Jonah Jameson looked at his niece as Bloodstrike held her down in front of him. Mattie noticed a rage in his eyes, one she had never seen directed at her before in the past. Finally he spoke. “What the hell did he call you?”

“Spider-Woman,” she said.

“And why would he call you that?” asked Jameson.

Mattie sighed. The Left Hand, however, chose to answer Jameson’s query. “Because Jonah, that’s exactly who she is. The third Spider-Woman, the one who became a failure and a washout before her career even started. After today, she’ll be a cautionary tale to other likeminded teen heroes.”

“This is insanity!” shouted Jameson. “You know who I am! Now get the hell out of my house or else I’ll—”

Smiling Tiger put some pressure on the claw he held beneath Jameson’s chin, just enough to barely break the skin. The Left Hand grinned at him, puffing on one of Jonah’s favorite cigars.

“You’ll what, Jonah?” he asked. “Your best shot of stopping us was with this little girl right here. But now, she’s our prisoner, too. How is she doing, Bloodstrike?”

Bloodstrike kept a firm grip on Mattie’s arms, fastening them behind her back. He had his other arm around her waist and Mattie tried not to struggle too much. Not given her present condition. “She’s not putting up much of a fight, boss.”

“Probably because she knows what we’ll do to her uncle if she does,” said the Left Hand. “Silk Fever?”

The young woman disengaged her fire form and searched through Mattie’s backpack. She pulled out a mask with large, opaque lenses. When Jameson saw this, he glared at her again.

“You’d better tell me that’s for a costume party!”

“It’s true, Uncle Jonah,” she said.

“If we get out of this alive, I’m going to kill you!” he shouted.

“There you go, Jonah. Show her what disobedience yields,” said the Left Hand.

“What do you want with me?” asked Mattie.

“Believe it or not, we were here for your uncle, not you,” said the Left Hand. “You’re just a delightful bonus. So here’s how this is going to work.”

He stood and walked over to Jonah, laying a hand on the older man’s shoulder. “Jonah, my friend, you’re going to give us a hand. You’re going to run an exposé on organized crime in New York. You’re going to reveal everything.”

“And that’s it?” asked Jameson.

“No, that’s not it—we’ll give you the information and you will leave us out of it,” said the Left Hand. “New York’s underworld is now the property of the Folding Circle and you’re going to help us take it for our own.”

“If I refuse?”

“If you refuse…” The Left Hand motioned to Bloodstrike, who wrapped a hand around Mattie’s neck and began to squeeze. “The family’s resident superhero ends up with a broken neck.”

“Fine,” said Jameson. “I’ll do it, just let her go.”

The Left Hand began to chuckle. “Do I have the word IDIOT tattooed on my forehead? No Jonah, first you run the editorial, then you get your precious back. Meantime, she comes with us as our insurance.”

FULL CIRCLE

Part VI: Hostage Situation

By Dino Pollard

Hell’s Kitchen

Blink’s portal opened in an alley near one of the three Vietnamese restaurants they suspected the Folding Circle to operate out of. Both of them were in costume and hugged the wall as Speedball peered out into the street.

“See anything?” asked Rage.

“Just worried about getting mobbed,” said Speedball. “After that TV show, the New Warriors are all the rage and everyone wants a piece of the studliest hero since Captain America.”

“Yeah, I hear Brad and Angelina are having trouble staying together because she can’t stop downloading Speedball pics online,” said Rage.

Speedball looked at his old friend. “Really?”

Rage smiled. “You’re too easy.”

“So, if this is the place, what do we do then?” asked Speedball.

“Thought you were supposed to be the leader.”

“Right, that’s right, I’m the leader.”

“That inspires confidence.”

“Hey, gimme a break, I’m still new at this,” said Speedball. “But hey…how am I doing? Really?”

Rage shrugged. “You’re not Dwayne or Vance if that’s what you mean.”

“Nah, don’t think I’d want to be either of them,” said Speedball. “But still, am I doing okay?”

“Yeah, you’re doing fine,” said Rage. “Maybe if you stopped stressing about it, you’d do better.”

“Right, better,” said Speedball. “So, do we go in the back or the front?”

Rage grinned. “Again, you’re the leader.”

“By all means, make this harder.” Speedball sighed. “A’ight, let’s go in the front, see how that works.”

As Speedball walked towards the street, Rage put a hand on his friend’s shoulder and pulled him back. “What did you just say?”

“…let’s go in the front?”

“No, before that.”

“Make this harder.” Speedball’s face dropped. “…that sounds bad.”

“It does, but after that.”

“…I don’t know.”

“You said ‘a’ight,’” said Rage.

“Yeah, and?” asked Speedball.

“Don’t say it again,” said Rage. “You’re a middle class suburban white boy. You can’t pull it off.”

“And you are officially no fun,” said Speedball.

On the other side of Hell’s Kitchen, another portal opened, dropping off Ricochet and Hornet. “So what’s gonna happen to her now?” asked Ricochet.

“I dunno,” said Hornet. “She’ll probably take some time off from the team, but that’s about all I can say for sure.”

“You think she’d keep it?” asked Ricochet.

“That’s up to her and Gravity, I guess.” The two of them stood at the rear entrance for a Vietnamese restaurant. Hornet tried the door and found it was locked. He looked at Ricochet. “Ready for this?”

Ricochet nodded, holding a throwing disc in each hand. “Let’s do this.”

Hornet drove his fist through the door and burst a hole inside. When he pulled his arm back through, he took the door off its hinges. Ricochet jumped in first, landing in a crouch, ready to throw his discs and Hornet stood behind him, arms extended and prepared to fire his stingers.

What they were greeted with instead were shocked Vietnamese cooks and wait staff, staring at them in surprise. Hornet lowered his arms as Ricochet stood upright, replacing the discs on his jacket.

“Umm…konnichiwa?”

Hornet elbowed Ricochet in the arm. “That’s Japanese.”

“Well how do you say it in Vietnamese?”

Hornet shrugged.

“WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?”

Hornet and Ricochet turned and saw a Vietnamese man in his fifties storming into the kitchen, pointing at the two of them. “Who the hell are you?”

Hornet put a hand on Ricochet’s shoulder. “Maybe I should do the talking.”

Ricochet stepped to the side and crossed his arms over his chest. “This should be good.”

“You broke my door!” shouted the owner. “The hell is wrong with you?”

“We…it was necessary, the door was locked,” said Hornet.

“Why not come in the front?”

“Yeah, why didn’t we come in the front?”

“Shut up, Rico!”

“Just trying to help.”

“Then don’t!” Hornet looked at the owner. “I’m sorry, sir, but we…”

“What do you want, dammit?”

“Well…umm…” Hornet stumbled over his words. “Are you by any chance housing a group of super-villains in this restaurant?”

Gravity and Joystick arrived at the third restaurant within Hell’s Kitchen. Immediately, he placed his hands on the wall, his hands beginning to glow a bright blue. Joystick watched him with curiosity.

“What are you doing?”

“The Left Hand, he’s got powers that involve some other dimension, right?” said Gravity. “Assuming that’s true, it would disturb the gravitational field. And if I can concentrate, I can detect disturbances. Best way to see if they’re here.”

“That’s a handy trick, why didn’t you mention it before?” asked Joystick.

Gravity removed his hands from the wall and gave her a sheepish grin. “To be honest, I didn’t make the connection until just now. Hell, I didn’t even know I could do it before Blink and I teleported to Ryker’s. That’s when I first noticed I could detect disturbances.”

“And are you getting any of those disturbances now?”

He put his hands back on the wall and concentrated, his hands glowing again. “No…nothing yet, but there’s some sort of residual…something’s up, I think.” He looked over his shoulder at Joystick. “Speaking of stuff being up, what did you say to Mattie?”

Joystick folded her arms. “Concentrate on finding the Circle. I’m not your relationship counselor. Mattie needed someone to talk to, so I talked to her. End of story, understand?”

Gravity turned back to the situation, concentrating on the gravitational field. He could feel something, something which was building. Coiling his fist back, it began to glow with energy and he drove it into the wall, shattering it.

“What are you doing?” asked Joystick. But behind the wall, she saw his purpose. The Folding Circle stood there, with Mattie held captive by Bloodstrike. Gravity’s eyes narrowed behind his goggles.

“Well, this must be the one we haven’t met yet,” said the Left Hand. “Gravity, I assume? I hear you and little Mattie here are quite the item in the tabloids.”

Gravity drove his fist into the ground and shockwaves rocked out, the ground cracking down from his fist towards the Folding Circle. The Left Hand, however, simply smiled.

“Oh, this is good, it’s been a while since I had a real challenge.”

Joystick quickly punched a message back to Blink in her cell phone – JACKPOT! HURRY! Once it was sent, her gauntlets generated the photonic batons in each hand and she jumped into the fray, hurling them both at the Left Hand.

Casseas just waved his hand and a curtain of black energy followed, the batons vanishing into it. His other hand crackled with energy and he held Gravity in his grip, the younger hero trying to struggle against his power but finding Casseas’ control over the Darkforce to be too great.

Meanwhile, Joystick found herself having to contend with Midnight’s Fire, Smiling Tiger and Silk Fever at once. She spent most of her time trying to dodge the attacks from the former two while using her batons to deflect the microwave blasts from the latter.

“Someone call for a rematch?”

The New Warriors emerged from one of Blink’s portals, facing off against the Folding Circle once more. Casseas looked at them and tossed Gravity to the side. “I’m done with this one anyway. Who’s next?”

Blink materialized behind him, driving her foot into his back. “How about me?”

Hornet rocketed into Silk Fever, taking her into the sky. She concentrated and extended her field, an aura of flames bursting forth from her. The blow sent Hornet flying back, but he regained his footing, other than a few burns on his face, he had been fine.

“You again?” she asked. “Didn’t I teach you a lesson after the last time I kicked your ass?”

“Except this time I’ve got some help,” said Hornet.

“Help? And who in that pathetic group could help yo—”

Her answer came in the form of Speedball, who grabbed her from behind, the kinetic bubbles that surrounded his body protecting him from her flames. Speedball pounced around the city street, slamming Silk Fever into the pavement, into walls, into parked vehicles—anything it took.

When he was done, he threw her back towards Hornet who caught her in the air and held her at arm’s length from him with one arm, his other arm aimed at her. She weakly smiled.

“And what are you going to do now? Hit me with one of those stingers that will melt before it gets to me?”

“No, I also made a little modification to my armor,” said Hornet. From the gauntlet, a nozzle emerged and released a flame-retardant chemical, completely dosing Silk Fever in it. Once her flames were extinguished, the hand that held her released an electric charge through her body to render her unconscious.

On the ground, Ricochet and Joystick concentrated on Midnight’s Fire while Smiling Tiger went after Rage. Despite their edge over him in powers, Midnight’s Fire had been able to keep Ricochet and Joystick on their toes. His fighting prowess and skill level was far above their own.

Ricochet tried to even the odds by bringing his throwing discs into the mix. He leapt in the air and flipped, throwing them at Midnight’s Fire with extreme accuracy. The martial artist dropped into the splits, ducking below the discs, but his hands reached up and caught them.

“…that can’t be comfortable,” said Ricochet.

“Neither is this,” said Midnight’s Fire, hurling Ricochet’s own discs back at him. His warning sense allowed him to easily avoid them both and he jumped back to Midnight’s Fire, trying to deliver a swift kick in the head. Unfortunately, Midnight’s Fire anticipated it and grabbed Ricochet’s leg, then used him momentum to swing him around into the oncoming Joystick.

“I’m getting a little sick of this guy,” said Joystick.

“You are?” asked Ricochet. “At least he didn’t steal your weapons and make you look like a jackass.”

Joystick stood up, generating an energy staff in her hands. “Believe me, Rico—it’s not difficult.”

“That’s it, I’m joining the Avengers,” mumbled Ricochet.

Joystick rushed towards Midnight’s Fire, thrusting forward with the baton. Midnight’s Fire twisted just enough so it went over his right shoulder and he spun towards Joystick, bringing the edge of his arm towards her neck. Joystick ducked and swung the staff around, using it to block his strike.

Midnight’s Fire gripped the energy staff with both hands, straining against it with Joystick. “Your methods are sloppy, surrender now and your death will be quick.”

“No thanks,” she said. The baton vanished and Midnight’s Fire stumbled forward. It gave Joystick the chance to place her palms against his chest and fire off a concussive burst at point-blank range.

With Midnight’s Fire incapacitated, Ricochet moved to the battle between Rage and Smiling Tiger. The slim, silent mutant used his speed to evade Rage’s strikes and Ricochet jumped into the fray, his feet nailing Smiling Tiger in the back. Ricochet flipped off him and while in mid-air, hurled two explosive discs that sent Smiling Tiger reeling.

Once he shook off the blow, Smiling Tiger glared at Ricochet, now finding a new target. He charged towards him, his claws slashing violently. Ricochet’s warning sense allowed him to stay a step ahead of his vicious opponent, but just barely.

As Smiling Tiger raised one of his hands back, a massive fist wrapped around it. Rage grabbed Smiling Tiger’s neck next, raising him into the air. “Don’t tell me you forgot about me,” he said.

With that, Rage slammed Smiling Tiger onto the ground.

“Quit struggling, damn you!” said Bloodstrike, still trying to restrain Mattie as he was forced to watch his teammates being defeated by the New Warriors. Mattie, however, finally decided she had had enough of standing around.

“Let…go!”

Mattie punctuated her words with the four giant spider-legs that sprung from her back, startling Bloodstrike and forcing him to lose his grip on her. Mattie stood upright on the legs, her body hanging above the ground now and she turned to Bloodstrike, holding out her hands and ensnaring him in psionic webbing.

“Let’s see how you like being the helpless victim,” said Mattie. Her legs carried her over to him and she began pummeling him as he hung helplessly in her web. Bloodstrike had great durability, but Mattie’s small form betrayed her own superhuman strength and he felt each blow growing heavier and heavier.

Finally, Mattie followed it all up with a venom blast that caused Bloodstrike’s world to fade to black.

The Left Hand found Blink to be a worthy opponent. She would open portals to absorb his Darkforce blasts or teleport free herself and rematerialize behind him. Combined with that, she had been armed with javelins that she charged with her own temporal energies.

She hurled one of them and it struck the Left Hand, displacing him in time and space for a fraction of a second. The shock of such a jolt would be enough to knock anyone unconscious. Casseas, however, just seemed a little shaken but otherwise undisturbed. He raised his hand and it crackled with the Darkforce energy.

“That was your last mistake, little girl!” He gestured towards her and a wave of black energy surrounded Blink on all sides. It reformed into humanoid creatures composed fully of Darkforce energy. They attacked her all at once.

Blink teleported free of the fray, then with her bearings caught leapt over them, throwing a flurry of charged javelins into the beings. At least with these creatures, the javelins had an effect and after being displaced, they sunk back into the Darkforce energy that spawned them.

But they were wearing her down. Blink found herself beginning to gasp for breath and the Left Hand still seemed at the top of his game. He walked towards her, a sinister grin on his face.

A bright, blue light pierced through the Darkforce bubble Casseas had erected around the pair. Blink looked up and saw Gravity, his entire body glowing bright blue, bursting inside the shell and flying straight into Casseas with enough force to cause an earthquake.

“We’re not through yet,” said Gravity.

The Left Hand brought himself to his feet slowly and smiled as he heard sirens in the distance. “Oh yes we are.” He motioned to the remains of the restaurant. “Look around you.”

Gravity and Blink glanced around, seeing the restaurant half-demolished as a result of the battle. The Left Hand walked over to them. “This is my business, which you just attacked without provocation.”

“Bullshit,” said Gravity. “No one’s going to buy that.”

“Care to find out?” asked Casseas.

Gravity took a step towards him, but Blink blocked his path. The rest of the Warriors joined up with them and Rage offered his opinion first. “He’s right, man. If we stay here, we’ll be in a lot more trouble.”

Speedball watched as the squad cars began to approach. “We gotta high-tail it.”

Blink nodded and raised her hand, her eyes beginning to glow as portals rose up around all the Warriors. Casseas dusted himself off and gestured with his hand, transporting the rest of the Folding Circle to a pocket Darkforce dimension as he went to speak to the police.

The Crash Pad

The headline on the front page of the Bugle read, CRACKDOWN ON HELL’S KITCHEN. The article said that details recently brought to light by J. Jonah Jameson’s silent source have given the District Attorney evidence he needed to begin prosecution on some of the elements trying to take control of Wilson Fisk’s empire.

“They did it,” said Elvin.

“Just don’t read page three,” said Eddie.

“What’s on page three?” asked Robbie, grabbing the paper from Elvin and flipping to it. His eyes widened. “’Warriors gone wild’?!”

“I needed some air last night, found some lowlife near the Kitchen, know what he told me?” asked Johnny. “He said that the Folding Circle now owns the damn place. This is gonna be bad.”

“With all this heat, we should lie low for now,” said Janice. “Mattie’s obviously staying out of costume for a while, so we’re down one member.”

“Two,” said Clarice. “I don’t want to badmouth anyone, but Greg almost lost it in the fight with Casseas. He’s got too much on his mind right now.”

“It’s all good,” said Robbie. He pointed at Elvin without looking at him. “Don’t look at me like that, El. I know what you’re doing.”

Elvin shrugged. “Just sayin’.”

“Maybe a vacation is good for now,” said Robbie. “Let the heat die down a bit.”

Mattie Franklin sat on her bed, looking down at the red spider emblazoned on her costume. The door opened and her uncle stood in the frame, staring at her with an obvious anger in his eyes.

“Uncle Jonah, look, I—”

“I don’t wanna hear it,” said Jonah. “I don’t wanna know what made you think you could play superhero. I don’t wanna know where you got the idiot idea to put on a mask orto run around with these irresponsible Spider-Man wannabes. But this ends now.”

“You can’t do that,” said Mattie. “This is my life, this is—”

“This is the last time we’re having this conversation,” said Jonah, with an uncharacteristic calm. He pointed an accusing finger at the costume. “Either that leaves this house oryou do.”

Jonah slammed the door and Mattie fell back on her bed, staring up at the ceiling. Her phone began to ring. She looked at it and saw Greg’s name on the display. “Like I don’t have enough on my mind right now.”

She pressed the IGNORE button.

NEXT: Concealed Weapons