Brooklyn Bridge

Waves of light swerved through the heavy traffic as the young heroine known as Lightspeed thrust into action. It was no surprise that the media helicopters hovered above her head. They would never miss an opportunity to slight the superhumans that had saved them on more occasions than she could remember. She had enjoyed the company of the Champions but their regime had completely taken over her life. Lightspeed was once again operating on her own terms. It was easy to slip back into the familiar habits. Being a superhero was nothing more than a hobby to the petite blonde, she enjoyed the thrill. She snapped her flight pattern skyward with a jerk and released streams of light from her hands. She smiled as they bent around the asphalt creature that screeched in front of her. Easily distracted as she was, Lightspeed froze when she should have swooped and the heavy fists of the monsters landed her firmly on her ass via the roof of a very expensive car she was sure she had just dented.

The world was watching, possibly even her brothers and sister, and Julie Power was pulling herself off of her ass. Still, there was no time for self-pity as she burst back into action. The news had been following this disturbance since the early hours of the morning but it had escalated when the lives of everyone on the Bridge were at stake. Lightspeed was the first responder and she was sure that someone more senior would come along to chastise her when the deal was done. The Avengers weren’t fond of youthful heroes freelancing. She brushed her gloved hands through her long hair and wished she’d tied it back from her face as she gracefully stepped back into the air. A lot of people misunderstood her powers—those that even knew of her—and presumed she flew at the speed of light but she had just been attempting to be clever with the codename. She wasn’t much faster than any other hero. She was simply more colourful.

“Street”, as the media had taken to referring to the unfortunate mutation ahead of her, launched an armful of asphalt into the air. She snapped forward as it crashed into a Mercedes Benz to her left. Lightspeed threw another shot of her photonic energies. It crashed directly into where she imagined his face to be and caused it to topple back slightly. Lightspeed took this opportunity to crash forward and thrust her fist into his surprisingly malleable stomach. Street laughed and offered what appeared to be a smirk as his chest wrapped around her arm and tightened. Lightspeed tried to draw her arm from the substance but found she was be trapped. Her icy eyes met the fiery pits of the creature as he released her—forcing her through the air with the skill of a slingshot. Failing to stabilise herself, Julie braced for the crash.

It never happened.

Lightspeed crashed onto her ass with a cracking thump. It stung like a bitch and it took the twenty-year-old longer than she would have liked to refocus and collect her thoughts amidst the stinging sensation that ran up her spine. Fortunately, the Kymellian Whitey had gifted her and her siblings with more than their respective abilities. Each member of what had once been the Power Pack had an advanced, although not unlimited, healing factor. Julie felt the pain now but she knew it wasn’t so serious that she couldn’t recover. Her broken wrist had once healed itself in less than twelve hours. Her vision was temporarily blocked by the gentle blonde waves of her hair but she hadn’t expected what she would see when she looked up. It wasn’t exactly the “big guns” she had been expecting but she was more renowned than the former Champion.

Mattie Franklin, better known under the codename of Spider-Woman that she shared with countless other webslingers, stood defiantly before the thrashing Street. It wasn’t how she remembered the ex-New Warrior from her brief stint in the papers. Lightspeed wondered if it was even the same girl.  She was considerably smaller than the light projector. Her long dark hair was drawn back into a ponytail that now swayed in the wind of the bridge. Her body was held tightly in a redesigned costume of black and white. It could be describe as closer to the costume of Julia Carpenter than the previous incarnation—which had always reminded her of the actual Spider-Man. Lightspeed wasn’t in awe of a cheap knock-off of an established hero. She rarely felt the spinoff to be as good as the original.

She was stoic.

Concentration was clear from the fixed from across her exposed lower jaw. This Spider-Woman was certainly less reckless than the young blonde had been. Her back was arched as she leaned forward slightly like a tiger ready to pounce on its prey. Lightspeed snapped out her hand and clasped at the young woman’s shoulder causing her to twist her face into a snarl. Clearly, she’d rather be on her own.

Lightspeed and Spider-Woman in…

SOMEBODY THAT I USED TO KNOW

By Gavin McMahon

“I wouldn’t let him touch you.”

Her lips drew tight. “Seriously? I would never have guessed.”

Spider-Woman seemed to have found whatever she had been looking for as she bolted forward with the speed and precision of a striking asp. Her hands seemed to boil with luminescent psychic energy that she projected into the air above her creating a variant of the organic webs used by her idol. Placing her foot on the bonnet of the car, Mattie hoisted herself onto the tendril and swung onto the side of one of the bridge’s mountainous columns. As she clung firmly to the metallic surface, Spider-Woman released blasts of yellow energy at the rocky creature. She had been created in mysticism and through science gained powers similar to the three preceding Spider-Women—although she was almost certain they were both active again. Her long hair brushed her cheek as she slipped from where she’d been, rubble following her as she descended back onto the tarmac. She stopped for two seconds before rolling from the path of Steel’s attack. She had narrowly dodged the falling car.

However, she’d positioned herself directly before Street. It seemed to take him by surprise which allowed her to momentarily gain the upper hand. It was an almost horrifying sight to see the psionic legs erupting from her back. She panted as the six sharpened points stabbed into the unstable body of the villain. Spider-Woman allowed her energy to spiral through each of the legs and into her asphalt foe. It was a strain but she seemed to be succeeding until his arm swung and tossed her across the length of the bridge. Gracefully, she managed to catch herself on a psionic web and land with minimal physical damage. Her ego was slightly bruised though, even more so as she watched the rookie heroine ahead stare with a sense of disdain. Mattie had been out of the game for too long but she needed to sort out her head or she’d wind up dead. She had responsibilities that wouldn’t allow that. Having returned for the thrill, she was already feeling an urgent sense of guilt. She needed this one more time, to show the world that Spider-Woman had accomplished something even though she’d failed to keep the New Warriors bound together.

Biting her tongue, Mattie marched forward. “Maybe we should tackle this problem together? Two heads are supposedly better than one.”

“Really? You’re clearly doing so well on your own.”

She thought little of the blonde’s snotty attitude but she had expected it. There was nothing warm or endearing about the woman who stood in front of her with folded arms. She was beautiful no doubt but there was an ice cold heart beneath the surface of her porcelain skin. Mattie was a great judge of character. It was why she was certain she could have expected more from Robbie Baldwin when she had tutored him and why she was positive she had chosen the right hero to align herself with in Spider-Man. The girl stood in a black and pink uniform that offered hardly any protection from physical assault and failed to conceal her civilian identity. It seemed more like a fashion statement than a secret identity. She knew who she was but had little experience in dealing with the girl. That was about to change whether they wanted it to or not.

“C’mon, glitter bomb.”

Julie snarled. “It’s Lightspeed.”

“Of course it is,” flounced Spider-Woman as she brushed onwards. Her shoulders were slouched but her fists balled and taut before the creature. Honestly, she felt out of her depth but she would never show it. Spider-Man never backed down. He did, however, take more of a beating on a frequent basis than she had any desire too. Just as she was about to charge forward, an explosive ray of light—the shades of rainbow—grazed her elbow and caught in the roaring throat of Street. He choked before spewing chunks of asphalt vomit into the air and watching it fall like rain. “Great.”

Lightspeed wiped sludge from her cheek. Her frown worsening as her mood became steadily darker. She thrust forward more of the brightly coloured energy she was able to produce but there was something almost comedic about the limp wristed attempt she offered. Still, her aim was surprisingly pithy as she struck Street and seemingly roused him to new layers of rage. His body merged with the road they now stood on, condensing and melding until he had disappeared. Both of the heroines watched in shocking, striking offensive and defensive positions simultaneously. Spider-Woman narrowed her eyes as she looked at the stark difference of the nothingness ahead. It didn’t take long for Street to react.

His tremendous asphalt body erupted from the ground beneath them, flinging them high into the earth. Lightspeed hovered but Spider-Woman crashed.

Street, however, reached for the blonde above him rather than brunette that now lay at his waist. His tunnel vision saw only his most recent aggressor.

Lightspeed dove out of his reach, slamming into the ground beside Spider-Woman and hurriedly assisting the New Yorker to her feet. Both were forced to dive from the path of Street’s crashing fists. Spider-Woman immediately shrugged free of the heroine’s grasp and the now familiar spider legs tore from her back. Headfirst, she slid beneath the crashing assault of Street until she managed to flip over him with the elegance of a gymnast. As she landed, the legs once again the legs attached to the fluid body and her energy pulsed through him. It brought a grimace to both of their faces. Mattie held on in there as she screamed to the other hero.

“Sparkler, hit him!”

Julie groaned. “It’s Lightspeed.” Stepping forward, she threw a steady concussive blast into his roaring mouth that already hummed with the swirling energies of Spider-Woman. It took less than four minutes for the on-going assault to create an implosion inside of him that wiped both of the girls from their feet and launched them across the bridge. Julie only paused when she smacked the back of her head off of the open door of a convoy. Her hazed vision saw nothing ahead of her but the murky ash and the slumped body of Street. Spider-Woman was gone.

Lightspeed looked around for a few seconds before the sirens blurred and she took to the skies.

Queens, New York

Mattie slowly drew her black gloved hands across the wall as she stepped quietly across the metallic fire escape. Rustling movement ahead alerted her to the extreme security this one man had gone to so he could protect himself. Spider-Woman had been trailing him and his corpses through the streets of her home for the better part of two months. Her uncle was bound to doubt her “extra study at the library” story by now. Yet, Mattie was sure he was turning a blind eye because he didn’t want to believe. Her swinging across the Brooklyn Bridge could easily have been one of the thousands of other vigilantes that seemed to have preceded her. Her pocket vibrated and she smashed her back against the wall, her breathing heavy.

Hurriedly she exposed her cell phone and ignored the call. Robbie Baldwin, she groaned internally. He had never been known for his great timing. Honestly, she was slightly disheartened that it hadn’t been another former New Warrior. She brushed personal emotions to the side as she leaned down towards the semi-opened window. While it was open, she was positive most of the sound she heard had come from the room came from the cracked window in its pane. Her ponytail almost betrayed her as she descended to look into the room. She hated to hover upside down on one of her webs but it made more sense than helplessly clinging onto the sill. Blood seemed to be rushing to her head at a rapid rate but this was what she had been waiting for.

It was hard not to giggle when she thought about the mood-lit setting the man had set up before her. It was dark, grim and something straight out of the pages of a Harry Potter prologue had it not been for the distinct New York skyline above the characteristic apartment block. Slug, she almost hissed with disgust. He wasn’t a name yet but he was working on it and Spider-Woman had taken this personal. Her best friend, Lily Hollister, had almost been murdered at the graduation ceremony of the latest police corpse. Brett Hollister hadn’t escaped. She had already been told revenge should never have been a motivator but Spider-Woman had made her decision and the man that had slaughtered some of the best and brightest of New York City wouldn’t escape the wrath of pain she would release on him. She just had to bide her time to discover his weaknesses, to learn his methods.

“Kramer seems to have been successful. He was useful for a brute.”

There was a haughty laugh. It was distinctly feminine. “Since when has operating under brute force ever harmed your sensibilities,kingpin?”

Spider-Woman cocked her neck and spotted the woman. She was sombrely dressed in black with a veil pulled across the upper portion of her face but the fiery auburn locks shone distinct amongst her ensemble. She held herself with elegance and grace, but there was an air of danger that lurked in the building. Mattie shuddered to think that Slug may have been succeeding in his path to claim New York City. Her eyes rolled make to the massive frame of Slug with disdain. He was incapable of movement and that should have made him an easy target. However, he was also impervious to pain. It was ironic that he had an ability that would have aided him so much as a criminal but he it carried a side effect that rendered him useless beyond strategy.

“Princess Python,” so she was named. “I have waited for your masters—”

She smirked. “Comrades, Slug. I have no master. Not anymore.”

“Regardless, so far they have given me a man of rubble and the glory is not mine.” He wasn’t a man that liked to wait. He had paid his dues long before now. He was the one that seemed to have been taken down again and again. Fisk and the others seemed to rise from the ashes like a phoenix on a daily basis. Well, Slug was done with waiting for the results of his ventures.

Princess Python continued not to make eye contact. “Did Street not serve you well? His reign of terror will continue and you will claim the credit. New York will need you to control your monsters, or else they will perish. Hero’s bodies will pave the way to your victory, Slug.”

There was a commotion beyond the doors. Footsteps fell heavy on the wooden flooring as someone screamed for Slug. It was a brassy, masculine voice and one of the enforcers burst through the door just as he screamed about an intruder. Spider-Woman immediately prepared to disappear but she was frozen by what happened next. As soon as the thug had come into direct eye contact with the mysterious Princess Python, his body had transformed entirely to a product that appeared to be stone. Mattie’s eyes widened. Last she had checked, Python had just controlled snakes with her charm. Shit just got real, she thought as she bounded from the building and landed on the street after an impressive backflip.

Two guards waited for her at the doorway and both opened fire. The almost silent night burst to life amidst the sounds of gunfire and a heavy downpour of rain. Spider-Woman silkily avoided the assault. Most of it, she realised as blood trickled from her right shoulder. She wouldn’t be wearing any tank tops for a while. Using her webs, she shot the guns from their hands and into the puddles at their feet before landing one of them flat on his back with a roundhouse kick. The other came at her from behind and attempted to hoist her into the air. Mattie had other ideas. She slammed her hand into his face and discharged a bio-kinetic blast of energy. It was a remnant of an incident from a past that still served her well.

She took the opportunity to escape from the scene. Both men grovelled in the dirt as she lurched down the alleyways and disappeared into the shadows but her symbol had been seen and would be remembered. Slug was a man who had been challenged and defeated too many times to allow a teenager the satisfaction of being his downfall.

Spider-Woman took a breath as she rounded the corner and paused. They hadn’t given chase but she hadn’t the ability to take them all on. Slug had created the creature from the Bridge, and he had a modified Princess Python and her colleagues on his side. If they were capable of what she was, then the young heroine wasn’t sure she was up to the job that lay ahead. She wondered if she had just listened to Jameson but she knew that these people needed her now, more than ever.

“Maybe it’s time to call in some help.”

Mattie hung her shoulders as she walked through the water soaked back alleyway. Her body ached and she had stumbled on something that she couldn’t quite handle alone. If New York was to survive what came next, it would need heroes.