“Wait… I’m sorry… could you say that again?” asked Greg.

Mattie sighed. “I’m pregnant, Greg.”

“But… but that’s not possible…” said Greg. “You’re on the pill, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, and it looks like I just became one of those statistics,” said Mattie. She walked over to his bed and practically collapsed on it. “God, what am I gonna do?”

Greg stood dumbfounded. Slowly he turned and faced his girlfriend. “But… I’m only nineteen…”

“And I’m still in high school,” said Mattie. “What can I tell you? These things happen. Even to superheroes. And now, we have to find a way to deal with it.”

Greg sat next to her. Mattie laid her head against his chest and Greg wrapped his arm around her. “This can’t be happening,” said Greg. “Everything was going perfectly. I’m doing good in school, I’m a superhero, I’ve got an amazing superhero girlfriend…”

“ I guess things were going too good for us,” said Mattie. “Because now this happens and we’ve got to find a way to deal with it.”

“I guess taking a leave of absence from the team is pretty much a given right now,” said Greg.

Mattie forced a short chuckle. “To say the least.”

“I’ll call Robbie and let him know,” said Greg. He stood from the bed and walked over to the desk where his cell phone sat.

“ Are you going to tell him… everything?” asked Mattie.

Greg sighed as he looked at Robbie’s entry in his phone. “I was going to… unless you don’t want me to.”

“Yes… I mean no…” she scoffed at herself. “I don’t know. This is all too much for me, I think I need to get some air…”

Mattie started to move for her bag where her Spider-Woman costume was but Greg stood and blocked her path. “Whoa, hold on a minute,” he said.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“You can’t go web-swinging, it’s too dangerous,” he said.

“Greg, I’m pregnant not crippled,” said Mattie. “As long as I don’t strain myself, I’ll be fine.”

“Yeah, but what if you run into an enemy? See a bank robbery? Too many things could happen.”

“You can’t tell me what to do!” said Mattie.

“When you’re carrying my child, I can!”

Mattie slapped him hard across his face, not taking into account her enhanced strength and the blow sent him toppling. “Oh crap!” She knelt down by him. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean—”

“I know,” said Greg. He rubbed his jaw, which now had a nice bruise forming and pulled himself back to his feet. “Look, I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to leave right now. This is a big deal here and we really need to talk about it.”

Mattie nodded. “You’re right. So what do we do?”

FULL CIRCLE

Part II: Distractions

By Dino Pollard

Crash Pad

“And then she said I need to grow up!” shouted Ricochet. “Can you believe that? I need to grow up!”

“It’s unbelievable,” said Eddie McDonough. “Look out behind you.”

“Covered,” said Ricochet, leaping over the energy blast fired by the gun turret and hurling an explosive disc at it. The turret was reduced to shrapnel. “But you know what was worse than that?”

“Worse than getting dumped?” asked Eddie.

“Yeah,” said Ricochet. He somersaulted over a battering ram and landed on it as it flew across the training room. “I ran into Joystick, right? And she agreed with Kathy!”

“That’s rough,” said Eddie. He stood from the control booth, the pair communicating through the intercom system.

Ricochet bound and twisted through the air, avoiding several spinning glaives with each move. A few more came at him and Ricochet deflected these with his throwing discs.

“Where the hell does she get off anyway?” asked Ricochet. “Telling me I need to grow up—I’m not the ex-con!”

“I don’t know where she gets off,” said Eddie.

“Y’know…” said Ricochet, his warning sense alerting him to pillars of fire exploding from the ground and allowing him to jump around them. “…this banter seems pretty one-sided. What’s on your mind, Ed?”

“Nothing much,” said Eddie. “Just listening to everything you’ve been talking about.”

“Like I said, crazy, huh?” asked Ricochet.

“Yeah, maybe it is,” said Eddie.

“Whoa, whoa,” said Ricochet. He jumped from his position over to the observation window. “What do you mean maybe?”

Eddie shrugged. “Now’s not the time, Rico.”

“No, the time is now, this is the perfect time,” said Ricochet. “No one could pick a better time, not even if they had a time machine.”

“Okay, chill,” said Eddie. “Look Rico, you’re my best friend and I love you… in a totally hetero way.”

“Of course,” said Ricochet.

“But… have you ever thought that… maybe there’s some truth to what Kathy and Joystick said?”

Ricochet started to laugh. “I can’t believe I’m hearing this! You’re supposed to be my best friend and that’s the crap you’re feeding me?”

“Dude… look, I’m your best friend and I’ll let you rant and rave about anyone who’s pissing you off,” said Eddie. “But that doesn’t mean I’m gonna lie to you. If you ask me for my opinion, I’m gonna give you my opinion—not what you want to hear.”

“So you’re telling me that Kathy was right to dump me?”

“No, not at all,” said Eddie. “I’m just saying there was some truth to what she said. I mean c’mon Rico… think about it. Have you even declared a major yet?”

“…it’s on my to-do list.”

“And why do you always tip-toe around the whole mutant issue?” asked Eddie.

“I… I dunno, okay?” said Ricochet. “Look, maybe I’m just not comfortable with the idea that I’m a… y’know.”

Eddie rolled his eyes. “Dude, c’mon. Say it.”

“I don’t have to say it.”

“Just say it.”

“Why should I? We both know.”

“Rico…”

“Okay, okay fine,” said Ricochet. “I’m a mutant! You happy? I’m a freak of nature, is that what you wanna hear?”

Ricochet pulled off his mask and stormed out of the training room. Eddie ran to the control room’s exit. “Rico, Rico wait!”

Ricochet turned the corner and almost ran right into the leader of the New Warriors. “Whoa, slow down,” said Speedball. “Where’s the fire?”

“Just need to get outta here, that’s all,” said Ricochet.

“Oh yeah?” asked Speedball. “I’m feelin’ the call of the rooftops. Wanna join?”

Ricochet looked over his shoulder to see Eddie approaching. He sighed and looked to Speedball. “Yeah, let’s go.”

Eddie watched the two of them leave and shook his head. He turned around and went towards the main room. He hoped the rest of the team was at least enjoying their weekend.

He tossed over in his sleep, the nightmare pulling at the back of his mind. He could see her in front of him, watched as she fell from the roof.

His fault. If not for him, none of this would have happened.

She plummeted. She hit the ground. She died.

And still, she haunts him. Her form, pitch-black. Like a void. She pulls off her face, revealing another beneath it. Short hair. Tattoos. She reaches out for him, her eyes glowing as something claws at her.

“Riiiiiiitcheeeeeee!”

Ritchie Gilmore woke with a start. His sheets were drenched with the sweat from his body, as were the shorts he wore to bed. He heard a voice from outside his room.

“Ritchie? Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, everything’s fine, Grandma,” said Ritchie. “Just a bad dream, that’s all.”

“You want me to make you a snack?”

“No, I’m fine,” said Ritchie. “Just go back to sleep, it’s okay.”

Ritchie Gilmore climbed out of bed and opened his closet, pushing his clothes to the sides. He pulled aside the false wall he installed, revealing a hidden alcove. Inside was a costume—red, white and blue. He picked up the mask and looked at it—a blue face mask with a red domino mask over the opaque lenses. A white star on the forehead.

“She needs me,” he said. “But do I bring you back?”

The light caught a flash further back in the alcove. Ritchie dropped the Patriot mask and reached into the alcove. His hands wrapped around something cold and metallic. Pulling it out, he stared at the gold helmet in his hands.

“So what are you, Ritchie?” he asked. “A Patriot or a Prodigy?”

Ricochet cleared the gap from one building to another with very little effort. Speedball shot past him, bouncing in front of him and then flying over to the next. Ricochet ran after and shot himself into the air. His hands wrapped around an antenna which he swung around before releasing and landing by Speedball’s side.

“Not bad,” said Speedball. “But you’re not fast enough to keep up with me.”

“We’ll see about that, superball,” said Ricochet.

“So what were you and Eddie talking about?” asked Speedball. “Seemed kinda serious.”

“Nothing I want to share,” said Ricochet.

“You sure?” asked Speedball. “Might help to talk to someone else.”

“Positive,” said Ricochet. “Besides, what do you care?”

“Hey, we’re teammates and more than that, we’re pals,” said Speedball. He looked at Ricochet with a questioning gaze. “Right?”

“We just work together, Robbie, that’s it,” said Ricochet.

“C’mon man, don’t be a tool,” said Speedball. “That’s what Patriot was like, remember?”

Ricochet did remember, unfortunately. Although his memories of Ritchie Gilmore predated Speedball’s, dating back to the time they were both members of the Slingers.

“He was always like that,” said Ricochet. “Back when he was Prodigy, too. Surprised I didn’t know it was him the whole time.”

“Don’t sweat it, man,” said Speedball. “You go down that road, you’ll drive yourself nuts. No way you could know what was going on.”

“I don’t care about Ritchie,” said Ricochet. He sprung from his position, launching into the air.

“Here we go again…” muttered Speedball, activating his kinetic field and sending him after his teammate. “Dude, wait up!”

“Thought you said I’d have trouble keeping up with you?” asked Ricochet.

“Yeah, but no head start!” said Speedball. He extended his kinetic field, the multi-colored bubbles surrounding him firing outward and surrounding Ricochet, catching the New Warrior in a stasis field.

“What the hell?”

“Dude, just talk,” said Speedball. “I don’t wanna deal with this crap, okay? Let’s keep this team as drama-free as possible.”

“Let me guess, you’re gonna lay a responsibility speech on me, too?” asked Ricochet.

“You know who you’re talking to?” asked Speedball. “I’m a fifth-year high schooler and at this rate, there’s a chance I’ll be a sixth-year student. I’m not gonna lay some guilt-trip on you, not my place. I just wanna make sure everything’s cool.”

“Okay fine, you wanna talk? Let’s talk,” said Ricochet.

Crash Pad

Eddie sat at the computer terminal, absent-minded as he surfed the Internet. He saw a few articles pop up on news sites about the New Warriors and the battle against Fin Fang Foom and the comments were particularly amusing.

“’These guys suck, they’re not the Warriors, just a bunch of imitators’” he read aloud. “Signed Hindsight? What the hell kind of name is that?”

“Hey.”

Eddie looked over his shoulder and saw Rage walking towards him. “Hey Elvin, how’s it going?”

“Can’t complain,” said Elvin. He pulled his mask off, sticking it in the pocket of his leather jacket. “Robbie around? Said he wanted to meet up, do a little sparring.”

“Maybe he forgot,” said Eddie. “He just left with Rico, hopping rooftops.”

“Damn, wish he’d called,” said Elvin. “I had to put off a date to come down here.”

“With who?” asked Eddie.

“That… it doesn’t matter,” said Elvin, growing a bit uncomfortable by the turn of the conversation. “What’s up with you?”

“Just bored, came down here to help Rico with some stuff but he’s in a mood,” said Eddie. “Maybe Robbie can snap him out of it.”

“Or just annoy the crap out of him,” said Elvin with a smile. “Robbie’s good at both.”

“At this point, I’d probably be okay with either scenario,” said Eddie.

The computer started blaring a siren-like noise. “What’s going on?” asked Elvin. “I didn’t touch anything, I swear!”

“Don’t worry, it’s not you,” said Eddie. He switched off the alarm and brought up what activated it. “I have the computers here set to alert if anything happens in the immediate area.”

“And?” asked Elvin.

“And I think we’ve got some action,” said Eddie. “Look at this.”

A news broadcast came up over streaming video. Several armed men were firing and what they were firing at was a man who moved extremely quickly, with clawed fingers and had a smile carved into his face with the tattoo of a tiger paw on the back of his bald head. He tore through the armed men.

“Who is that?” asked Eddie.

“I know who it is,” said Elvin. “He’s got a new look, but that’s Smiling Tiger.”

Also with Smiling Tiger was a man built like a truck, shirtless with a red circle tattooed on his massive chest. By his side was another young man, who moved quickly and had an expert fighting style as well as a woman with flames circling her body.

“The Folding Circle,” said Elvin.

“Who?”

“Some old friends,” said Elvin. “Call the others.”

Eddie opened a channel, transmitting text messages to all the Warriors via their cell phones. “If they’re tearing apart downtown, I’m just going to tell the team to get down there themselves. Not enough time to prep the War Chopper anyway.”

“What should I do, take a cab?” asked Rage, pulling on his mask.

“No, I’ve got something else in mind,” said Eddie, moving away from the computer. He walked over and activated a closet door. Inside sat a suit of armor with a hornet on its chest.

“Holy crap…” said Rage.

“What?” asked Eddie as he began to pull on the armor.

“It can’t be… he’s dead…”

Eddie walked over to Rage’s side and looked on the footage. In the center of the Folding Circle was a man with black energy swirling around his hands, wearing a trench coat.

“Diego Casseas, the Left Hand,” said Rage. “This is gonna be trouble.

NEXT: The New Warriors against the Folding Circle! But which Warriors will answer the call and which ones won’t?