing towards him, both her enlarged fists pulled back until they deck him square in the jaw. Norman's face is nearly turned to smush from April's tremendous attack and the force of the impact against the earth.

And yet, even this pain was nothing to this continued humiliation at the hands of these kids.

"No!" he defiantly shouted, snapping free from his bondage and gripping April's arms. She yelled as his hands burned her until he tossed her into one of the buildings.

"April!" Mayday gasped. She tried to swing after Norman, but Norman leaped and struck her with his shoulder. The two were able to land, but Norman reached her first and slammed down both his fists. Mayday was able to catch both arms but appeared to be struggling. 

"I refuse to permit this," Norman hissed. "I waited too long to be reborn. This will be my final revenge, Parker! My ultimate triumph!"

Norman directed all his remaining strength to crush his foe, and for a moment, he appeared he had overpowered her. Then, Norman felt a grip on his arms. Mayday then looked up, fire in her eyes as she mockingly said, "Seems like you blew it." In a complete reverse, Mayday's strength is unleashed, and she pushes back against Norman until she's fully lifted him and hurled him straight into a building. She watched as it all crashed down on him. "You are a cancer, goblin," she declared. "You think you own everything you touch, but everything you touch is only destroyed! I won't let you destroy my sister, and we'll both make sure of it by using the only cure against the likes of you: Love and courage!"

Out of this mountain of rubble, the goblin's arm sprouted. He tiredly picked himself up, but his power had waned while his enemies' powers had only grown. "No," he grumbled, "I refuse to believe it! You'll both run out of strength eventually!" He limped toward Mayday, who stood steadfast in this pathetic attempt to appear strong. "You're still fighting a losing battle, little girl. My weapon's subconscious still belongs to me. I rule this reality!"

"Hate to break it to you, gramps," Mayday said, ferocity in her tone, "but the balance of power shifted long ago."

A hand from behind suddenly gripped Norman's shoulder, and he froze in fear. "It's best to listen to her, Osborn," a familiar voice said to his ear. "I found she sometimes has this annoying habit of being right." Filled with dread, Norman turns to see April standing without a scratch. "Now," she growled. She pulled back her fist and struck his face like it was the most brutal punch he had ever felt, all while crying out, "GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"

Mayday winced at what she proceeded to witness, but April savored every second of her decimating the Goblin. She put in all her rage, hate, sadness and pain into every hit. Such a barrage withered down the Goblin's form

Norman's only bit of luck was that he was not yet dead but instead reduced to a pathetic man in a cheap goblin costume. This is the man who's grabbed by the throat and pulled out by April. His former monstrous form was a shell hiding the little man beneath it all. "You're finished," April snarled before tossing him. "Mayday, together!"

The sisters, fully in-synched with their shared minds, leaped after Norman and unleashed a combo of attack in mid-air. The sisters' attacks came in from up, down, left, right, in all directions. A united effort to ensure this invader was banished forever. Both sisters drew back thier arms simultaneously and delivered a devasting uppercut, sending Norman even higher. Both sisters then land beside each other, back to back, their eyes fixed on Norman.

"Just one more hit," Mayday said, ready to end all this.

"Yeah," April said before she rolled her eyes. "Blegh, also, love and courage? Seriously? I'm sooo not letting you have the dramatic final line."

"Give me a break. I'm still learning to ad-lib," Mayday whined. "You got a better one?"

A fond memory pops into April's head, and she softly answers, "Yeah." Still, back to back, April's right hand firmly holds Mayday's left hand, and then she asks, "You remember mom's favorite word?"

Mayday smiled softly before her face lit up with courage. "How could I forget."

Norman was beginning to plummet right as both sisters felt an invigorating power surge through them. Her suits lit up with dazzlingly bright light as if an invisible guiding hand was helping them finish this once and for all. Mayday raised her right arm, while April raised her left arm. The Green Gobling was squarely in thier sights. "Aaaaaand," the sisters said, chests high before they victoriously shouted, "JACKPOT!"

With a powerful THWIP! The sisters fired twin webs, a shot that sparkled through the desolate sky. The energized webs entered, and Norman helplessly watched as the combined powers of Mayday and April pierced his heart. 'Impossible,' he thought as his heart exploded, with it, any power he had left. The glowing white web moved on its own as it ensnared Norman's body from the neck down before he crashed down just a few feet away from the Parker sisters.

Seeing him weakly squirm and fruitlessly try to escape triggered something in April. Mayday watched April approach him, but she didn't stop her.

Norman exhaustedly opens his eyes, looking up to see April as her eleven-year-old self. "You can't do this to me," he said, his voice sounding drained.

"I just did, stupid," April belittled.

"You need me." Even in his final moments, Norman Osborn tried to manipulate her. "How long until they turn against you? How long until the world turns against you?! You're alone. You have no future, but I can still give you one. You can be an Osborn."

Kneeling, she declared to his face, "The name's April Parker, Goblin, and I'll never be like you."

This was when reality crashed down on Norman. His lips quivered as he pleaded."Please," he shuddered, "s-spare me."

April stood up, her face filled with disgust as she shut her eyes. "All I wanted was a home," she said. "A real life...and you tried to take that away from me. You used me. Making me try to kill my real family." Every word she said, her fists clenched more and more. "Deep inside me, I've hated you for so long. Now?" April takes a deep breath, exhaling as she finally lets go. "Now," she said, her hands unclenched, "I just feel...nothing towards you. Nothing at all. You are nothing to me."

April opens her eyes after turning her back to him. Now, she faced Mayday. Now, a path lay ahead of her, waiting to be carved out. She takes her first steps to this new beginning.

"Don't," Norman gasped, "don't you walk away from me!"

"You're just a bad memory to me now," April said cooly and with as little attention to him as possible. "Maybe, one day, that too will fade away. I moved beyond you, and I do have a future." She only stopped momentarily to say her final words to the once-renowned Norman Osborn. "But you won't."

"PARKER!!!"

His last, defiant yell faded as the mystical web fully enabled his body before exploding, leaving behind only embers of light that, too, faded away.

It was over, and April finally allowed herself to cry. No longer needing to fight, both were back to being thier kid selves. Mayday grabbed her sister, and they cried into each other's shoulders as April's mind began to piece itself back together. "I'm free," April sobbed.

"You are," Mayday said with such joy.

"I'm free!" A surge of emotions swirled in her, leaving her in shock this was happening. "Mayday, quick, give me a command. Any command!"

"Uhh, April, give me your stash of chocolate?"

"NO!" she proclaimed, standing high and heartily laughing as she threw her fists into the air. "I'm free! I'm free! I'm free! I'm free! I'm free! Oh, I'm actually free!" When this unbelievable high calmed down, April turned to see Mayday smile proudly at her. Suddenly feeling a tad embarrassed being stared at, April coughed and said, "Well, I guess you played some part in freeing me. So, thank you, Mayday."

Mayday giggled, punching April's shoulder lightheartedly, "Don't mention it."

A great light shines down on the twins, but both can vaguely make out a figure floating above them. "Well done, my girls," the woman said, her voice only sounding familiar to one of them. "You truly are your parent's children. I'm certain your great aunt and great uncle would be so proud of you both."

"Who are you?" Mayday asked as the light expanded, consuming both her and April.

"You'll know when the time comes," she said. "Until then...April, you have a tongue on you, but you'll grow into a proud, spirited rebel. Mayday, you are stubborn, but you'll grow up to be a fine young woman. Real Parkers in your own ways. You'll go far, my girls!"

The world fades away as Mayday feels pulled back into the real world.

[Meanwhile...]

Annie took a deep, exhausted breath as she struggled to stand in her busted armor. Half the rooftop was ruined, but thanks to their efforts, Aracely and her sisters weren't in that half. Peter and Mary Jane were also beginning to look banged up, but they held the line as the symbiote mashed-up approached them. Suddenly, the monster stopped before releasing an ear-piercing screech. Annie and her parents cover thier ears as the monster melts along with the entire dark web above them. "Woah," Annie gasped in awe of what she was seeing. Peter and M.J. looked on, equally stunned as any remnant of symbiotes withered away.

When it was all said and done, the three Osborns were left lying on the floor, freed of the symbiote's control and the thousands of others infected. Peter tapped the side of his mask. "Reed," he said, "you seeing this?"

"I am. A complete undoing of the infection. It's over, Pete. They did it."

When the last dark web died off, Jessica, Ben, and Kaine fell from inside the web. All three were dead tired.

"Did we win?" Ben groaned.

The answer came no sooner than when Aracely and the twins snapped out of the mind meld and returned to their old selves. Aracely caught her breath, exhausted but smiling as she sensed the girls' victory.

"Yep," Jessica sighed, taking a whiff of herself. "Now, can someone please drag me to the nearest shower?"

"Kaine!" Aracely gasped, hurrying over to Kaine lying face down on the floor

"Are they safe?" he coughed. Upon seeing Aracely cry tears of joy, Kaine sighed in relief while hiding his smile beneath his mask.

Mayday takes a sharp breath as she readjusts to having a physical body again. While she tried not to get dizzy, one of April's hands rose and dug itself deep into her skull. Mayday gasped at such a sight, seeing April snarl as her hand reached for something until it finally found it. With a long roar, April yanked out something out of her head. Mayday processed what she had just seen before peering over and seeing what was inside her sister's head this whole time: an AI chip in the shape of a tumor.

April's hand trembled until she let it drop to the floor, and she looked into her sister's eyes. "He," she said, her guilt causing her to choke up. "He tried to make me...and I almost did something horrible to myself." Mayday embraced her, allowing her to let it all out with her shoulder.

"April! Mayday!" The twins turn to see Annie taking off her helmet while running full speed towards them. Mayday smiles as Annie collides with them; she finds it best to smile through the pain. The three sisters hug each other tightly, as if letting go would mean losing each other again. Holding April's hand, Annie asks in distress, "You're both okay?! Are you still in one piece? Are you not dying anymore? Please don't die, April!"

"I'm in pain," April responded, "but not the dying kind of pain."

The three turn as their parents arrive. Mary Jane cries as she kneels and places her forehead on April's. "You're alive," she whispers, "my April's safe and alive."

Peter kneeled, gently placing his hand on April's cheek. "April," he said, tears welling up in his eyes. Your mother and I are so sorry for lying to you and keeping your other half a secret. We should've trusted you more, trusted that you could handle such an important side of you. You are our daughter, first and foremost, not just some clone."

April smiled through the tears. "I know, Dad," she said, and the whole family embraced, creating an aura of pure, unadulterated family love. "Okay, this is nice, but it's starting to hurt now."

"Yeah," Mayday gasped before the family pulled back. "Was this every day for you?"

"Ehhh," Peter murmured and shrugged.

"Mom, Dad," April said, getting their immediate attention, especially when she showed them the AI tumor.

"That's him," Mary Jane gasped.

"What should we do with this?"

Peter takes the AI from her head, staring down at the thing that's been tormenting his daughter for years. How this evaded all thier tests in the past is beyond him, but with the AI in his hand, he supposed it doesn't matter now. "The same thing we always do with garbage," he said, tucking it into his pocket, "toss it into the trash!"

The dad joke earned a laugh from all his daughters before they quickly got a move on to help thier aunt and uncles up. 

Epilogue

A small match is lit and quickly tossed into a pile of wood and paper. A quick spark later, the opening of a metal barrel was burning in the backyard of the Watson-Parker residence. Peter and Mary Jane stared into the fire until it grew hot enough. In Peter's hand is a mask, hopefully, the last of its kind. After the family left Alchemax, his siblings and the FF scanned every inch of the secret base that once trapped April. All their friends salvaged was this goblin mask before blowing up the entire base. It did no one any good by existing any longer.

Mary Jane saw Peter's rage build as he stared at the awful mask. One could almost hear the ghostly echo of the goblin's laughter from it. With M.J.'s reassuring touch, Peter hung the mask over the barrel and dropped it into the fire. Glass cracked as burnt rubber filled thier nostrils. The goblin's once frozen, wicked expression crumbled until it became unrecognizable. That left what is, hopefully, the last piece of the Goblin's legacy. Mary Jane opened the palm of her hand to reveal the still active AI tumor. The ghost that haunted this family tried to possess one of Mary Jane's babies, all for some twisted sense of revenge.

"No more," M.J. said, "no more goblins. No more feed. No more pain." Without hesitation, Mary Jane destroyed Norman Osborn for good by crushing the tumor. A sharp sigh escaped her, but Peter gently held her hand to comfort her. Together, they guided her hand over the firepit and let the crumbled remains of the AI fall into the fire. They hear metal popping and watch until the tattered remains are reduced to ash. Smoke rose high until disappearing and, hopefully, the last of the Green Goblin's legacy along with it.

"Let's go home, Tiger," M.J. whispered, leaning on her husband's shoulder.

"Yeah," Peter said, watching as the fire died out and seeing nothing but ash. "Let's go, Red."

The two close the backyard door behind them and are met with the most peaceful of sights. April sat between her sisters, fast asleep, holding Mayday's and Annie's hands. Annie lay comfortably on her older sister's left shoulder. Mayday was sleeping like a rock while leaning her head against April's. The fireplace popped and crackled before them, keeping them warm against this cold night. Quietly, Peter and Mary Jane join thier daughters on the couch. They lie back, arms wrapped around the girls, and let sleep take them.

The Parker Family was reunited, and hopefully, it will stay that way for as long as possible.

"And this was how it all began for us."

"These are our gifts."

"Our curses."

"Our Destinies."

"Who are we? We're the Spider-Girls."

THE END...for now!

Chapter Text

[Chelsea, Manhattan] – [Fall | 2013]

The brisk autumn air blows through the Manhattan skyline, bringing heavy winds. Trash littered the streets, ruffling around like tumbleweeds. Just like in an old western, the streets echoed with gunfire and screaming.

Near 10th Avenue, one street strip has become dominated by a dozen high-class jewelry and accessory stores due to wealthier customers moving in, and lower-income residents are slowly being pushed out. While the wealthy patrons enjoy another evening of pure consumerism, their pearly walls crumble as a dozen men with armor and assault rifles crash through their strip with two large, armored trucks. Screams ripple across the high-end marketplace upon seeing that these weren’t just any criminals.

Everyone in NYC knew, by their red hooded masks, shrouding the criminals' faces, that these were members of the well-financed, well-armed, and fierce Hood’s Army.

“’Ello, folks! Our boss passes this one message to all of you: I’ll take your entire stock!”

The squadron of hardened criminals scoured store after store. Shattered glass everywhere as shots were fired to terrify patrons. Hood’s soldiers were soon rushing out with two dozen bags filled with almost a thousand individual pieces of valuable gems, gold, and silver accessories.

“Easy money! Boss’s gonna love this,” one of them shouted as they loaded up two large vans on the main street with their winnings. A soldier shouted at a small group of civilians at gunpoint to get in. It was a classic strategy by the Hood’s Army. So, to ensure the authorities don’t try to stop them, they round up a group of hostages with the threat of killing them to provide a safe getaway. Not wealthy hostages, as they bring too much heat, what with how much the police and public care about them. Instead, these high-end stores' low-paid service employees often either bring in a nice ransom money as a bonus or are used as examples to instill fear and dissuade anyone thinking of acting heroic.

“Please don’t kill me,” one of the hostages cried, “I've got a baby at home. I’m all she-“ He’s silenced as all the air left his body upon one of the soldiers striking his stomach with the butt of a rifle.

With that, the soldier loads in the last hostage, and both trucks are now ready to go. “You hear that, Capt’n? Told ya at least one would be crying about a kid!” He locks the back door while saying, “You lose the bet.”

“Shat up,” the captain groaned as he walked to the driver seat. “If you think your grubby paws are getting a piece of my share, you got another thing—”

ZAP!

The captain jolts violently before falling to the floor. The thump led to the soldier peeking over to find his squad leader unconscious, a red and blue spider-bot with a taser on his back.

“It’s the Spider-!” He cries before his mouth is webbed, along with the rest of his body.

Upon hearing those THWIPS, the remaining Hood Army members floored it. One decided to split up, and the other went southward. The armored truck racing south quickly sent soldiers to the roof to blast whichever Spider-brat was after them out of the sky. Both grunts climbed onto the roof, only to find another passenger aboard the vehicle.

“I know diamonds are a Hood’s best friend, but this is getting ridiculous,” Spiderling, aka Annie Parker, said whilst sitting on the truck’s roof. Crossing her arms, she fired webs directly at their faces before grabbing onto the web line to throw them off the truck. Both grunts struck onto buildings passed by, now stuck to them thanks to Spiderling’s webs.

Hearing the panicked cries of the few hostages inside, Spiderling quickly deals with the truck.

“Ryan, the lock,” she said to the spider-bot nicknamed Ryan, who was crawling out of her trusty red pouch. The Spider-bot leaped onto the passenger’s door handle, which was bolted shut. Its eyes glow before firing a laser, burning a hole, and destroying the lock. With this extra help, Spiderling took a sharp breath, gripped the top of the door, and peeled it off.

Spiderling swiftly swings inside, kicking out the driver and hitting the brakes. Seven more crooks to go," Spiderling sees open the back door and frees its hostages. Jody, where's the other?" she whispers. The orange lenses of her red mask glowed as they electronically displayed a red dot racing through the borough. Her spider-bot, nicknamed Jody, has successfully latched itself underneath the other truck.

'Dang, they're fast,' she thought, 'Probably would've given me the slip.' Spiderling swung away to chase until an idea popped into her head. 'Say, with this much loot, they ain't going to just some hideout. No, you'd want that much money in a secure place as quickly as possible. These bozos could lead me to one of Hood's bases.' Just then, she remembered something Mayday had cautioned.

"No one enters alone," Spiderling sighed. However, tonight was not the night to expect back-up. "April's handling the Demons over on the East side, and Mayday's way over at Harlem, dealing with the Crazy Three. I'm on my own tonight."

Spiderling shakes her head to stay awake upon feeling her eyelids get heavy. She swings over a small bridge and perches herself at the corner of a tall building. ‘Ever since that attack two weeks ago, it’s just been night after night of bad guys,’ she thought. While the duty to prevent this upsurge of villainy had to be done, it was taxing for Annie specifically. After a while, Mayday decided that splitting up could make handling this issue easier. Annie was thrilled; the prospect of dealing with baddies alone was exciting. After a week, however, it just became busy work.

‘One attack by some silly syndicate and half the underworld decides to come out of the woodwork. Argh! I turned in my short essay late because of these jerks.’ Annie feels her blood boiling just thinking about the attack. She doesn’t like letting this side of her resurface, especially in front of family, but dealing with the fallout of the attack and being harassed by paparazzi for words on her parents is starting to test her patience.

Spiderling raises an eyebrow as the interface displayed in her mask shows the vehicle slowing down. “There you are,” she says, leaping off and swinging towards the base near West 34th Street, which leads into Hell’s Kitchen. Hmm, better hurry before Mr. Murdock or Elektra beats me to the punch.”

After just a few minutes of web-swinging, Spiderling arrived at a plain old steel door at the bottom of an old building. “Could be inside,” she whispered before peeking back at a sewer grate behind her, “but most likely below.” Spiderling held her breath as she wall-crawled through the sewer to a big hole in the wall. “Debris still fresh,” she said before gagging from the noxious fumes of the sewers.

‘Uuugh! Yeah, talk more, Annie,’ she sarcastically said to herself. ‘Next time, why don’t I just go to a toxic waste dump and breathe in the fresh air there next! Geez…’ Suddenly, her spider-sense begins tingling right as a noise echoes from inside the hole. Crawling in, she saw the spider-bot signal was but a few yards away. That noise continued, followed by sounds of gunfire and a sudden quake.

“What the-!?” Spiderling saw the wall she was on crumble and fall into the sewer water. “Gaaah!” she gasped, leaping out of the filthy water. “That’s it! You jerks ruined my Sunday night!”

Tossing away her strategy of sneaking in, she spots the entrance to the Hood’s Army base before kicking down the heavy steel door. She’s in the main garage, spotting the armored truck to her, along with the hostages. Spiderling freed them and rushed them out to the door leading to the topside. She asked one of them, “Is this all of you?”

“No,” he said, pinching his nose because of how bad Spiderling stinks. Uhh, they grabbed one while unloading the loot. Then the whole place began shaking, and they ran into the other room.”

Spiderling thanked him before sprinting into the other room and gasped to see a large hole above. “What the heck is—“she muttered before gasping sharply at the sight of blood on the floor. Underneath tons of rubble were three bodies, two of them Hood’s soldiers and the third a hostage. Quickly, she checks on the two members, but feeling for a pulse wasn’t necessary after a closer look. Spiderling shut her eyes upon seeing their mangled bodies.

She rushed to the last hostage and quickly freed him. “Crud, your arm’s broken. Hang on!” Thankfully, with her super strength, freeing him was a breeze until suddenly her spider-sense tingled. Carrying the hostage, Spiderling leaped from the hole and hid in the shadows. She set the wounded man behind some fallen debris.

“It’s gone! Let’s grab what’s left and inform the boss,” a Hood grunt said as three others leapt down from the collapsed hole.

‘Bad guys…good!’ she thought before springing into action. She catches them by surprise, taking out half of them with a swift kick to the head and tossing the other hard against the rubble. The other two tried to gun her down with shotguns, but her heightened agility allowed her to dodge, her body practically gliding through the air as she swiftly pulled a reversal and got behind the grunts. The one to her right turns, but is knocked out via an uppercut, whilst the other gets blasted with impact webbing, sticking him to the wall.

Cracking her knuckles as she approached him, she asked, “You hurt innocent people tonight, and it’ll take me hours to get this smell off me, so let’s just make this easy for both of us and tell me what happened.”

The grunt nervously nodded. “Uhh, we thought it was you at first, scouring for us above,” he said in a panicked manner. “T-then suddenly the whole roof collapsed on top of us. There was so much dirt and sand everywhere, then suddenly it was gone, along with most of our loot and gear here.”

Spiderling tilted her head in confusion. Looking down at the floor, she spotted some grains of sand nearby. Brushing her fingers against it, she inspected the contents while her mask’s analysis detected radioactive isotopes inside them. “Gone how?”

“Like it moved on its own, I don’t know! What’s left of us tried to follow, but saw nobody! Grrr, all that loot…now just crushed and buried.” Spiderling grabbed him by the collar while her fist was pulled back threateningly.

“Two of your people died, and you’re still thinking about some shiny rocks?!” Spiderling grunted, itching for one more reason to strike the man across the jaw. Then she flinched upon hearing the groans of the wounded hostage. Spiderling lets her anger out by punching a hole in the wall, narrowly missing the soldier’s head.

She quickly got the last hostage outside while her spider-bot sent an alert signal to emergency services. After a minute, the ambulances and other proper help arrived to take care of anyone hurt and get them home safely.

Annie swung over to the nearest rooftop corner, removed her mask, and rubbed the tears from her eyes.

[Later at the Parker Residence…]

With anyone who was hurt now recovering, and all those guilty now in custody, the Parker sisters raised their drinks.

“Cheer!” Mayday, April, and Annie shouted, celebrating by the fireplace. The tips of their soft drinks, ringing a satisfying clink, before the three gulped down a much-needed refreshment.

"Well, well," their mother, Mary Jane, said with an impressed smile. She sat at the family table, going through papers while her husband, Peter, tapped away on his laptop. This is the first time in weeks I've seen all three of you come home without a scratch on any of you.

“I think we’re now starting to make real progress, Mom,” Mayday said, sipping down her glass of soda. “If the reports I’m hearing from Dani, Miles, and Mr. Murdock are true, then even the Hood’s Army, Demons, and Shocker’s goons are starting back off.”

“Especially the Demons. Idiots didn’t even know what hit’em,” April boasted after gulping down her soda. “I mean, Mom, there I was against thirty guys, yeah? One minute they were acting all tough while protecting a shipment, then the next minute I got’em running home to their mothers! Hahaha! I was almost tempted to let’em go; they made me hollering that hard!”

“You’ve always been able to find the fun in your work, April,” M.J. said, smiling outside but on the inside, hoping such a level of violence wouldn’t be necessary next time.

“You didn’t forget to check what they were shipping, right?” Mayday asked.

April slumped forward, giving an annoyed squint at her. “Duh, of course,” he said, “And for the like the fifth time in a row, they aren’t the ones bringing in the extra weaponry to the city. Just the usual crap: drugs, standard small arms and gadgets they’re buying from who knows where.”

“This is the third time, April, but thanks,” Mayday said before getting up for a refill.

“What kind of gadgets?” Peter asked, eyes still glued on his laptop.

“Heavy equipment, mostly, but some crates beside them also have these high-processing microchips. Crap you see in a supercomputer.”

“Hmm…” he murmured, “disrupting the logistics of these groups is just as important as ruining their wallets.”

“Your father’s right. You may have tired them out, but that only means they’re catching their breath and thinking,” M.J. said. “Thinking like other ways to expand their turf or looking toward the public to regain favorability.”

Mayday scoffed while slamming the fridge door. “After two years of shooting up the streets, how do these groups still have fans?”

“People’s wallets are still feeling the effects of that recession, hotshot,” M.J. explained. “Sprinkle in some gentrification, and apartments bought out only for people not living there. Suddenly, the guy with a Demon mask and an itchy trigger finger doesn’t look so bad.”

“Speaking of socio-economic disparity,” April yawned, “how’s business poppin’, Daddy-O?”

M.J. and Peter blinked in surprise, not hearing that slang used in thirty years. “Uhh, well…” Peter muttered, looking to M.J. for help.

“Thanks to some legal advice from Jen, we were able to build up a good argument about why we aren’t liable to cover all the damage done.”

“Buuuut…” Mayday said, knowing her family’s luck is rarely that good.

“But even in the best-case scenario, your father’s work will likely still have to pay upwards of half a million in damages.”

April taps her fingers, pondering a bit before saying, “Just saying, not technically stealing if money magically appeared in my pants.”

“April,” her whole family said in unison.

Mayday sighed, walking back to the couch and putting on a smile. “Well, to bring in some good news, Angel Face will be ready for her next appointment with Dr. Kafka tomorrow cause she’s back in her comfy padded cell.”

“Just that bitch?” April asked. “Tsk! If I’d dealt with them, all three would be locked away and I’d eaten the damn keys.”

Mayday flinched in confusion. “Why would you eat a key?”

“And why would you let two of those man-children get away? Don’t tell me you are going soft on them.”

“Hey, Angel Face nearly burned a building down to distract me from her boys,” Mayday explained. “You know the pattern with them: without their mother, they spend time fighting each other rather than doing anything dangerous.” Mayday then shrugged, drinking from her glass, saying, “And yeah, I do hope with their mother out of their lives again, they’d maybe now learn to stop being supervillains.”

“You’re unbearably naïve sometimes, sis,” April groaned, “right, Annie?”

The sisters turned to notice Annie huddled at the corner of the couch, her chin resting on her knees as she stared at her pink lemonade glass.

“You uh, are supposed to drink after cheers, Annie,” Mayday said to lighten the mood.

“Hmm,” Annie hummed.

"Sweetie," M.J. said gently, "is something the matter?"

"It's nothing," Annie sighed. "It's just another night dealing with nonsense." She stood up and walked upstairs to her room.

"Hey! So what if you came back smelling like shit," April said. "Happened to me a bunch of times." Annie's only response was the echo of her door slamming shut.

"Pretty sure half of those were just you forgetting to shower, sis," Mayday said before walking after Annie.

"No," her dad said. Peter pinched his strained eyes before standing up and doing his signature dad pose. "I'll talk to her. You two get some rest."

Mayday's phone suddenly rang, and she glanced at the caller's name. "Oh, Dani's calling. Thanks, Dad,' she said before hurrying to her room.

"May's always on the move," M.J. said with a smile.

"Yeah," April yawned, lying back on the couch. "It's tiring, Mom."

Peter climbs up and knocks on Annie's door. It doesn't look good already, as Annie doesn't respond. Then, the doorknob jiggles before opening partially. It is a Spiderbot. "Thanks, Ryan," Peter whispers, opening the door to see Annie's Spiderbots huddled around her as she draws schematics on her work desk. Peter frowns upon seeing the expression on his daughter's face.

He grabs the spare chair to sit down, and asks, “How’s the Spider-Legs going?”

“Need better materials,” she muttered before sitting back. “Just say it, Dad.”

“What happened in your patrol?

Annie shut her eyes, frustratingly saying, “I followed a group of Hood’s Army back to one of their bases.”

Peter glanced away, scratching his beard before saying, “You’re getting stronger and smarter every day, Annie, but you know going into these supervillains’ fortresses is always dangerous.”

“I wanted to hit them back, okay? We’ve been fighting every night since the attack, and every night we come home exhausted and beaten up.”

“Yeah…that’s part of the job, Annie,” Peter expressed, the long years of heroism peeking out in his voice. “I say that, yet it hurts us to no end seeing any of you come home hurt.”

Annie turns to her dad and pulls him in for a hug. He embraces her. They both need it.

“But hey,” Peter said, patting her shoulder proudly, “you three made real progress this weekend. And you came outta of that base without a scratch.”

Annie pulled back, and her eyes stared at the floor. “But others didn’t,” she said with shame.

Peter straightens up with a worried look and asks, “Civilians?”

“One hurt, but insurance should cover him,” Annie explained, “no…something else happened. Not sure what, but half the base collapsed on the Hood’s squadron…and two didn’t make it.”

The room went silent, and neither Parker could say a word. Peter saw the guilt in Annie’s eyes, the same look his reflection would give him after an awful night. He clenched his hands and asked, “Did you see it happen?”

“No, I got there a minute after.”

Peter nods, deeply considering his following words carefully, especially seeing his daughter emotionally distraught from the sight. “You said it collapsed, yes? There was no changing that,” he said. “Death comes randomly. It’s how it makes sure it can’t be stopped. Then, we’re forced to deal with it. Those two people's deaths aren’t on you, Annie.”

“I could’ve stopped them,” she muttered, her frustration rising as she pondered it. “If I had stopped the truck rather than waiting for them to reach their base, maybe then they wouldn’t have died. I mean, I can see the freakin’ future, Dad! Why didn’t I see it?”

Peter sighed. “I don’t know, Annie,” he said frankly. “But you’re too young to start second-guessing every decision you make, especially with your powers. You’re still learning them. Should you have engaged rather than waited? Most likely. But that’s in the past now, Annie. Learn from it. It’s not like the future can bend to your will, nor should it. We’re people, Annie, and there are things superpowers can’t stop. What matters is using these gifts to keep doing the best you can for people anyway. Hold onto those good parts, Annie, okay?”

Annie leaned against her window with her arms crossed, listening to her father's words calm her worries. She'd always loved her dad's advice, and they would find a way to get her back on her feet. However, he doesn't see what she sees; nobody does. She's seen death a hundred times, mostly of civilians she saved and sometimes of her sisters. Tonight's incident was a terrible reminder of this dark side of her power.

People’s lives are in her hands in ways no one could imagine. To see and feel a life fade away in the future, and then save it?

Annie’s responsibility is to save life before it could ever be taken away.

So, whenever life slips through her fingers, it’s all on her. It makes her wonder what the point of such power is, other than torturing her. But such thoughts are saved for sleepless nights. Now she was in front of her dad, and he looked worried.

“Alright, I get it,” she lied. Thanks, Dad. Uhh, can we keep this between us? I want to tell Mayday when I feel like it.”

“I’ll respect your choice,” Peter said, “but that rule is made for a reason, Annie. Next time you encounter one of their bases, ALL of you talk about it before deciding to go in, okay?”

“Yes, Dad. Sorry.”

Peter saw his signature dad talk was getting long, so he turned to the door. “And Annie, remember all the people you saved tonight. Remember that they can sleep well tonight knowing they’re safe because good people like you are looking out for them.”

Annie remembers the relief in the hostages’ eyes and the tears they shed as they called their loved ones to say they were okay now. “I will, Dad.” Peter smiles proudly before closing the door, leaving Annie alone with her thoughts. She collapses on her bed, her three Spider-Bots cuddling with her, letting exhaustion guide her to sleep.

[The Next Day…]

Today was another practice day for Midtown’s sports teams, meaning Annie had to leave for school alone while Mayday and April left for Basketball and Baseball, respectively. After several nights of endless web-swinging, Annie wanted to feel normal and took the subway to school. She’d swiped her card and waited for train B to arrive. She’d glanced around to see a familiar face amongst the crowd.

“Jermaine?” Her expression glowed. She knew that purple jacket and large camera from anywhere. “Hey, Jermaine!”

The fifteen-year-old sophomore boy in question was Jermaine Grant, son of her father’s old work pal, Glory Grant. “Annie?” She walks up to him excitedly as he sets down his phone. “Annie!” She offers a handshake, but right before he can take it, she pulls back and whips out her phone.

“Captain Parker to the bridge,” Annie said, speaking in a lower, dramatic tone. “I found the cadet who didn’t report for weeks! Remind me to throw him in the brig for scaring me half to death.”

Jermaine smiled and held his phone to his face, too. “Cadet Grant to bridge,” he said in a deep voice, “remind me to file a complaint with Starfleet for comms errors. My communicator log shows seven messages, all unread.”

Annie pouts, “Captain to bridge, rescind brig order.” The two share a laugh before hugging it out. “I’m so sorry for not responding. I still haven’t replaced my phone, and the past two weeks have been crazy!”

“Hey, it’s cool, especially after your dad’s work was attacked,” Jermaine said. “Why’d you think I sent all those messages?”

Annie smiled at her friend’s concern for her. “Hey, thanks, man,” she said sincerely.

“And also, one of them asked if you had found a girlfriend yet. Cause I’ve put twenty bucks that you’d finally find one by semester’s end.”

“I take it back, to the brig with you,” Annie groaned, mostly over how she was likely doomed never to have one.

“Hey, I've got confidence that you can.”

“Just saying, be ready to say goodbye to those twenty bucks. Anyway, why bring your camera this morning? Don’t you use it for your own projects?”

“I am planning on joining a photography club,” he said while proudly holding it up. Though the camera was a bit of an antique from her mother’s early days working at the Bugle, he made sure it looked brand new. “I found a cool sophomore I ran into who likes my photos. Hey, maybe try hitting up the clubs too, you didn’t last year.”

“Yeah,” she sighed, “because last year I was stuck in boring groups that only ate up precious time I could spend elsewhere.”

“I also remember you picking three whole clubs at once.”

“Hey, Mayday attended two clubs and basketball simultaneously during her freshman year. I was following her example.”

The train arrived just as she asked. The two teens stepped aside as passengers exited the train. As Annie and Jermaine entered, the last passenger snapped her head up and sprinted out the door. Annie avoided her, but Jermaine got shoved, nearly making him fall over. “Hey!” Annie shouted, but the random lady was already up topside, and the subway doors quickly slammed shut.

Jermaine breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing his camera was okay. "The hell got her in a hurry?"

Annie was ready to forget the encounter until she saw something on Jermaine’s shoulder. ‘Sand,’ she thought, a puzzled look in her eye as she discreetly took a pinch from her friend’s jacket and stuffed it in her red pouch for later analysis. ‘This line doesn’t connect to Coney Island. She was covering her face. Now hold on, Parker. Even if that were her, that still doesn’t explain how she caused that collapse alone. She’d not only have snuck past the Hood’s Army security but also blown up half of that base. No…not explode, you only felt a rumble. If not explosives, then how else did she—’

Annie's eyes widened as a revelation hit her. She rationalized that she was too wrapped up in her thoughts to recognize this clue: 'The radioactive isotopes in the sand…could she have superpowers? Not just any powers, but the powers of Sandman!?'

[Meanwhile…at Midtown’s Gym]

After another morning of practice, Mayday used her time in the lockers to start thinking. ‘A new group in town. A hate group no less,’ she pondered, remembering Danielle’s call last night. ‘Well, I’m always down punching racists in the face, especially with Dani. April will be April, but I trust her to look out for Annie tonight. Beyond that, I hoped to start a new plan concerning this Sinister Syndicate. They’ve been quiet ever since that attack.’

“Mayday,” Davida’s voice echoed down the lockers.

‘Well, we can push it back a day,’ she thought while remembering the glare of vengeance from this new Doc Ock. ‘But we must be ready. Just one look in Carolyn’s eyes, and I can tell she’s been planning our deaths her whole life.’

“There she is,” Davida said when Mayday exited the lockers. “I know the game against Milton is a month away, but ease up, girl. Are you aiming to impress a guy, or what?”

“Yeah, right,” Mayday laughed off as they walked to their class. “The only person I aim to impress is Mrs. Winterhalter when I show her my poetry for the month. We had to theme it after something that happened to us in September, and I finally knew what title it should have. It’s called “Princess of the Desert.”

Davida hid how much her face winced at that title. “Yeah, you still suck with your titles,” she said frankly.

“As the saying goes: don’t judge a book by its cover,” Mayday responded, reaffirming her confidence in the quality of her writing.

The familiar sounds of wheels zooming down the hall caught Mayday’s and Davida’s attention. Courtney Duran, with her trusty high-speed wheelchair, pulled back on the joystick on her armbar and skidded to a halt to greet her two best friends. “Hey guys,” she smiled, “done practicing already?”

“Yeah, thanks to yours truly,” Davida said, gesturing to Mayday.

“Milton’s team won’t stand a chance with you two in the court,” Courtney encouraged.

“I hear that,” Mayday chuckled before both high-fived.

“Davida, you’ve told Mayday yet?”

“Oooh, right. So, I was at Café Indigo last night after you bailed on me.”

“Sorry…” Mayday said, rubbing the back of her neck.

“In hindsight, perhaps for the best because I saw with my own two eyes: Lindsey! Just sitting three tables away from me.”

Mayday asked, “Who?”

“You know who,” Courtney said, “she’s part of Simone’s posse.”

"Gah! Of course," Mayday expressed. Then a clicking noise drew her and Courtney’s gaze back at Davida, who was silently warning of something ahead. Mayday glanced to spot a hall monitor at the end of the hall. Davida tilts her head toward a nearby empty girls’ restroom, and the three casually walk in.

“Guys, I know she’s got the money,” Courtney whispered after shutting the door. “But I seriously doubt every hall monitor is in Heather’s pocket.”

“Yeah, and they say the same thing about cops in America,” Davida whispered. "Anyway, I saw Lindsay talking to that screwball girl at Indigo.”

“Screwball…,” Mayday pondered. “You mean Natalie from the gymnastics club?”

“Yeah, the dummy with that fake as hell pink wig.”

Courtney raised a question she’s had since Davida informed her. “Why would Simone send one of her girls to talk to Natalie?”

Davida holds up three fingers, saying, “I can give you three million reasons.”

“Heather has the money to build and boost her own YouTube or Instagram channel if she wanted,” Mayday pointed out, “why would she care about Natalie’s?”

“It’s partially for the channel,” Davida said, “but I think she’s looking to fill in the hole Tiffany left after she was booted from Heather’s inner circle.”

“Gosh, Tiffany. I can’t help but feel bad,” Mayday sighed. "She had to transfer schools; she was so embarrassed. Still, I figured Heather thought she and Simone were strong enough.”

“With Heather, enough is never enough,” Davida firmly reminded.

“And why tell me?”

“Why? Because Mayday 'basketball star and top of her class’ Parker, you might just be the only person in this school capable of standing up to her.” The bell echoed across the school, signaling that students' 1st period will begin shortly.

Mayday scoffed. “Davida, this is school, not a battleground.”

“Hmph! Have you learned nothing from me, girlfriend?”

“Your dating advice has been hit or miss since freshman year.”

Davida sighed, “Alright, I’ll concede to that.”

“But thanks for the heads up, Davida. Whatever Heather’s up to, let’s make sure nobody in this school ends up like Tiffany and has their life ruined.”

Davida nods before leaving the bathroom, and the two split up to class. Courtney followed May since their classes were in the same hall. Halfway there, Courtney tapped her friend’s shoulder. “Sorry, almost forgot, Olivia says she wants to talk later.”

“About what?”

“Your final project.”

“Already? Alright, thanks,” Mayday uttered before both arrived at their classes.

‘Hoo-boy, and I haven’t even talked to Annie yet. Maybe consulting April first is the way to go.’

[Later…]

A few blocks from Midtown High School, there was a trendy mall where plenty of students go after a long, hard day at school. For April, a long day at school was the equivalent of three classes before she got bored. So, she and her partner in crime, Stephanie Kim, decided to check out what was in stock at the mall's music store.

April and Steph were chilling in the acoustic room with April sitting and strumming a guitar. She’d always tried to make room to practice her skills. She asks, “Thinking of somethin’?”

“Just a little shocked you’ve skipped Ms. Bagley’s class.”

“I already turned in my math assignment,” April said, “besides, I glanced at chapters five and six already. Usual Calculus stuff.”

“Hmm,” Stephanie hummed. She strolled over to the wall of bass guitars, and her eye locked on a bass with a shiny blue design. “Yeah?”

April turned to see, nodding in approval until she saw the price tag. “Ya got eight-hundred bucks in your wallet?”

Stephanie glanced at the tag and groaned in annoyance. “We’re never gonna get proper equipment, are we?”

“Steph, we’re getting there, alright? Don’t get all mopey on me.”

“All we have is your old ass guitar your cousin Kristy gave you, my old ass bass and a stereo the size of a lunch box. With the crap we have, even a crummy bar won’t take us.”

“Hey, I’m frustrated too. But I’m telling ya, the moment we find ourselves a proper drummer, our luck will start to turn around. You’ll see.”

“Pffft! Not one drummer even approached us in a city of eight million people. April, we gotta rethink our plan here or we’re never gonna get our music out there. Speaking of which, you finished that song yet?”

“Sssstill brainstorming.”

“Uh-huh,” Stephanie said, “sooo glad I got my folks’ mechanic shop to fall back on.”

April's eyebrows began to twitch the longer she thought of their predicament. Since she was given her guitar, it pulled her in like a magnet. Ironic given her symbiotic hybrid nature. Despite that, she found noise to have a tranquil quality and not always a harmful one. Don’t even ask her why that is, for her, it just is. Today, though, it just wasn’t reaching her, and her strumming began to go off tempo.

“Urgh! Great, the vibes are officially bad here. Wanna hit the arcade before heading back?”

“You’re on,” Stephanie said with an eager smirk.

April sets down the guitar and stomps over to the door, her gaze at Kim while yapping about how she’s going to kick her butt at street fighter. It opened as she reached the door, and a stranger bumped into her. April barely felt it, but it was like walking into a steel wall for the stranger, and she fell back.

“The fuck?” Stephanie blurted out.

April blinked in confusion until the stranger hissed in pain, and she saw that her nose was bleeding. Her arms stretched out as she asked, “Are you good?”

“Shit,” the girl hissed as she stood back up. April saw this dark-haired teen wearing a grey coat with a purple and black striped shirt underneath, ripped shorts, and her face had piercings on her purple lips, nose, and right eyebrow. “The fuck are you made out of, concrete?”

“For your sake, I’ll take that as a compliment,” April said. She reached into her back pocket and handed the teenager a bundle of pocket tissues.

The teen scoffs at the napkin. “Your mommy gave that to you, or what?”

“Just take it and get out of my way,” April said intimidatingly as she pushed the napkins into the teen’s hand before walking out with Stephaine.

Once out of the store, Stephanie whispered, “I haven’t seen her face around her. Have you?”

“Nope, but I ain’t eager to see it again,” April snarled. “Come on, let’s go a few rounds before heading back.” As if right on cue, her phone began ringing. Such annoying rattling could only come from one caller, and the moment April saw the caller ID, she was even more annoyed. “Bleh! Steph, I’ll meet ya there in a minute. My dumb twin is calling.”

“Put her on voicemail,” Steph insisted.

“Not while at school, I can’t.” Steph relented and went to the arcade while April walked to a quiet corner. She answered her phone with a loud, “What?”

“Don’t tell me you’re at the mall again…”

“I turned in all my work and did my readings like a good student,” she said nicely before switching back to her crass tone, “now let me have fun a while, will ya?”

“Whatever,” Mayday sighed. "Listen, I’m going to talk with Annie, but if I don’t call back, then take that as me telling you to look after Annie for the rest of the evening.”

April immediately answered, “No.” She then hung up and walked away while whistling. However, even her whistling couldn’t drown out her phone's ringing again. Now feeling like the noise was drilling into her head, April answered.

“Seriously?!”

“She’s a freakin’ teen, Mayday, not a baby. The hell is this coming from?”

Mayday clenched her fist in worry and whispered, “I’m worried about Annie. I went to ask Dad what was bothering her, but he just said to ask her herself. I tried to for the past two classes, but she’s avoiding me. She’s hiding something, and I’m worried it has to do with her patrol the other night.”

“Come on! Annie’s a smart girl,” April reasoned. Sure, April remembers the times Annie would stumble into trouble now and again, but she’d figure a way out most of the time. “Besides, you know her. She’s spunky and upbeat. What could push her to do something stupid?”

“Well, if I do catch her, I’m hoping to have a better idea,” Mayday said. “For now, I think the stress over the past two weeks is getting to her. You remember how eager she was when we had a plan to split up routes. A few days later, she looked worn out and frustrated. I think whatever happened last night is pushing her to prove something.”

April pondered momentarily, remembering Annie’s vow to prove herself after the battle with the syndicate. Suddenly, Mayday sounded like she might have a point.

“Look, she’s not in the mood to talk, but I’ll try to ease her down,” Mayday explained. “I just want us to figure this out together, and that starts by being on the same page.”

April scratched the back of her head, thinking about her plan. “Sure,” she answered plainly, “but for five bucks.”

“April,” Mayday growled in frustration.

“Hey, you want a babysitter, and I want cash, to remind Steph that I'm the fighting game queen of these parts. Quid pro quo and all that junk.”

April can imagine Mayday rolling her eyes as she hears coughing up the money. When notified that a family member sent her money, April promises to uphold her end before hanging up to enjoy quality time with her partner in crime.

Over at Midtown, Mayday thought, ‘Why do I get a baaad feeling I just got ripped off,’ before returning to the classroom.

[That Afternoon…]

‘How is this possible?’

Sitting in an empty classroom, Annie reviewed the results from her spider-bots analysis. She had to turn down having lunch with Jermaine, but he took it well. Annie wished they had spent more time together to catch up fully.

She’d carefully held the vial holding the radioactive sand from last night and the woman they bumped into. Surprise, surprise, both samples carry the same radioactive isotopes. ‘She was right next to me, and she got away,’ an annoyed Annie thought.

Annie held up the vial against the digital hologram Spider-Bot Jody was projecting, her eye peeking through and watching the sand. Within each grain of sand were cells, or at least a new kind of cell. What she held in her hands was still alive, an organism who is a small part of a much larger consciousness. ‘Kinda like a symbiote, minus the parasitic elements,’ she hypothesized. ‘Yeah, she’d be closer to a sentient silicon being, with each cell connected through some magnetic force. Yeah, allowing her to grow and vibrate the earth strong enough to cause the collapse.’

Annie remembers the brief glimpse of her face. Her hoodie shrouded it, but she remembers the distant look in her brown eyes. ‘Achieving this new form would require seriously high-grade equipment and the right formulas. One wrong miscalculation and she’d be falling apart.’ This line of thought eventually led Annie to the question concerning this person: ‘Just who are you, Sand-Woman?’

Over the years, their father shared his history with his past foes, and one that stood out to her especially was Flint Marko, the original Sandman. Why?

Annie met Flint.

When it happened, Uncle Ben was babysitting her a few days before she’d gotten her powers. As one niece does when their uncle is Spider-Man, she repeatedly asks Ben to take her web-swinging. Seeing he had to go to the store anyway, Ben said yes and carried Annie across the Manhattan skyline as Spider-Man. ‘Best. Uncle. Ever,' Annie fondly remembered.

However, as they turned back, duty called, and Spider-Man was needed. Luckily, another superhero was in the neighborhood: Sandman. Annie remembered her dad shared how Marko had a hard life but wasn’t a bad guy at heart. He eventually transformed into a hero who also answered the call that day. Annie felt nervous as Ben landed beside Sandman, a bit fatigued after briefly clashing with the threat.

“Hey, Marko,” Ben greeted with a salute.

Even in sand form, Annie saw Flint look happy at the sight of his old foe. “Spider-Man. They head that-a-way. I shielded the surrounding civilians from their gunfire.”

“Amazing, Marko. I’ll take care of it from here, but can you watch over this little girl for a sec? I’ll find her parents as soon as I get back.”

“Oh. Uhh, sure.” Marko gently held Annie as Ben swung away, promising he’d only take a minute.

Annie fidgeted with her fingers for a moment, but seeing THE Sandman up close, and how much her uncle trusted him, she felt herself start to relax. “You’re not hurt, ya?” Marko asked.

Annie remembered how she shook her head and asked, “Are you friends with Spider-Man?”

Marko chuckled heartily, “I guess you can call it that. Sure, we punched each other in the face many times, but that’s just how guys in our time got along, I suppose.”

Annie squinted, asking, “So you’re cool now?”

“Ya kid, I’m cool.”

Annie remembered how a light bulb lit up in her head, how she began tapping her feet, and smiled at the old-timer. As if from personal experience, Marko quickly knew what she was thinking. “You want me to build a castle now, don’t ya?”

Annie then jumped gleefully as she nodded, her arms held high, and her green eyes excitedly shone. “At least five stories tall!” Annie can still remember how incredible it was to see the sand move with grace, growing below her until she was high up and inside an actual sand tower.

“Ha-ha! How’s that?” Marko asked proudly.

“Woah…” Annie marveled before poking her head out the window and shouting, “Bigger!”

Marko gulped nervously, especially when other kids noticed and crowded around. Within a few minutes, half the block was covered with sand. Annie remembered Marko scrambling from kid to kid, building their playsets while keeping them safe and creating more of Annie’s castle. Marko catches his breath while looking up at Annie, who just requested it to be like a Rapunzel-like castle. “Like this?”

Annie closely judged the rope that hung from her tower window and shook her head. “No! Make it look more like a braid!”

“Everybody’s a critic,” Marko sighed before someone walked beside him.

“Hmm. No, I see what she means, Marko. That looks more like a ponytail.”

“Spider-Man,” Marko gasped.

“Spider-Man!” Annie cheered while waving hello.

“Heya! Crisis taken care of. Hope the princess in her tower wasn’t too much trouble.”

Despite the hassle, Annie remembered how Marko smiled and said, “Ehh, wasn’t any trouble. Heck, she even reminds me of another princess I know.”

Ben swung over to his niece, carrying her on his back. “Time to go, kiddo.”

“You see the cool castle he made, Spider-Man?”

“I see that,” Ben chuckled. “You should thank him before we go.”

Annie waved her arm, smiling brightly as she exclaimed, “Bye-bye, Sandman!” The man waved back before Ben swung her back home.

“No,” teen Annie whispered, back in the present after a trip down memory lane. “He would never go back to crime again, let alone kill anyone. This HAS to be someone else, but who? More importantly, why?”

Annie guesses that gaining these powers wouldn’t be painless. So what would compel someone to do such a thing and replicate Sandman’s powers? Annie figured this woman must be insane, right? The level of power such abilities would grant must’ve been too tempting to ignore. Annie guesses that she is making her first move by striking criminal hideouts.

“But,” she whispered, “if she’s so dangerous, then why didn’t my spider-sense go off? And for that matter, why haven’t I gotten a vision yet?”

For a moment, Annie wondered if this stranger was not a threat. She shut her eyes as memories of those killed last night remain seared into her mind. ‘Doesn’t matter. She killed two people and nearly killed another,’ she reaffirmed to herself, the guilt of last night now molding into anger. ‘She’s the one who did it, all for some gems. She’ll keep wreaking havoc, even ruining Marko’s good name…Unless I stop her. Now, how to find her?’

Amid her pondering, Annie heard a quiet clicking sound. Her gaze is pulled down to the vial, still in her hand, to witness something moving. Holding her hand very still, Annie was agape to see the grains of sand moving on their own. Before she could gather her thoughts, a knocking noise snapped her attention to the door. “Spider-sense isn’t tingling,” she whispered, ordering her spider-bots to hide inside her pouch just to be safe. Hiding away the vial, she opens the door to see her sister, Mayday.

“Thought you'd be here,” Mayday said with a small smile.

“Hey, sis. Just doing some science work,” Annie said casually.

“Cool,” May replied, nodding over Annie’s academic diligence. “Keep this up and I think you’ll have studied harder than I did in my sophomore year.”

‘Well, I gotta keep up with you somehow,’ Annie thought, preferring to keep that to herself. “So, what’s up? Family business or something else going on?”

Mayday looks around, making sure they’re alone before coming in and closing the door behind her. She cuts to the chase with a concerned gaze, asking, “What happened during your patrol? I asked Dad, but he said I should talk to you.”

Annie fidgeted a bit but knew this was inevitable. “I was fighting the Hood’s Army, and one of their squads ended up robbing a bunch of jewels before taking a dozen hostages. I saved them, just…” Annie said, turning her gaze away from her sister as she finished, “I followed them back to one of their bases to do it.”

Mayday immediately covered her face with her hands. “Annie…” her muffled voice groaned.

“I got out of there without a scratch on me,” Annie defended, but Mayday pushed on.

“Then why did you look completely out of it last night?”

Annie crossed her arms, a look of shame in her eyes. She can feel the vial in her pocket, still feeling the sand grains rattling against each other. Should she tell her? If Annie does, what would happen next? She shouldn't just have her sisters clean up her mess? She vowed to work harder. To be as great as her sisters. And how can she get closer to that goal if they continue to handle things in the old way?

Annie swallowed and told a half-lie. “The base was on top of a crumbling structure. Just before I got there, it gave out and collapsed…killing two Hood members in the process.”

Like her dad, Mayday turned silent as her imagination pictured the scene her little sister ran into. Putting her frustration aside, Mayday embraced her sister, who naturally hugged back. “I’m sorry you had to see that, Annie.”

“Just part of the job, right?” Annie whispered, squeezing a bit longer before pulling back from the hug.

“Look,” Mayday said, rubbing her chin as she thought about the next course of action. “Things look like they’re cooling down, so let’s return to our usual route and stick together.”

Annie subtly clenched her fist behind her back, saying, “Fine, Mayday, but can it wait until—”

“Starting today.”

“Oh, come on,” Annie blurted out. “Can you at least give me this week? Heck, two days. To show I can handle stuff out there alone.”

“What stuff?” Mayday began to look at her sister with suspicion. “Get yourself into more dangerous situations that can get you or someone else killed?”

“I just gotta finish one thing, Mayday,” Annie vehemently insisted, “and I wanna do it alone.”

“That is not how we operate, Annie. We do everything together because we’re stronger together. You stick by April and me so we can protect each other.”

“Pretty sure the past week showed that I can protect myself just fine, sis,” Annie said.

“Some guy with a gun is one thing,” Mayday expressed. “But we’ve got five new supervillains hiding and scheming in this city, ready to pounce on us when we least expect it.”

“And I fought two by myself just fine,” Annie reminded. “I’m strong enough now, don’t you see?”

“Maybe you are, Annie,” Mayday said before grabbing Annie’s arm. “But it’s not just the muscle that’ll keep you going, to keep you doing good,” she says, pointing at Annie’s bicep. Mayday then points at Annie’s head, “it’s also here,” then she points at her heart, “and here.”

Annie pulls away from Mayday’s grip. “I got plenty of those, too.”

“And I'm sure you do, but it's how you use them that is important. Right now, I'm thinking you need to foster those skills a bit longer,” Mayday firmly said before exhaling sharply. “And it’s why you’re now under April’s supervision.”

Annie’s jaw dropped. “You gotta be kiddin’ me…”

An alarm from Mayday’s phone beeps loudly, and she already has her foot outside the door. “Look, I've got plans with Dani later, but I’ll know if you’re going out alone,” Mayday states. “Keep people safe with April, then tomorrow all of us will talk about what to do about this syndicate, as a team.”

“While under your orders,” Annie mumbled.

“Yes,” Mayday reaffirmed, “because I don’t rush into danger with a chip on my shoulder and something to prove. Remember: patrol and you’re heading straight home. That’s the end of it.”

The door closes by itself right as Annie pulls out the vial of sand. Annie groaned in annoyance as a new idea tingled in the back of her head. She hesitates, almost putting the vial away, but her hands stop. “No, it’s not,” she said, holding the vial up to her face, “Just watch. I can handle hero work just as well as you do.”

Annie looked at the sand again and gasped when she noticed something. When the vial is still, the sand pushes in one direction, but the sand stays pointed in the same direction when she rotates her body. “Like…a compass,” she realized. “No way. If I follow the direction of the sand particles, it’ll lead straight to the source. To Sand-Woman!”

This was her chance, and Annie was ready to take it.

Annie looked at the time and saw that lunch was almost over. “Crud, ditching two whole periods. I’m going to turn into April if I ever do this again,” she sighed, reassuring herself that she could make up lost class time. She waited until the bell rang and the halls were empty before running.

After easily avoiding hall monitors through her wall-crawling, Annie bolts through the halls with her backpack half-unzipped and ready to change into her gear. Annie smiles upon seeing the stairs to the roof exit ahead. Climbing up the flight of stairs, she hurriedly changed into her suit. Thus, it was the Stunning Spiderling who would spring onto the rooftop.

Webbing her backpack to a safe location and with this sand as a compass, Annie sprinted towards the edge before web-swinging into action. ‘Sand-Woman,’ she thought, her mind returning to the night before, the guilt returning like a sickness as she pondered her failure. ‘I won’t let her get away. Someone must bring her to justice, and I have a mistake to fix!’

Traversing through Queens, Annie glanced at the sand to see it pointing towards Manhattan’s financial district. ‘What’s she planning now? Another robbery?’ Annie pondered as she deployed her suit’s web-wings and used the sea winds to glide across the East River. After touching down on Manhattan, she took the fastest route by crossing over Murray Hill when one of her Spider-bots leaped onto her shoulder.

“What is it, Gerry?” The bot answers her question by connecting to NYC’s emergency scanners and showing her the latest chatter.

“All units! Level four mobilizations. Location—intersection between Gold and Fulton Street!”

Very soon, Spiderling swings over a tall apartment complex and glimpses a plume of sand rising over the financial district. “Faster, Annie,” she muttered before performing a long swing and flinging her body forward. “Faster!”

After a grueling few minutes, Spiderling was within reach of her opponent and got her first clear look of this sand-woman. “Woah,” she exhaled upon seeing the hundred-foot-tall sand monster roaming Fulton Street. This culprit was an adult woman with long straight hair, probably in her late 30s. Annie is reminded of the Golem, a creature formed out of clumps of earth and given life, except this woman was undoubtedly no protector. She moved wildly, her form barely having defined human features while sand pours out from her arms and back, as if struggling to stay together.

Gunfire echoes across the street as panicked police officers fire at Sand-Woman. She grunted angrily before blasting them with a harsh hail of sand so strongly it hurled their car into a building. “Augustus,” Sand-Woman roared, “bring me Augustus!” Her gaze stayed fixed on a particular structure, a three-story science and administrative building owned by Empire Unlimited. “Someone in there must know,” she growled, her tone furious yet broken. Her concentrated fury was interrupted when a web landed within her left cheek before exploding.

Sand-Woman grunted in pain as she felt a small hole in her left cheek. “Hey! Ms. course, rough and irritating!” Sand-Woman turns around to see a young woman standing atop a nearby building, her confident posture hiding her nerves.

Sand-Woman blinks in surprise before squinting those mounds of sand that were her eyes. “Wha—? Who are…” she grumbled, clutching the side of her head. “No. I don’t know you. Get lost!”

“Don’t know me?! Maybe this will refresh your memory,” Spiderling shouted, subtly flicking her wrist to rotate in electrical webbing, before springing into action. She fires a web over Sand-Woman to somersault over her, raining down a barrage of electric web balls. “I’m your Friendly Neighborhood Spiderling! Get it memorized!”

Sand-Woman cried out as the web burst, burning her torso and head until these portions were crystallized. While staggered, Spiderling released her Spider-bots to fly around her opponent and fire several web strings, slowly beginning to ensnare her. This is all to buy Spiderling time to locate the nearest fire hydrant.

“There’s one! And right where I want it.” Spiderling smiled confidently as she touched down on the street, gripped the hydrant tightly, and began to rip it out. Though her fingers ache from this, Spiderling stays focused on the direction of her pull before tearing open a spray of water so intense it was like a fire hose. She successfully aimed the stream at Sand-Woman’s lower half, turning the dirt hill into mud.

“Argh! Get away!” Sand-Woman tries to move. Spiderling’s incredible speed and agility allowed her to get ahead of Sand-Woman before using her webbing to create a thick trip wire. This, along with Sand-Woman’s muddy feet, throws off her balance ,and she collapses into S Gold Street, breaking into two in the process.

Spiderling didn’t let up, especially as a feeling of satisfaction burned brighter inside her. She called in her Spider-Bots and swung over Sand-Woman, her eyes training on two other fire hydrants. “Should be enough water to turn her into Mud-Woman.”

As Spiderling landed beside a hydrant, a softer voice spoke, “You." Spiderling looks up to see Sand-Woman burst out of the mound of sand, the foe having fallen to her hands and knees. No longer was she in giant form, but seemingly her regular adult size. Her sand form dripped before she stood up and shapeshifted to look human again. “Now…I remember,” she said, out of breath.

Spiderling is taken aback by her opponent shrinking back down, but has her guard up. Upon a closer look, she had light brown skin like hers and wore a gold locket around her neck. Through her mask, Spiderling took this opportunity to scan her opponent and uncovered something peculiar. ‘There’s an energy source inside her chest, right where her heart would be. A molecule stabilizer, or something?’

“Spiderling,” she muttered, still a bit dazed as she clutched her chest. “Yeah. You're part of that hero group, the Spider-Girls.”

Spiderling uttered sarcastically, “I’m so touched you remember.”

The woman tapped her chest as she announced, “I-I am Alvarado. I wish I could tell you my full name.”

Spiderling scoffed, “You can’t, or you won’t?”

“I can’t,” Alvarado said with such pain that even Spiderling could hear it. “B-but I can tell you I am, or was, a scientist. See? Says here in this badge.”

Spiderling cautiously stepped closer to see a half-ripped badge held up by Alvarado. ‘Kinda sketchy,’ Annie thought. ‘Still, the picture of her looks pretty authentic.’ Her eyes were then wide open upon seeing a familiar symbol. “You worked for Empire Unlimited?”

“I seem so,” Alvarado said, looking at her picture.

“Seems so? Either you worked there, or you didn’t.”

Spiderling flinched when Alvarado’s head twitched, clutching it as a splitting headache ensued. It was bad enough to cause her forehead to crack like an eggshell, and bits of sand to fall off. “S-sorry,” she groaned, “my mind ain’t right. I…I’m sure I worked there. That was where I…” She trailed off as she looked down at her hands, they appeared cracked and leaking sand. “It's where I got turned into this,” she grunted, her teeth clenched with anger. “Where I remember HIS face.”

“Who?”

Alvarado’s eyes and chest glowed yellow as she venomously spat out, “Augustus Roman!”

Spiderling experienced a blast of the past as her mind flashed a memory of her first meeting with the renowned CEO. She was just nine years old at the time, and never met him in person after that, but she remembered how imposing he was while retaining a sophisticated tongue. “The CEO? What does he have to do with this?”

“Everything! He has everything to do with this! I don’t remember much, but I know in my heart that he took something precious from me. So I will take it back from him.”

Alvarado’s anger grew further with every word she spoke, causing her human appearance to break off and her sand form to get stronger. “And nothing will get in my way,” she swore, then glanced at Spiderling, who looked disturbed by her behavior. “What will it be, hero? Want to help, or get in my way too?”

For a moment, Spiderling wasn’t sure what to think. She came to this fight thinking this Sand-Woman would be some lunatic who wanted fortune and power. Alvarado could still be that, but something about this didn’t seem right. Did something happen at Empire Unlimited, or is this a lie that even Alvarado believes? Spiderling wasn’t her Aunt Janine, but she could tell Alvarado was disturbed, not helped by her struggling to stay together.

Then, all these thoughts were abruptly stopped when she remembered one undeniable fact. One that has guilt ridden her head all day. Spiderling’s hair bangs covered her eyes as she said, “Nothing will get in your way, huh? I guess that confirms it, then.”

Alvarado looks on in confusion. “Confirms what?”

“That you are a murderer,” Spiderling spat out, pointing at her accusingly.

This genuinely catches Alvarado off guard. “What? N-no. I didn’t kill anyone!”

“Last night, at around eight o’clock, you stormed a Hood’s Army base and crushed two people. Would’ve killed a hostage too, if I wasn’t there in time.”

“No…”

 “And for what? Some dumb diamonds and gear,” Spiderling shouted.

Alvarado’s expression twists in confusion, clutching her head as her memory pieces things together. “No, I…” she gasped, as panic consumed her. “I only went in to grab the resources needed to keep myself together. I didn’t mean to hurt anyone—”

“Look at what you’ve already done.”

Alvarado turns around, seeing the wrecked city block behind her and all the people fleeing in the distance, fleeing from her. “I…” she stuttered, “I would never—" She covers her face as despair begins to set in, realizing the extent to which this power of hers is capable.

“Whatever issues there are with Roman’s company, I’ll look into it,” Spiderling said before loading a new web cartridge.

Alvarado looks down at herself somberly, unable to shed a single tear. Grief threatened to consume her until she heard Spiderling say, "As for you, it’s time you face the consequences. I’m taking you straight to your new cell!” A storm gathered within Alvarado’s heart of sand right then and there.

“A cell,” she muttered, her hands clenched into fists. "Alone."

Spiderling spider-sense was tingling as a stream of energy coursed through Alvarado’s body.

“No…YOU STAY AWAY FROM ME,” she roared. Her arms stretch out as her body unleashes a wide burst of sand, powerful enough to send Spiderling back dozens of feet down the street. Spiderling recovered quickly but soon gasped upon seeing parts of the surrounding buildings and streets dissolving, all pulled into Alvarado’s body. Her right fist turns into a large sledgehammer while her left hand morphs into a stone blade. “Whatever I’ve done is nothing to what Roman’s done! If you don’t see that, then all you’re doing is protecting him. Roman, and anyone who fights for him, will face my wrath—the wrath of SANDSTORM!”

She raises her arms high into the air, creating geysers of sand bursting across the whole block. Spiderling narrowly dodged some and attempted to swing towards Sandstorm, but was blasted into the air by a sand geyser below her. Every grain felt like shrapnel, tearing parts of her suit. Spiderling barely fired a web and pulled herself out, only to feel her spider-sense tingling and narrowly dodge a sand spear tossed at her.

“Eat web, creep!” Spiderling fires a string of electro webs, but the verbosity of Sandstorm’s attacks threw off her aim. Sandstorm’s body stretched like a snake, swiftly dodging each shot before lunging her hammer fist and striking Spiderling’s torso.

As she tumbled across the pavement, Annie felt the wind knock of her. Struggling to get up, she can barely look up to see Sandstorm’s intimidating stature. “Don’t worry,” she roared, “the hurt I’m about to deliver to you is a fracture of how much I’m going to inflict on Roman!” Spiderling could haphazardly form a web-shield as Sandstorm unleashed a tidal wave of sand, turning the once busy city block into a desert of hate.

[Elsewhere…]

Mayday’s professor notified them that the curriculum will culminate in a final group project for this semester's science class. To emphasize the importance of the final, Mayday and the rest of the class have already been assigned to groups of three. Things were already looking good when the third member of her group didn’t show up.

“Well then,” Olivia Macroni, her science partner, sighed. Should this rude behavior persist, her absence will be recorded and saved for later reference to our professor.”

“I’m sure she’s spending her studying period elsewhere,” Mayday suggested while turning off her phone to focus better. Olivia still exhaled in annoyance but didn’t let it distract her from the task.

“Suppose it doesn’t matter. In the end, she’s the lucky one, being grouped with the two brightest minds of Midtown,” Olivia smiled, nodding to Mayday.

Mayday didn’t say anything and quietly followed Olivia’s agenda of searching for the topic of their final project. Mayday's eyes widened when Olivia presented the list of potential topics: one hundred and thirty-seven. “Hoo-boy, that is…something,” Mayday said.

“Forgive me for such a short list,” Olivia sighed, fixing her glasses. “I was busy with other matters over the weekend, and sleep fatigue caught up with me.”

“You’re fine, Liv,” Mayday giggled.

“Still, my selection process was quite careful. According to my probability calculations, the chances of our rival team selecting the same topic as ours are now one million six-hundred and five to one.”

“I mean,” Mayday hummed, tapping her pencil. "I think our teacher said teams discussing the same subject are allowed, but sure!”

The two proceeded to whittle down the list to feasible and showstopping topics. While Olivia quickly discussed from topic to topic, Mayday mainly listened. Eventually, her mind drifted to her talk with Annie. “Hey, Liv,” she said, catching her friend’s attention. Do I have the habit of reacting too quickly?”

“Pshaw! If anything, I think students today act too slowly.”

“I’m serious, Liv.”

“So am I,” she insisted.

Mayday glanced away, tapping the paper in her hand as she thought about this herself. ‘Annie’s just letting the stress of these few weeks get to her,’ Mayday reasoned. ‘She’s also still shaken up by last night. Can’t blame her there. I know that guilt all too well. Maybe we can shift gears by tomorrow and get things back to normal.’

Mayday then hears a knock on the door, as she expected. “One second, Liv,” she said before walking out the door and being greeted by her twin. “April, the heck,” she whispered harshly, “why aren’t you watching Annie like I—”

April didn’t mince words as she shoved her phone into Mayday’s face, showing live footage of a battle between a hero and a giant sand person in the financial district. It only took one look at the light blue suit and orange hair for her to know Annie’s in trouble. “Rooftop, now.” April wasted no time, sprinting as fast as she could while Mayday quickly chalked up a cover story to Olivia.

“Mayday, what is—?”

“Sorry, but I just remembered I promised my friend Dani I’d meet up with her soon. Talk again later?” Before Olivia could respond, Mayday grabbed her stuff and bolted.

Within no time, Mayday appeared on the roof already half-dressed in her suit. April, transformed into Wild-Spider, held Annie’s backpack in her hand. “Annie, what are you doing?” Mayday whispered as she donned her mask.

“Just this once, I’ll refund you,” April said before the twins swung off to the financial district, hoping they were not too late.

[Meanwhile…]

'Crud.'

Spiderling leaped from building to building, attempting to use her speed to dodge the barrage of sand. Sandstorm learned to be faster. The next building surface she lands on quickly turns into quicksand, and a great shadow cast down on her before is smashed by a giant hammer. Spiderling is flung into the center of the building. Then, her Spider-sense went crazy as everything began to collapse. Steel beams bend like taffy as Sandstorm grinds her hammer fist through its body, leaving Spiderling to sprint out and narrowly escape the falling building.

'Double crud!'

Panic and pain stung Spiderling's whole body. As fear threatened to make her weaker, rage has only made Sandstorm stronger. Sand grains begin to swirl around the arena. Sandstorm raised her arms, silently giving a command that summoned a sand tornado. Whole waves of sand are taken from the earth and fly above, swirling at intense speeds. Spiderling tried to get through, but it was like being pelted by a blizzard. Even her web wings couldn't save her, and she only ended up with holes in said wings. She was now in full retreat and tried to swing over the wall of swirling sand until sand wrapped around her leg.

'Oh, shit.'

She's covered in sand before Sandstorm throws her into the pavement below, leaving a crater in which Spiderling lies near-unconscious. Everything hurt; sand coated her whole body, and her mask was half torn. She heard her Spider-bots fly above her, and the sounds of Sandstorm's annoyed grunts signaled to Spiderling that they were trying to distract her. 'No...run!' She winced as Sandstorm fired a blast of sand at her spider-bots, hurling them into the street and burning them in sand. "No!" Spiderling fired a web to fling herself out of the crater, only to be crushed back down by Sandstorm's axeball hand. Then she's hit again. Then again, and again.

Sandstorm finally catches her breath, staring at the eight-foot crater she left behind. Spiderling's body felt numbed, she was not even sure she's moving her fingers. She could barely breathe from all the sand in the air. The only sign showing she's still alive, that she's consumed with fear, was her lips trembling. Her Spider-sense tingled as Sandstorm shrunk her form and leaned over Spiderling. "Dumb kid," she said with seething contempt, "go back home, back to your team. Tell'em to stay out of my way." Sandstorm leaned closer to Annie's right ear, whispering in a cold voice, "And if I see you again, then you leave me no choice but to finish you off, permanently. Nothing will stop me from getting my life back and saving the one thing I love."

Annie flinched as Sandstorm's form dissipated, transforming into a gust of sand carried by the wind until she vanished over the horizon. 'Idiot,' Annie thought, struggling to stay awake for several minutes.

"Annie!"

She faintly heard her sisters coming closer, rescueing her like they've done many times before. 'I'm such...an idiot,' she thought before passing out.

THE END...FOR NOW!

A/N: Heey! The first Marvelous Spider-Girls issue of 2025! This is the beginning of the Friendly Neighborhood Arc, where I'll focus on two-parters and single-issue stories focused on exploring the daily hero life of our heroines in NYC and any new challenges awaiting them on the streets, at home, and at school. 

Chapter Text

She hated hectic days almost as much as she hated dull, office meetings.

Mary Jane leaned back into her seat, going along with the swaying of the subway train that was taking her back home after a busy Monday. Among other things, it was another day of showbiz. Not the fun side, unfortunately. No, it was a day dealing with the bureaucracy of showbiz. Very early in her career, Mary Jane would leave that up to her agent while she tried to make as many friends as she could on the ground. As they say, to survive Hollywood, you're gonna need some friends. However, since gaining more significant roles and growing in the movie scene, she has been attending almost every meeting with these executive people, producers, and directors of projects that feature her heavily.

The experiences of which, and this is her putting it kindly, is one she wouldn't wish upon anyone.

Her grit, her family, and a good cup of coffee are what helped her survive constant mind-numbing meetings filled with some of the most bizarre, greedy, and idiotic people you'd see in showbiz, who are also her bosses and determine whether a project succeeds or not. For this current film, it's especially vital for M.J., who feels she needs to help keep the project afloat. 

While the film is still in pre-production, M.J. feels she must remain vigilant in case of any delays or unexpected developments. Her contract for this film, one she'd barely persuaded to include her more in, and the possibility of a bigger pay, is one she urgently needs to keep. The last thing her family needs is another financial hiccup. ‘Once we’re at the read-through of the final script, everything should be smooth sailing,’ M.J. thought, ‘interior shooting locations shouldn’t be a problem this production. Those outside filming scenes, however…oh, they're always so demanding. Always so far away.’

She got a bit lost in her thoughts as she leaned against her phone, casually listening to a good friend share news on her other venture. “M.J.?”

“Yes, Wendy,” she replied, clearing her throat as she sat up.

“One of those days, eh?”

M.J. chuckled as she sighed, saying, “Oh no, if it were one of THOSE days, my voice would sound more strained from shouting down some idiotic producer.”

“It’s truly a small miracle you haven’t been booted out yet,” Wendy said, a woman she’s called her friend for well over five years and whom she's trusted to be supervisor over MJ’s. It's a small but growing business in Manhattan, one of several small dreams she had fantasized about during her time as a model. Then, when April entered their lives, she also faced the high costs of now raising three girls in freakin' New York City. With a bit of encouragement from Peter, Mary Jane knew then she must make that small dream a reality. Like with almost everything in her life, it's been a perilous venture. She’d had her fair share of sleepless nights, pitfalls, and endless piles of empty coffee cups over keeping it afloat in this economy.

Like many things in this family, MJ's has persevered against all odds. Sure, it’s never going to be the next NIOR or LuLulemon, but it's not like she wants it to be. Aside from building healthy work environments and offering women more affordable clothing options without sacrificing quality, it was also the source of all her daughter’s college funds. A little secret of hers that she plans to reveal after their graduation.

For tonight, M.J. will save thinking about the future for tomorrow...and after she sleeps away this headache of hers.

The train jolted right as the doors opened to a familiar station. “This is my stop. Good work today, Wendy. I’ll stop over later this week. Got some sketches I've been saving, maybe we can conjure some new designs out of them?”

“Always on the move,” Wendy commented, “alright, have a good night.”

With that, Mary Jane was officially over with work. She practically slumped over as she approached the steps of her home. Her stomach growled as she let out a long yawn, trying to ignore an ache in her lower back. “Peter’s home early,” she muttered, spotting the family car parked on the driveway. She noticed the front window was open slightly, allowing for an aroma to float outside and waft to her nose. “Oooooooh, just what mama needs," she groaned. 

She’d practically burst through the door, glided past the warmth of the living room fireplace, carried over by the scent of food like in one of those cartoons. Finally, she reached the kitchen counter where the man she married stood, cooking the meanest roast stew in all of Queens. “I just started,” Peter said as he chopped the last of the carrots while the beef he had sliced roasted in a pan beside him. Mary Jane can smell the onions and vegetables on him, giving her all the more reason to drop everything to hug and kiss her Peter, leaving a red lipstick mark on his stubby beard. "Must've been a busy day, 'cause you're hungry, Red."

"You know I'm hungry," she whispered to his ear, her left arm wrapped around his neck as her fingers pushed his head to face her. Their eyes locked on each other, their lips mere centimeters apart.

"I see that," Peter whispered with a smirk, before suddenly pulling back and tapping MJ's right hand. "You're already grabbing the food."

Mary Jane's mouth twitched upon being caught red-handed with her right hand holding a fist full of carrot slices, and her stomach growling a moment later. "Just a bite," she quickly said, chomping down some carrot pieces before Peter could eventually release her death grip, freeing his precious carrot slices. The two chuckle as Peter lifts M.J. away from his cooking station, setting her down a few feet away as she proudly chews her food.

"Felicia. I recognize that sly of hand," Peter grinned.

"Mmpph-First thieving manuver-mmm-she taught me," Mary Jane muffled before swallowing. With a satisfied sigh, she pats her stomach while walking over to the couch and allows herself to slow down and relax. As her mind calmed, Mary Jane suddenly noticed how quiet the house was. Any home with three teenagers is anything but silent. Her head shoots up as she asks, “Where are the girls?”

“Ah, I just caught them coming back when I drove up,” Peter explained. “Mayday left half an hour ago to patrol with Dani.”

“That’s right. Those two are also on the same wavelength. Y'know, we should try planning something with Luke and Jessica sometime, it’s been a while,” M.J. suggested, grabbing the TV remote from between the cushions. “And Annie and April?”

Peter shrugged, saying, “April is by herself in her room, I think.”

“Think?”

“No matter how much I knocked, she didn’t say anything."

M.J. nods. "So the usual,” she said.

"Yep, the usual," he confirmed, remembering many previous times he’s been reminded of the distance between them. “But I did hear her playing music. Also, her window's been closed.”

“Hmm,” M.J. hummed, pondering about April as she usually does, and the ways to stay connected with her. “Say, how about you and her go looking for something for her music some time?”

“She’d rather go by herself,” Peter reminded.

“Well…perhaps while on another errand, we all just so happen to get separated, and you just so happen to end up in a music store with her?” The two chuckle over the sneaky plan, but it does sound a bit more doable. While not quite Peter's taste in music, M.J. is happy to see April having a healthy creative outlet. She deserved it.

Flipping through TV channels, M.J. asked, “And Annie? Is she sounding better?”

“I suppose,” Peter said, peaking over to the pot with the soup before beginning to pour in some of the vegetables and getting the meat ready. “She sounded better. She barely poked her head out of the door, telling me she’s fine. I think she was working on her latest suit project, and you know how fixated she gets on her interests.”

M.J. taps her chin, quietly agreeing with Peter as she glances over to the staircase. Annie has always been a person who gets along well with people just like her, but that list has always been very short. The girl could go on for hours about her interests, but she also needed her space. Right now is a good time to give her that space, especially since school and all its stressful social situations continue to be a challenge to her. ‘She never did stop hating crowds,’ M.J. ruminates on.

Then, a sudden string of words from the TV reaches her ear. M.J. glances over to the TV, flipping a few channels back to where she heard those words until she stops on the evening news.

“—updates clarify that there were no fatalities. However, twelve employees were injured and one remains missing. Several pieces of company equipment were confirmed stolen during today’s sudden, shocking assault on the Empire Unlimited science and administrative building in the financial district earlier today. The footage you’re about to see was captured by one of our teams on the ground.”

“Peter, look!” M.J. gasped, shooting out of her chair right as Peter glanced up. Both their eyes were glued to the screen at the sight of Annie battling a giant woman made out of sand. M.J. hated busy days, not because of all the exhausting work, but because it ripped her eyes and ears away from her daughters. She’d clutched her hands together as Peter walked up to her side, both listening carefully to every word said.

“The independent super group, the Spider-Girls, directly engaged with the perpetrator before the group seemingly fled the scene. The identity of the attacker in question is still under investigation, but authorities have stated that an extensive manhunt is already underway, led by Police Captain Julia Gao. When questioned about today’s attack, CEO Augustus Roman has not commented.”

M.J. and Peter exchange a look of worry, now knowing the girls have not said a word about today’s attack or their involvement. “Well,” M.J. sighed, gathering her thoughts, “you got any idea who that could be?”

Peter looked at the footage again, squinting his eyes as he ran through memories of past battles and foes. “No,” he said, “never seen her before in my life. Maybe a copycat? We've seen four of those up close and personal."

"Could she be a part of that Syndicate?" M.J. wondered. 

"Don't know, but this looked personal," Peter said. "Also, it’s one thing when some group of shmucks wear Vulture’s gear but it’s another turning yourself into sand.”

Hands on her hips, M.J. asked, “If this is personal, then what are the odds it has something to do with someone as shady as Roman?”

Peter nods, “Pretty good odds, I say.”

M.J. directed her gaze upstairs, ready to march up before a strong scent reached her nose. “Uh, tiger…”

“Crud! Dinner!” Peter exclaimed, rushing over to save the food from burning up.

“Up to me then.” Rolling up her sleeves, M.J. marched up the stairs and approached the first door to her left, Annie’s room. She clears her throat, ready to sound concerned but also adamant about reminding her of their promise concerning hero work. “Annie,” she said, knocking on the door, “I just saw the news. I couldn’t believe what I saw, and I’m sure you felt the same. Are you feeling alright in there?” Mary Jane pressed her ear to the door, confident her words were approachable for Annie.

Moments pass, perhaps longer than usual.

“Annie,” M.J. spoke, her hand hovering over the handle before she held back. She didn’t want to be too insistent. Peter had said it himself - Annie was fine - and the footage shown had captured snippets of the battle. M.J. just wanted an explanation and to understand what was happening with this new foe.

“I-I’m fine!” Annie’s voice blurts out suddenly, causing M.J. to flinch her ear from the door. “I mean…no, I’ve got a headache from the fight. So, not so loud, please.”

“Oh, and you're sure it’s only a headache?”

“Yep, just snagged a tablet from the medicine cabinet and I’m already feeling better!”

M.J. leans against the door, listening closely to Annie’s voice. She sounded normal. “I’m relieved to hear, sweetie. So, do you care to explain why you didn’t bring this up with your father?”

“Well, that’s exactly what I’m trying to investigate, duh,” M.J. heard her daughter say with a chuckle. “I mean, like, I already have some clues on this sand person, but I wanna be sure, y'know?”

“And I’m glad it sounds like you’re taking this seriously,” M.J. said, “but please remember that you’re not in this alone, Annie. This…Sandstorm, the news is calling, she was the size of a building."

"Oh, I saw!"

"Course, it's just...this isn’t like anything you faced before, and it is worrying how recently we've been saying that more often," M.J. said, a palpable concern in her tone. "I trust you know what you're doing, and all I ask is that you keep us informed. We’re always here to help.”

“Gotcha. Yep, will do. Taking this SUPER seriously.”

M.J. raises an eyebrow. Annie sounded very insistent on ending the conversation, making her not sure just how seriously Annie’s taking this. There was something else, too, and that was Annie’s voice. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but her gut was telling her something was slightly off. Nonetheless, Annie sounded unhurt, and maybe entering her space wasn’t the best move tonight. Thus, Mary Jane leans away from the door. “Good. You three got this, but just be careful. This Sandstorm isn’t something you can punch away. From what I saw, I think she looked scared more than anything. Keep that in mind, okay?”

“Thanks, Mom.”

M.J. nods, her concern and suspicion barely quelled before heading back downstairs.

“Annie” had her ear pressed against the door before sighing in relief, the sound of the staircase creaking telling her mom was gone for now. Dark tendrils wrap around “Annie’s” form, reverting her back to reveal that the person talking was April the whole time. April cleared her throat until her voice returned to normal. One unique facet of her powers is her ability to shapeshift into anyone, including her sisters, without practically anyone being the wiser. It was fun the first few times when they were kids, but April grew to dislike mimicking her sisters. Just gives her the creeps looking at her reflection only to see Annie or, worse, Mayday.

Even besides that, there was one person April's shapeshifting was immune to, and it was their mom. Whatever this power was called, it allowed their mom to tell exactly who was who with her daughters. Heck, April remembers when Nicki pretended to be Annie, and M.J. saw through her in a second!

“She owes me for this,” April muttered before sitting beside the bed where a passed-out Annie lay. April sighed, gently holding her little sis’s hand while checking the bandage wrapped around her head. When they found her and took her into H.E.A.R.T. Clinic, the people there assured Annie’s injuries were nothing life-threatening, requiring only medicine for the headache and a good sleep. Even so, April felt her fury rise upon seeing Annie hurt like that.

Wanting to ignore the fact she just lied to her mom, April grabs her phone and makes sure her sound device in her room is looping her latest mixtape to give the illusion she’s in there practicing. It seemed to have fooled both her parents. Right as April felt at ease again, she nearly dropped her phone, and the claws in her fingers popped out when Annie suddenly woke up, sitting straight up, inhaling sharply as if she had just come back from the dead.

"What the hell?!" April blurted out, quickly covering her mouth so as not to arouse suspicion from Mom. Annie's eyes darted around till she realized she was back home and April was in her room.

"What..." Annie muttered, looking back again at April sitting in her work chair. In her room.

"At least you're finally up," April said, "I was getting bored babysitting you." 

Annie grabbed her nearest pillow and lunged it at her sister's face. "What are you doing in my room?! Urgh! Get ou-ow!"

April pulls the pillow off her right as Annie winces in pain, clutches the side of her head, and notices the bandages. "That's why, doofus," April answered.

Annie pulls up her phone from her nightstand, using its camera to see the bruise peeking underneath the bandages. "How did..." she mumbled, before everything with Sandstorm started coming back to her. "I lost..." she whispered, a downcast look in her eyes, "and she's still out there."

April sits beside Annie at her bed, and says something Annie's heard from her sisters dozens of times before: “What the heck have you gotten yourself into, Annie?”

"I..." Annie muttered, trying to find the words as she hung her head low over what had happened. "I just wanted to solve this without you and...Mayday." Annie looks around again before asking, “Where’s Mayday?”

April answers by pointing her thumb at Annie's half-opened window as the evening breeze flows in, saying, "Blowing off steam."

[Earlier…in Upper West Side]

On top of a terrifying-looking gargoyle, situated on a century-old gothic building, an intimidating aura simmered in the air as Spider-Girl overlooked the neighborhood below. Her lenses were unblinking and narrow as she stared at her target with fiery focus. Spider-Girl's back was arched as she leaned forward, her head kept low, as if ready to pounce at any moment. She was eager to get the action started tonight, but only briefly snapped out of this state of mind when a familiar face arrived.

“Mask or no mask, I know that look in your face, May,” said Mayday’s longtime friend and partner, whose dark hair fluttered against tonight’s strong winds. “Something’s got you pissed off.”

Mayday looked over her right shoulder to see a familiar face casually defying gravity. Behind the yellow goggles and violet scarf mask was Danielle Jones-Cage, also known as Power-Woman...as of a few months ago. She'd gone through three names over the past four years, and Mayday figures that's probably because Dani sucks with names. Regardless of the name, however, one thing that remained unchanged was Dani's desire to protect her neighborhood. If you’re in Harlem and you find yourself in danger, this hero for hire is only a call away.

Her costume consisted of a dark jacket, half-zipped up to reveal a violet t-shirt with a white star underneath, long grey pants, yellow gloves, and black boots. Her short hair, stylized in locs, brushes over her hazel-brown eyes as she stares curiously at Mayday.

“You’ve seen the news, I’m sure,” Mayday said, drawing her attention back to an old mechanic shop.

“Yes,” Danielle said with a shrug. She crossed her legs, making it appear as though she was sitting in mid-air. She hovered closer to her friend, saying, “But clearly what I heard isn’t the full story.”

Mayday's expression was as clear as day, her mask looking so annoyed. Seeing that Dani wasn't gonna let the subject change, Mayday exhaled and eased her posture. “Annie got hurt pretty bad in a fight she shouldn’t have been at in the first place.” Dani crossed her arms, and Mayday could see her friend’s curiosity turn to concern. “She’s fine,” she assured, “Doc said it’s nothing a good nap and ibuprofen couldn’t help.”

“Good. That’s good,” Dani murmured. Mayday could hear her relief, as if Annie were one of her siblings. Dani has always been caring like that; anyone close to her in trouble, and she'd shield them as if they were her flesh and blood. Dani continues, asking, “Now, why would Annie dive headfirst into a fight like that in the first place? Even the freshmen simulations at the Academy aren’t that tough.”

“Can we focus on our mission first? Not like I can wrap my head around that right now anyway,” Mayday groaned.

"You can share with me."

"I shared enough," Mayday insisted. "Also, I doubt the Avengers fight sand people often to put it in their academy's simulations."

"You'd be surprised," Dani said with a smirk. She then points at her right eye, saying, "Got walloped here during one of my tests against a simulation of an old Avengers foe. That hit was so hard that I had a shiner."

Mayday raised an eyebrow before scoffing. "Shut up, there's no way."

"Was only around for a moment, but it's true. Y'know what from? I kid ya not, Awesome Android."

Mayday can only shake her head, holding back a chuckle as she asks, "Who the heck even is that?"

"Hell if I know, girl. Just that he got a mean right hook, I'll tell you that much."

"Ha! That's silly," Mayday chuckled. "But a good kind. Thanks for the laugh, Dani." 

"Anytime," she said, lightly hitting May's shoulder. "So, feeling better to share more deets? 'Cause I'm gonna go out on a limb here and assume it was you one to tell her not to fight.”

Mayday pinched her brow as she sighed. “She’s SO smart, Dani," she earnestly expressed. "So I don't understand it whenever she does something like this. This...Sandstorm was the size of a building.”

“I’m sure she only wanted to help,” Danielle reasoned.

“We ALL are, that's every hero's duty," Mayday said. "But that doesn't mean being reckless. I swear, she was this close to ending up in the emergency room. God, it'd be a miracle if Mom and Dad don’t find out.”

Dani raised her hands as her eyes widened. “Now that is a news flash. You’re hiding this from your folks?”

“Last thing they, and frankly all of us, need is more stuff to worry over," Mayday reasoned. "Besides, she’ll be right as rain by morning.”

“Uh-huh, and what plan do you have to share with them the second they start asking about this Sandstorm?”

Mayday is silent, her eyes darting around the street below. “…Hey, look, I think I see a weird van.”

“Mayday!” Dani said, demandingly.

“Fiiiine, I’m still brainstorming that part," Mayday admits. "But, whatever the plan, Annie’s strictly NOT a part of it.”

Dani leaned back and asked, “You think that’s the best approach?”

“What do you—? Woah, hey, I seriously see something now. Look!”

The two heroes pause their discussion when they see a class 7 heavy-duty truck moving slowly through the empty street before briefly stopping in front of the rustic mechanic shop. Until now, the shop looked empty, almost abandoned, with its decaying sign and cracked windows. Suddenly, light lit up inside, and a few uniformed men walked out from inside and towards the truck. Both Mayday and Dani felt their anger begin to boil upon recognizing the emblem on the driver's and the men's uniforms: a red skull.

A few weeks ago, this was just another of Dani's usual cases. Some tight-knit hate group that nearly pummeled an afro-latino boy, Ricardo, in Harlem until Dani swooped in and saved him. It was hardly the group's first crime, as they've harassed other families in the neighborhood. Dani thought she had taken care of them until she noticed a tattoo of a red skull on them and, a few days later, stopped another racist who had the same tattoo. That's when she suspected that these weren't isolated incidents; these people were part of a larger, organized hate group. Mayday has been helping her since, and after weeks of investigating, they've found one of their hideouts.

Just in time, too, as the men begin to unload something from the truck. Mayday and Dani gasp upon seeing one man trip and drop one of the boxes, revealing grenades and high-caliber ammo inside.

Mayday glanced over to Dani and saw in her eyes how ready she was to shut'em down. Both share a look, and Mayday quietly signals her friend to hold. It takes a few minutes, but these Red Skulls take their supplies inside and order the driver to go, likely to avoid attracting attention. Mayday's eyes are on the truck, waiting for it to turn the corner, until giving the go-ahead, and the two leapt into action.

Spider-Girl swung down whilst Power-Woman flew above and already ahead of the truck. Leaping over a building, Spider-Girl somersaulted onto the top of the truck right as Power-Woman flew down and hovered in front of the approach truck. Spider-Girl heard the driver yelp at the sight of her friend before using her spider strength to punch through the metal rooftop and pulling him out. Power-Woman dashed and grabbed the thirty-thousand-pound truck before it could swerve uncontrolably, using her immense power to stop it in its tracks quickly.

"Wha-what just happened?" the Red Skull driver muttered, his fright spiking upon turning his head and seeing in the dark a dark red mask and narrow white lenses glaring right at him.

"How many are inside?" Spider-Girl demanded.

Power-Woman hovered over him, brushing the dust from her gloves as she followed up with, "And what are you planning with those explosives?"

The driver noticed Power-Woman and sneered at her. "Like hell I'm telling-!" He didn't get to finish as Power-Woman suddenly grabbed his ankle and shot up hundreds of feet into the air, until she was hovering high in the sky. This was all a little surprise to Spider-Girl as she stood back and heard the echoes of the driver's screams in the night sky. Spider-Girl then vaguely heard him cry out, "Twenty-two guys! They got several targets, but I don't know all of them! I-I think one's a-a-a school or something!"

Power-Woman's grip over his ankle tightened, like she was ready to crush it into paste. "You disgusting people," she hissed, her blood boiling the longer she looked at him, at the symbol of hate on his chest. Dealing with the stink of him long enough, she flew back down and tossed him over to the nearest lamppost, which Spider-Girl quickly then webbed him onto. "Just twenty-two. They're planning multiple attacks," she informed Spider-Girl. 

"Then let's go stop'em," she replied, swinging after Power-Woman, who had already flown back up and aimed for the roof of the Red Skull's hideout.

"I see lights blinking nearby. Spider-Girl, look out for and block any exits to this building. Can't risk a single member escaping and getting someone hurt."

"Right. And you?"

Power-Woman then said with a confident smirk, "Leave trash disposal to me."

Spider-Girl saw her tear through the sky, like a speeding bullet, and burst through the old brick rooftop as if it were papier mache. She followed her friend's command, scooping the outside premises to seal any exit routes, but the sounds of gunfire and loud crashing inside were a quick sign to her that she'd probably need to worry about a member escaping. The ground below her shook with each of Power-Woman's punches, and Spider-Girl heard the cackle of the bullets, which she imagined were ricocheting off her friend's invincible dark skin. She'd wince slightly at the sound of a popped bone and checked her phone when she heard heavy steel creak and bend, very likely her friend's way of entrapping any member left standing.

After another minute of bangs and cracks, Spider-Girl was by the front door to see Power-Woman burst through the wall as if that front door didn't exist. Aside from some fresh bullet holes in her jacket and a coat of dust, she was unscathed as if she wasn't just riddled with over a hundred rounds of ammo. "Deactivated the bombs they already made," she said casually, tossing one of those explosive devices into Spider-Girl's hands.

"Cool. And who's that?"

Spider-Girl points at the barely conscious bearded man being dragged around by his ankle.

"The leader of this small branch," Power-Woman answered, "is one Andrew Blake. According to his wallet, he's an off-duty cop of the 17th precinct. Another guy inside is also a cop, part of the bomb defusal team. Guess that helps explain how they're packing this much firepower."

"Why am I not surprised?" Spider-Girl said, who has long lost count of how many cops she'd run into who are affiliated with, or under the payroll, of villainous groups like the Red Skulls. "Urgh, well that's gonna make booking these guys more annoying for us."

"Us? Nah, YOU are going back to deal with personal matters," Power-Woman said, as if giving an order. "I can handle the rest from here. You've already been a big help these past few weeks, even with your busy schedule." 

Spider-Girl was about to insist she'd help, but the tenth text from April arriving in her growing inbox reminded her of other responsibilities. The two friends exchanged a farewell salute as both soared across the skies in opposite directions, with Mayday looking forward to seeing that Red Skull fascist mugshot on the front page. She'd tried to savor the taste of another victory, but the closer she swung home, the more her mind was flooded with the image of Annie so badly hurt...and her being unable to stop it.

[The Parker Residence...]

“Where’s Mayday?”

April answers Annie's question by pointing her thumb at the half-opened window beside them, the evening breeze flowing in. "Blowing off steam," she said.

As if on cue, the window is suddenly occupied by the red web patterns of her sister's suit. "Mayday!" Annie gasped, flinching from her sudden appearance and the glare behind those white lenses. Mayday's nostril let out a loud huff as she entered the room, grabbing the window behind her before slamming it shut. Annie feels a wave of words trying to escape her mouth, more and more explanations piling up as she tries to think of one to defend her actions. Then, her gaze turns to April, who tapped her arm before discreetly shaking her head. It then dawns on Annie that this was the most backup she had ever received. Annie frowns upon recalling how she went behind both their backs. With how bad things turned out, neither of them was happy about what she had done.

Annie saves her words and returns her gaze at Mayday, who has taken off her mask as she walks back and forth across the room. She sharply inhales and asks April, "How much time do we have till dinner?"

April sniffs the air, her powerful nose picking up the scent of tonight's stew. "Like ten minutes," April answered as she rolled back towards the desk in her chair.

"Alright," Mayday said with a tired look as she turned away and grabbed the door handle.

Annie blinked in surprise, blurting out, "We're not gonna talk about it?!"

Mayday shut the door with a low growl in her tone, hoping their parents didn't just hear'em. "April and I will be talking about it," she said. "YOU are staying right here before you get yourself hurt again."

"Don't treat me like I'm-!" Annie talked back before her head started to spin as her headache spiked. She winced from the irritating pain, but it also grounded her, giving her a second to think. She sat back down, her ginger red hair obscuring her eyes as she said, "I...I was doing what you two would've done. Yeah, I didn't think she'd be so powerful but..." Annie sighed, her stubborn belief that she was doing the right thing cracking under the weight of this other feeling gnawing at her the longer she ruminated over her battle. 'Pfft, Battle,' she thought, 'more like a total humiliation.'

Mayday glances over at April, who, as usual, is blunt with her opinions. "Ya two talking or not? I'm starving here," she groaned, already bored and hungry.

"Alright. What started this, Annie? Why keep everyone out of the loop?"

"It started the other day," Annie explained. "I ran into the Red Hoods and chased them back to their-"

"No," Mayday interrupted. "What started this?"

"I'm telling you what-"

"No, you're not."

Annie paused, her arms out in confusion. She was giving the facts, wasn't she? Facts. That's when Annie noticed what Mayday was honestly asking. Her arms lowered, feeling a bit exposed as she explained, "I screwed up. Two people working for the Red Hood were killed before I reached them. It bothered me the whole night, and I barely got any sleep. I needed to know how and by whom. I needed to...stop this aching feeling in my chest over the mess I made."

"That feeling is?" Mayday asked.

"That I'm not good enough," she whispered, her eyes downcast as her hand faintly hovered over her chest.

"Good enough?" April said. "Annie, that's stupid. Things didn't go the way you wanted the other night, so what?! Shit sucks but it happens. This ain't your mess either, it's this uhh Sand-Woman's fault, yeah?"  

Annie responded with silence. An answer sitting on her tongue before a feeling inside pulled it back.

"She's called herself Sandstorm," Mayday corrected. She steps forward while allowing Annie her space. "And that doesn't explain why you didn't just share this, especially if it was important."

"Like I NEED to share everything with you," Annie muttered.

"When we're a team, yes, you do need to share, Annie. When we don't, well..." Mayday said, gesturing at the bandages and bruises on Annie.

Annie's nose scrunches up. Now she began to be really annoyed. "I got hurt over fighting Mysterio and that pumpkin lady, what makes this any different?"

"You had us," Mayday reminded. "We're always right behind you, but you choose to leave us in the dark and face someone stronger than both of them! Utterly irresponsible in my book."

"I don't want to be babied by you two!" Annie argued. "Why don't you just trust me more?!"

"I'll trust you more when you stop breaking it with stunts like-!"

"Oooookay, take a breath, you two," April said, stepping between her sisters with her arms out. "Yeeesh, you two are being so dumb when it's up to me to start acting as the mediator."

"She's being dumb," Annie said, pointing at Mayday.

"She's being a brat," Mayday said, pointing at Annie.

"Look, it was dumb," April said, looking at Mayday before turning to Annie. "But this also ain't Annie's first solo rodeo either. Look, you two, even against someone like this sand lady, both of you would've been caught totally off guard. Not me, of course, cause I'm the badass of the group."

"Obviously," Mayday and Annie said in sarcastic unison. 

"So, try focusing on that. The fact is, Sandstorm has got to be the strongest enemy we've seen yet, and she popped out of goddamn nowwhere! Like, where did someone this freakin' strong even come from?"

"I wish I knew," Mayday sighed. "But I have an idea of who she is. She reaches into her suit's pocket to pull out a burnt badge, and Annie's eyes widen upon recognizing the badge. "Snagged this from the scene while you were checking on Annie. Seems she dropped it," May explained. "Her name is Alvarado. She's an employee of Empire Unlimited. I did a quick search via her photo ID, but found squat. Anything about her social life, heck, even any work page of hers, just went poof!"

"Like it's been scrubbed clean," April assumes, to which Mayday nods. "Anything else she could've shared?" April asked Annie. 

"She wasn't exactly all...there when speaking," Annie explained, pointing at the side of her head.

"Well, that's just great," April said. "She's uber-tough and crazy."

"I'm...not sure about that last part, April," Annie commented. "She was more confused than anything. When I asked if she really does work under Empire U, she said, 'It seems so.'"

Mayday tilts her head, "What, like she wasn't sure herself?"

"Yeah. I thought she was messing with me, at first," Annie recounted. "She was barely keeping herself together."

"How so?" Mayday inquired.

"Like she was falling apart," Annie shared. "At least, when she wasn't so huge and furious. And that's the other thing, when I asked about Augustus Roman, she acted like she knew him."

"You're sure?" April asked.

"With how mad she was, yeah, pretty sure." Annie clutched her hands together, trying to pull herself back into those memories as she said, "I told her I was gonna bring her in...and she looked at me like I was the bad guy. Just mumbling to herself that 'she'd never' before totally exploding on me." Annie lowered her gaze the more she described the encounter, every vivid detail coming back, and with it a new gnawing feeling in her mind. Annie's fist pressed against her forehead as she hung her head down. "I...I think I hurt her."

Though Annie didn't catch it, April shifted in her seat and pondered as she glanced out the window.

Annie felt a hand on her shoulder, recognizing it as Mayday's. "Annie, you tried your best--"

"She's still out there, Mayday," she said, her concern rising with each word. "She's a supervillain, right? She'll get more dangerous, Mayday. This is my mess, I admit, okay? I'll own up to it if you please let me-"

"No," Mayday said with a straightforwardness that crushed Annie."You're...you're out, Annie."

Her heart felt as if a needle had punctured it. Annie whispered, "What?"

"April and I will deal with it."

Even April stood up in surprise. "You freakin' serious, Mayday?"

"Come on, the two of us can handle anything thrown at us, and I'm sure Dad or the others have some old notes lying around on how to deal with a super like Sandstorm."

"That's not the issue here-"

"Girls!" Their mother's voice rang from downstairs. "Dinner's getting cold!"

With the clock running out, Mayday takes the opportunity to have the final word on the matter. "As leader, this decision is final."

"Mayday," Annie whispered, "I just wanted-"

"Don't. Just...don't." Mayday glanced over to Annie, hiding her frown before turning around and walking out of the room.

"I hate it when she..." April grumbled before turning to Annie.

She was utterly stunned. Annie felt as if she could barely move, leaving only her eyes to turn to April, looking for any help. April stared at her wounds, a pain in her eyes, seeing her little sister hurt. Reluctantly, April tucked her hands into her jacket's pockets before following Mayday out the door. Right before she did, Annie grabbed the nearest thing she could grab and hurled it at the door, causing it to slam shut. Her fist shook in anger before she pressed her hands to her face, quietly begging her powers to show her a future on how to fix this.

[Later...Deep Underground]

Heavy vehicles above shake old beams below, and the echoes of sirens bounce against rusty pipes and iron bars. 

A dim light faintly illuminates the brick walls of this sewer junction. Time moved slowly down here. So slow that she can feel each second of it fade away. The intense solitude of this place, with its rotten walls surrounding her and cloaked in darkness, evoked a feeling of suffocation. The ceiling was covered with dark slime, and the most repugnant odor littered the air. Such a smell would be enough to make any human who dares venture into this subterranean level choke from its fumes. Luckily for Sandstorm, she wasn't human. Not anymore. Though she can't smell or taste anything anymore, she could still feel the sand from her back falling. Sand littered the whole floor as she sat in front of a workbench, fiddling with something, on a platform that had once been a maintenance station. A hundred years ago, it was once useful, fulfilling its purpose, but had long since been forgotten by time. Abandoned.

This was her first shelter after being reborn, at least she thinks it is. Her head hurts trying to remember. It's strange, she thought, clawing after memories that feel like they belong to another. 

Besides the sand all over the place, littered across were stuff her body had dragged along the way. Among them were jewels, junk, munitions, and chunks of cement. Her head nagged at what Spiderling said. She doesn't remember that night at all, even if she tried. 

Hypothesis: Another mental side effect of her current state of being is blackouts, preceded by night terror episodes. Blackouts often accompany memory loss, the severity of which then throws her mind into a state of frenzy after a blackout.

"Would explain why I closed my eyes in midtown then suddenly opened up in Chelsea," she muttered. "Regardless, she knows nothing about me. So, why is she acting like she does? I...I didn't do anything wrong...did I? God, my head. It'll only get worse from here." She tried collecting herself by looking at the situation again.

Observation: In the ten hours since she lost her only link to her likely past self, the first memory she'd forgotten was of her name. It subtly but gradually became worse. Two hours ago, or was it three and a half hours ago? Time is becoming tricky to keep track of. Anyway, she logged into a journal to write about what she did on her first day of school, her birthday, and building a sand castle when she was five. Now, she's forgotten all the details of such events and only knows they exist because she wrote them down. Yet, all the memories of skills and knowledge of the material world remain. That's good, at least, but it was a small comfort.

Identifying problem: While calculating something as uncalculable, like the rate of memory loss, is a vain effort, she'd believe that she only had days at most before the degeneration of her psyche leads to the total loss of her past self.

That leads to her hypothesis. She'd probably already come up with one if maintaining the one thing keeping her alive wasn't so annoying. Scattered across her workbench were several metal scales of monocrystalline silicon, each in the shape of hexagons. Beside them were special tools, burnt-out metal wires, and Palladium. This element is radioactive, so hazmat suits would only protect a human for ten seconds before being exposed to a high dosage of radiation. Lucky for her, she's nothing but sand, so radioactivity meant nothing to her. She picks up one of the tools as she presses a new field winding iron-based coil carefully into the device in her chest.

The SW-01 Electromagnetic Particle Generator. Her new heart. A sphere-like device with a circumference of 55.7 cm, based on the frameworks of semiconductors and particle accelerators, it is a powerful and precise magnet that can control even the movement of particles, thanks to its nuclear-powered core and carefully assembled strings of special coils. Its outer shell then magnifies the effects of the device, while also protecting its interior.

With the coil carefully implanted, she delicately picked up the palladium and inserted it into the fore of the device. The reaction begins almost immediately, and piles of sand that have fallen off her form are pulled back into her control. Pieces of the device's shielding fly back into it, and the device hovers by itself while humming with energy as she seals up her chest. Placing her hand over it, the machine felt like a heartbeat.

The degradation wasn't only affecting her mind, but her body, too. Without this device, this metal heart, it'd become impossible to maintain a stable form, and eventually she'd be nothing but a pile of worthless sand.

She knows this. She knows the science. She knows every intricate piece of this magnificent piece of engineering and physics. She knows all this because...because...Her head begins to hurt. Everything concerning the incident was fuzzy. Her head always hurts when she thinks about the past, yet sometimes it also feels oddly numb. Her mind has become riddled with holes, tiny voids that consume anything precious to her, leaving only this dying husk of sand. "I'm gonna die as this...this thing," she said in a low, sad tone. A creepy apathy over her eventual demise was creeping in as she hunched over, clutching the back of her head. "I'm not strong enough, not good enough to fix this! I just wanted to...to..."

Her hand hovers over her collarbone as she faintly brushes over a gold locket around her neck. She holds up the locket, gently as if it were the most precious possession she had, and opens it.

Seeing two faces smiling back at her, her eyes squint as if trying desperately to never forget, despite how painful it is. Her head is stung with pain, and in that pain, she's reminded of another memory that wasn't gone yet. A memory that she REFUSES to forget.

"Roman," she growled, her eyes igniting with a flash of yellow energy as every grain of sand in her form shook with newfound rage. "You...you stabbed me in the back! I gave you everything, only for you to take my world from me! You ripped away my humanity, Roman, but all that did was throw away anything holding me back!"

With every word uttered, her form grows more stable, and her iron heart glows yellow as it aids in finishing reassembling her sand body. Sandstorm, resembling a sand statue brought to life, begins to walk past rusty equipment, broken pipes, and iron rails. Her path leads her to a drained sewer pit, about 10 feet deep and 7 feet wide. It was filled with sand, her sand, and nearly buried within it was a man. Eric Simmons, the new project head whom Roman replaced her with after the 'incident. Only his fingers and the top half of his head were visible, his only source of air, and it was the gas mask that kept him from passing out from the odor.

She saw his eyes wince and his voice whimper as she turned on the lights over him. He tried to move, but her sand gripped him tightly, trapping him within the grip of her fist. Parts of her face dripped off whilst she leaned down, as if skin peeling off a human face. Her getting closer frightened him even further, prompting him to speak again. "L-l-look! I didn't know it was your job. R-roman just suddenly hired me. I-I never would've taken if-"

"If he didn't make a deal you couldn't refuse, right?" A shadow was cast over her face when she said this, leaving only the eerie skull-like appearance for Eric to see. "You don't know me, and I don't know you," she continued, "and I don't care too. All I care about is you revealing the project's new location. I know Roman moved its location, I know it's where he'll be once he learns the monster he created still lives."

Eric's eyes squinted in fright as her green eyes glared right at him. "I-I can't r-remember."

Her frustration ignited as she clutched a fistful of his hair."You're lying, " she shouted. "Everyone of Roman's people, you are all liars are messing with my head! Lie to me one more time, doctor!"

Eric shrieked and panically explained, "Going after the project won't help you anyway! Roman's up in Liberty City. Has been for weeks! Even the board can't bring him back here. Look, you're sick. J-just let me go and I can hel--"

Sandstorm, without hesitation, tore off the mask let him sink deep into the sand by turning it into quicksand. "I don't want anyone's help," she muttered, crushing the mask in her hand, "no one can help me anyway." After half a minute under, she brought him back up from near suffocation and to the surface with all its nauseous fumes. She demands one last time, "WHERE?!"

Coughing up sand and his face turning green from the fumes, the scientist blurts out, "Between Silver Lake and Richmond Medical Center! A new building! Two floors beneath!"

"Of course," Sandstorm whispered to herself, a blurry memory coming back to her. However, as soon as the past seemed graspable, the deafening marching of boots blocked it.

"Radiation levels spiked right down here, Captain!" an officer's voice echoed.

"Police," Sandstorm hissed, seeing vague shadows of them around the corner. She turned in the opposite direction only to see more shadows approaching. They've snuck up on her.

"There!"

Sandstorm's form morphed the second the bullets began to shred through her.

"Hydro units, up front now! Turn her into mud," Captain Gao commanded.

Whilst shielding herself, Sandstorm spots a maintenance shaft in front of her and makes a quick getaway. She flew through the shaft like a desert ghost, filling the cavern with a cloud of sand to cover her escape. She didn't slow for a second, shifting through manholes and large pipes until she reached a storm drain. Moonlight peeks through the drains as the hum of the city echoes. Sand fills the air of the drain, moving through it like a sand ghost while peeking to see if the coast is clear.

'I must've escaped into another neighborhood,' she thought. A stream of sand bellows out of the drain, creating a cloud of dust until an arm made of sand grips the pavement—part of the sidewalk breaks apart as Sandstorm pulls herself out and onto the empty street.

"You hate loose ends, Roman. Did you buy out those cops?" The scowl on her face became clearer as she slowly regained a human appearance. Her bulky, slow-moving sand legs drag against the pavement until she begins to move more quickly, and clumps of sand start to resemble sneakers. The trail of sand stops as Sandstorm brushes sand off her pants and green jacket. "All things considered," she sighed, "that could've gone... worse?" She paused and hovered her hand over her neck.

Gone.

"No," she gasped, "my locket. I-it must've fallen off when my body ch-changed." She tried not to crumble apart as her head began to buzz violently, like a horde of wasps stinging her mind, her memories. "Nonono! I can't fall apart now," she grunted, forcing herself to keep moving through the sheer anger and hate flaring up inside her. She hurriedly decided to take the long way to avoid further annoyance from police and detection from any 'hero' dumb enough to get in her way. "Roman. His Empire. The Cops. Spider-Girls. This is all because of them," she hissed out venomously with every name she uttered."All of them tried to throw me away. Treating me like I'm some thug. Trapping me in some cramp, dingy cell! I won't be rid of and forgotten any more, and if those spider brats get my way again...then they only got themselves to blame for what I'll do next."

To Be Continued...