THE WEBS WE WEAVE

By Wesley Overhults

Manhattan, New York City

She had lost track of how long it had been since she heard anything from Greg. All the days melded together into a patchwork quilt of boredom, monotony, and loneliness for Mattie Franklin. She would constantly find herself staring at her cell phone. Every time it rang, she glued her eyes to the number but it was never his. She hadn’t deleted his number from her cell phone yet. Some nights, she would catch herself staring at it as her finger hovered over the button that would forever expunge him from her life. Mattie didn’t think of herself as a coward. She enjoyed thinking that she was a tough girl, a girl that could hold her own no matter what life threw at her. Then life threw a little too much at her and she proved how much of a coward she really was.

She still had nightmares about it, about that day at the doctor’s office when she did . . . it. It was probably the most frightening experience of her young life and that was saying a lot considering her brief superhero career. Mattie tried not to use the word “aborted” when she thought about her time as Spider-Woman, or about anything in general. That brought up a host of emotions she didn’t have the strength to deal with.

“You’ve been awfully quiet for weeks now, Mattie,” mentioned J. Jonah Jameson, his eyes peering up over the top edge of the morning newspaper and staring across the breakfast table at Mattie.

“Not really much to talk about, Uncle Jonah,” mumbled Mattie, her eyes lingering on the contents of her cereal bowl before her hand listlessly took the spoon and put it to her lips.

“You haven’t been . . .” began Jonah, his eyes gaining a shifty, nervous quality even as he sipped his coffee.

“I promised,” reminded Mattie, referring to hanging up her tights after the incident between the New Warriors and the reformed Folding Circle that led to Jonah’s discovery of her secret identity. “I’m just a normal kid now.”

“Good,” decided Jonah and Mattie could swear he was mentally gloating about his success at ruining what was left of her life.

“I gotta run,” said Mattie, hurriedly finishing her cereal and grabbing the backpack resting against one of her chair’s legs. “Are we eating out for dinner or are you picking something up?”

“It’ll be in the fridge waiting when you get home,” answered Jonah before putting down his paper and actually looking at her. “Things will get better, Mattie. You’ll see that I was right.”

“Whatever,” replied Mattie sullenly before slinging the backpack over her shoulder. “See you tonight, Uncle Jonah.”

Independence High School, Greenwich Village

He could’ve at least called her. All these months and not a single word? The silence was driving her crazy with guilt. She did the right thing though, didn’t she? There was no way they could’ve raised that baby, not at their ages. There was no way she could’ve carried it around. She made the right decision didn’t she?

“Mattie, you look seriously depressed.”

Mattie turned her attention to Lily Hollister, one of her best friends at school. Lily was the bubbly, energetic popular girl of Independence High. With her father running for Mayor in the upcoming election, Lily was everyone’s friend at school. Mattie, however, had known Lily longer than most of the other kids since Lily’s father and Mattie’s uncle ran in roughly the same circle. Newspapermen and politicians made interesting bedfellows it seemed.

“Just thinking about some stuff, Lily,” replied Mattie.

“Careful you don’t do too much of that,” quipped Lily, popping a couple of fries into her mouth and watching Mattie play with her food. “What’s the matter? Your uncle slam Spider-Man too hard in today’s morning edition?”

“Nah, guess I’ve just got a lot on my mind lately,” answered Mattie nonchalantly.

“So spill then,” suggested Lily, devouring more of her food. “At least spot your bestie some food. I’m starving over here.”

“Dig in then,” said Mattie, pushing her tray towards her friend. “What’s up with that lately, Lil? I used to think you had an eating disorder or something.”

Mattie watched the blond as she ate her food. Mattie had never known Lily to be a particularly voracious eater in the past. Most of the time, Lily was the one worried about her figure. Her position as head of the cheerleading squad wouldn’t hold up if she didn’t stay in shape though Mattie inwardly snickered at Lily’s preoccupation with her weight and her figure. If anyone between them should’ve been worried, it should’ve been Mattie. After all, Mattie was the one swinging through New York in skintight spandex and she was the one who had been . . .

“Lately I’m all queasy in the morning,” admitted Lily. “I always throw up and stuff.”

“But then you’re always hungry later on in the day?”

“Yeah,” answered Lily skeptically, not really sure exactly where Mattie was going with all this.

“Shit,” muttered Mattie.

“What?” asked Lily.

“You’re pregnant.”

“That’s totally ridiculous,” laughed Lily, almost spitting out her drink in the process. “Seriously, Mattie, you’re so paranoid. I think I would know if I was pregnant.”

Mercifully for both of them, the lunch bell rang and signified the need to return to class. Mattie watched her friend leave the table while she lingered a few moments longer. Maybe Lily was right. Maybe what happened to her with Greg and everything had screwed up her perception of things. Maybe Lily was just coming down with the flu or something.

“What would Spider-Man do?” wondered Mattie to herself as she made herself scarce from the lunch table as well.

She wasn’t a superhero anymore but it was clear that something was amiss with Lily that warranted further investigation. Even though Lily had laughed off her assessment, Mattie knew that she was hiding something. You didn’t get to be someone’s best friend without knowing when they were trying to lie to you. Mattie felt the itch again. It was murder to walk around and pretend to be something you knew you weren’t. Was this the excuse she needed to put on the old red-and-black again? Maybe not but there was something going on with Lily and it wasn’t as if Mattie had anything else to occupy herself with lately. It was either do this little fact-finding mission or sit in her room all night staring at her phone and hoping that Greg finally called her.

“Some choice,” mumbled Mattie to herself.

The smell of burnt flesh filled the room as Electro looked down at the charred corpse before him. It was the latest in a long line of bodies he had left in his wake since becoming a free man. Another stint in prison hadn’t dulled his edge at all. In fact, this latest stint had only sharpened his bloodlust because now he had a purpose. Max Dillon could remember how things were before he went to prison. He had Marilyn and things were finally looking up, especially when she told him she was pregnant. All he wanted was that one final score to set himself and his girlfriend up for life. Things didn’t turn out that way though. Spider-Man had ruined things as usual but that was expected at this point in his criminal career. What wasn’t expected, however, was the troop of high-priced, well-trained lawyers that the prosecution lined up against him. He thought he would spend a couple months in a psych ward somewhere and then be out just in time to see Marilyn give birth to his child. Thanks to the intrepid and crusading work of the prosecution, he was found competent to stand trial and saw years of his life taken away from him while he was in The Vault. Electro did whatever he could to get an early release, even promising to do some dirty work for some important people. Now that he was finally free of those debts, he found himself with a lot of spare time. He had a plan now, the same plan that had kept him going through those multiple prison sentences while he was paying off his debts to the various mobs. His plan was to make sure every single member of that prosecution team never got to breathe again. Once that was over, he would find Marilyn and use some of the money he had stashed away in order to provide for her.

“Sorry, old man,” said Electro, staring at the husk of a body and watching the wisps of smoke rise from it. “I would offer more condolences but I’m a busy man with places to go and people to kill.”

Electro pulled a piece of paper out from under the neck of his costume, studying the names on the list. There was only one more name left on his hit list and it was Bill Hollister, currently a candidate in the upcoming Mayoral race. Electro knew of Hollister through the media profiles he saw on the nightly news so he knew one very important thing. Hollister had a daughter and Electro knew from personal experience there was nothing a man wouldn’t do to protect his child. Hollister would experience a very special kind of pain courtesy of Maxwell Dillon, the kind that would make him think long and hard about who he would be prosecuting the next time he stepped into a courtroom.

“You’re next, Billy boy,” said Electro to himself before setting the paper on fire with his electrical abilities and then dropping the ashes on the dead body.

Mattie, of course, knew where the Hollisters lived. She had been there more than once so it was easy to find. Web-slinging felt good. She hadn’t realized how much she loved it until she couldn’t do it anymore. The feeling of the wind rushing through her hair, the rush of adrenaline she felt as she soared over the city, everything about it was euphoric. Mattie knew she had to focus on the task at hand. She didn’t have the luxury of hiding behind her mask since she wasn’t in costume. She had briefly thought about putting something over her face, a ski mask perhaps or even a paper bag, but thought better of it. She could use the cover of night and her wall-crawling abilities to stay out of sight and her spider-sense would make sure she didn’t get caught unawares. Besides, she wasn’t going to stay for very long. She just wanted to verify some facts and possibly confirm her suspicions. It wasn’t as if Mattie was going to tell Lily what to do with the baby if indeed she was pregnant. Hypocrisy never suited Mattie well.

“Sorry about this, Lil,” apologized Mattie as she created a paper-thin strand of psionic webbing and made it creep under the window of the house’s guest bedroom.

The webbing coiled itself around the latch to the window and unlocked it before dissipating into nothingness. Not for the first time, Mattie silently thanked Julia Carpenter for having psychic webbing instead of the old-fashioned corporeal kind that Spider-Man used. Being able to mentally control your webbing as if it was an extension of your own body was definitely a plus for any spider-themed superhero. Once she slowly and silently slid the window up, Mattie crept into the room and then crawled up to the ceiling. She carefully made her way to the door and waited. There was no sign from her spider-sense that anyone was near so she crawled out of the room and onto the ceiling of the hallway. The bathroom was her first destination so she headed right, moved two doors down, and then crept into the room. She closed the door behind her without making a sound and then looked around to see if she could find some evidence confirming her theory.

“Best place to keep all your secrets,” she mumbled before looking through the trash can. Her fingers closed around a thin tube of plastic that felt painfully familiar.

“Lily,” she whispered sadly as she pulled the pregnancy test out of the trash can and saw the blue line inside the small window at one of the test’s ends. It was all the proof she needed to confirm that her best friend was pregnant at age seventeen.

Mattie thought for a moment about what she should do now that she knew the truth. Obviously, Lily had been lying to her earlier that day when she feigned ignorance of her condition. Unless of course she was still in denial about it, a state of mind that Mattie knew quite well. So she could confront Lily about this but she knew that wasn’t going to do any good. Having been in Lily’s shoes, she knew the best thing she could do was comfort her friend and try to be there for her when she needed it. If Lily didn’t want to talk about it then they wouldn’t talk about it.

“Case closed then,” she decided, hopping back up to the ceiling to make her escape.

The lights began to flicker in the room, in the whole house in fact. Every electrical appliance in the house started going haywire. Mattie worriedly tried to figure out what was going on even as she heard Lily and her father asking each other the same questions. She had to get out of the house and she had to do it quickly. Mattie speedily made her way out of the bathroom and back towards the guest room. She managed to get inside before every electrical device in the house suddenly exploded in a shower of sparks. Mattie felt her wall-crawling ability turn off and she fell to the floor of the guest room, knocking her head against the carpet and seeing stars for a moment.

“Hollister!”

The static-filled voice was coming from downstairs and Mattie knew of only a few villains who could possess it. She groggily moved out of the room and looked over the staircase to see Electro holding Lily and her father hostage. Her legs tensed in frustration, wanting to leap over the railing and pounce on Electro. Unfortunately, she couldn’t do that without the safety and anonymity of her costume. She couldn’t take the chance that Electro would remember her real face and discover her secret identity. It was bad enough when the Folding Circle learned her identity and held both her and her uncle hostage. She wasn’t going to put Jonah through that again, both for his safety and for hers.

“What the hell do you want?” asked Bill Hollister. “You can’t just barge in here and threaten me.”

“You don’t have a clue what I can do,” retorted Electro before throwing a blast of lightning at Hollister that sent him sprawling backwards.

Electro turned his attention to Hollister’s terrified daughter, encasing her in an electrostatic bubble to make sure she wasn’t going anywhere. Mattie could tell even from a distance that he was smiling as he glared at his new hostage. She gritted her teeth and clenched her fists in an effort to stop from acting on her instincts. She had to do something soon. She couldn’t watch this any longer.

“I don’t even know who you are,” whimpered Lily. “Please don’t hurt me.”

“Only if you’re lucky and only if I’m in a generous mood,” retorted Electro before turning his attention to Bill Hollister. “You want your little girl back? I want one million dollars personally delivered to me by you before the night is up. You do that and maybe, just maybe, I’ll give her back.”

“I can’t get that kind of money on short notice,” explained Hollister.

“Your problem, not mine,” retorted Electro before blowing a hole in the ceiling and rising into the air with Lily in tow. “I’ll give you the drop location in one hour. Don’t be late or I might get a little ‘temperamental’.”

Mattie had seen enough. She hurried out the way she had entered and began web-slinging back towards her house. She was going to get her costume and then she was going to make sure to beat the hell out of Electro for thinking he could take Lily hostage and get away with it on her watch. She didn’t care that she made a promise to her uncle that she would never put that costume on ever again. The only thing she cared about right now was the safety of her best friend and her unborn child.

Times Square

“Why are you doing this?”

Electro looked at his captive suspended in his electrostatic bubble. Was Marilyn’s child a girl? Did he have a daughter somewhere in the world? He didn’t know but he intended to find out once this was over. He knew that Hollister wouldn’t have enough time to cough up the cash for his ransom but he didn’t care. This was about more than just money. This was personal for Electro, very personal.

“A long time ago, my girlfriend told me she was pregnant,” replied Electro absently. “I tried to get a big score so I could support us. I got caught and got thrown in jail. Wanna take a guess who led the prosecution team?”

“That doesn’t have anything to do with me,” countered Lily.

“No but you’re the best way to hurt him,” retorted Electro. “Either I get my money from him or I get my revenge. Either way, I’m happy.”

“I’m pregnant,” revealed Lily. “Please, I know you hate my father but . . . please just don’t hurt me or my baby. Please.”

“Things don’t always work out like they’re supposed to,” replied Electro, turning his attention away from her and looking out over the skyline of New York City. He had already given Hollister the drop location via cell phone. Now, it was only a matter of time before he got what he wanted.

“Case in point would be tonight.”

Electro turned towards the sound of the voice and barely had time to throw out a lightning bolt before a blur of red and black shot towards him. Spider-Woman twisted in mid-air to avoid the bolt and hurled a glob of psi-web into Electro’s face to blind him. She didn’t waste any time or motion even as she landed in a crouch behind him on the rooftop. Mattie turned and shot a line of psi-web that wrapped around Electro’s ankles and toppled the villain. Electro turned and fired a blast of electricity, that grazed Spider-Woman and disrupted her concentration long enough for the webbing to dissipate. Mattie wasn’t about to let that stop her in the slightest. She somersaulted towards Electro and let the spider legs out of her back. One of the legs swatted Electro off the roof of the building but he righted his course and flew towards her. Mattie kicked herself upwards with her spider legs to avoid the lightning and then let them return back into her. She shot out a web line that snagged a nearby radio tower and swung backwards to cling to the giant mass of metal.

“Not very bright, kid,” said Electro, shooting a lightning bolt at the tower’s base and watching it electrify the entire structure. “Did you drop outta spider-school before you learned anything about fighting me?”

“I’m not your average spider,” replied Spider-Woman, kicking herself off the tower and wrapping a line of webbing around Electro’s arm.

Mattie used the line to yank herself closer to Electro and encased both her fists in gloves made of psi-webbing. She landed two solid shots to Electro’s face before kicking herself off him so he couldn’t shock her. She knew her suit didn’t give her any kind of insulation against Electro’s attacks. Her psi-webbing wasn’t conductive but the same couldn’t be said about the rest of her. She had to ground Electro in more ways than one if she wanted to win this fight.

“What’s the matter, kid?” asked Electro, rubbing his jaw and watching Spider-Woman cling to the side of a building. “Did Spider-Man catch a cold and send you to fight me instead?”

“Like he would waste his time beating up a piece of trash like you,” retorted Spider-Woman.

That remark earned her Electro’s wrath. Lightning poured from his hands and surged straight towards Mattie. She stood up on the side of the building and ran across its facade as easily as a normal person could run across the ground. She had to keep throwing him off balance as much as she could. She knew Lily wasn’t going anywhere but there was still a chance she could get caught in the crossfire. Mattie knew if she could keep Electro’s attention focused on her, he would forget about his hostage.

“Time to go for broke,” she muttered as she flipped backwards and shot out a web at Electro.

Again, Mattie yanked herself towards him but this time she wasn’t going to just hit and run. She let a line of psi-web fly from every fingertip of her other hand. The strands of psychic energy coiled around Electro, entangling him until he resembled a mummy. Though he tried as hard as he could, Electro couldn’t use his powers to break Spider-Woman’s webbing. He began to plummet towards the street below and barely avoided hitting the pavement thanks to a line of webbing wrapping around his ankles and suspending him from a lamp post. Mattie didn’t have time to really celebrate as the lamp post she hung upside down from exploded with electricity and sent her skidding across the pavement. Electro ripped his way out of the psi-webbing and growled under his breath at her.

“It’s always people like you that mess everything up,” he snarled before hurling a lightning storm at Spider-Woman. “All I wanted was one big score so I could settle down with my girl and our kid. Why the hell can’t you people mind your own damn business?”

Spider-Woman leapt towards him and contorted her way through the lightning bolts before letting another glob of webbing hit Electro in the face. This time, however, Electro immediately let out a wide-range attack that zapped Mattie before she could press her advantage. She landed against a parked car and groaned under her breath, her spine aching from the impact. Her spider-sense flared and she flipped backwards behind the car, using it as a shield from Electro’s attack. The bolt blew the car up and sent shrapnel flying everywhere. Spider-Woman looked at the flaming wreckage and then realized something. Without really knowing it, Electro had just given her the weapon she needed to beat him.

Electro, meanwhile, had turned his attention back to more important matters. He couldn’t forget about his hostage, couldn’t forget about why he was doing this. He was going to make Bill Hollister suffer the pain of being separated from his child the same way Hollister had made him suffer. The money wasn’t important anymore and, in truth, it never was. Revenge was always a far better motivator than greed.

“Heads up, loser!” shouted Spider-Woman.

Electro turned and saw a giant, black disc whirling at him. It took him a split-second to realize it was a tire from the car he had just totaled. That tire smacked him across the face and made him see stars. Spider-Woman ran towards him with a tire in each hand and hit him first with the one in her right hand then spinning around and tagging him with the one in her left. The rubber insulation of the tires kept her from getting shocked by the electrical aura around Electro though that aura faded with each blow Mattie delivered. Electro staggered woozily as he tried to fight back but he was too punch-drunk at this point to put up much resistance. Spider-Woman put both the tires over Electro’s head and then grabbed the other two with her webbing. With Electro incased in the stack of all four tires, Mattie simply kicked him over onto his back and crouched on top of him.

“Happiest day of my life,” murmured Electro wearily though at this point he was barely conscious. “Always wanted to be a dad.”

“You really wanna help your kid?” asked Spider-Woman. “Quit knocking over banks and trying to kill innocent girls.”

She knew at this point he wasn’t listening. The cops were coming and she needed to make herself scarce. Spider-Woman vaulted into the air and shot out a web line, swinging away from the scene of the battle and back towards the rooftop where the battle had started. She landed and came face to face with Lily Hollister, breathing a sigh of relief that her best friend was unharmed.

“All this over being pregnant,” muttered Lily to herself, absently looking over the ledge of the building. “Maybe things would be better if I wasn’t.”

“It’s your decision,” said Spider-Woman, feeling like a huge hypocrite for wanting Lily to keep her baby. “Give it a lot of thought before you decide.”

Lily and Mattie looked at one another and Mattie could see the desperation in Lily’s eyes. Seventeen was too young to be a mother and Mattie could sympathize because for her sixteen was also too young to be a mother. Even though she wanted Lily to keep her baby, Mattie knew that she couldn’t be the one to make that judgment. She had been in that situation once before and she had been the one to make the decision about the abortion. No one had pushed her into making that decision and because of that she knew she couldn’t push her best friend into making it.

“My dad’s gonna lose it when I tell him,” said Lily.

“He’ll still love you,” promised Spider-Woman, hugging her before swinging off into the night even as the police arrived.

Mattie swung through the streets of the city and made her way to her home. She was exhausted, battered, and beaten but at least Lily was safe and Electro was in police custody. All things considered, her reappearance as Spider-Woman could’ve gone worse. She knew she was going to catch hell from her uncle when the news of the fight broke but it was worth it. Mattie sighed as she clung to the wall of her house and opened her bedroom window. She crawled into the room before pulling off her mask. The lights in the room flipped on and she squinted from the glare.

“I told you either that costume goes or you do,” reminded Jonah Jameson.

“Uncle Jonah, he had Lily,” countered Spider-Woman. “I’m tired and beat to crap right now. You can yell at me in the morning but right now I just wanna go to bed.”

“Lily wasn’t at school today.”

Mattie looked at her uncle as if she was expecting him to divulge juicy tidbits on the conspiracy behind why her best friend wasn’t in attendance at school. To his credit, Jonah remained stone-faced about the subject. Years of being in the newspaper game taught Jonah how to keep his sources confidential.

“I spoke to Bill but he didn’t mention why,” confirmed Jonah. “Mattie, we need to talk about last night.”

“There’s nothing to talk about,” she said in return. “I did what I had to do to save my best friend’s life. Wouldn’t you have done the same in my position?”

“You know that’s not what I’m worried about,” he fired back. “I’m worried that you’re using this as an excuse to break our agreement.”

“So what if I am? What’s so wrong with using the abilities you have to help people who are in trouble?”

He didn’t have a real answer for that. Jonah Jameson prided himself on being a man of conviction, a man who stuck fast to his principles and never compromised them. Was it wrong to expect differently of Mattie? If she was really in love with putting on her costume and using her powers to the benefit of others, was it wrong to stop her? Putting aside his hatred for all spider-themed heroes, was it really right of him to interfere with Mattie’s career choice?

“You know you could get yourself killed, right?” he asked her.

“Yeah,” she admitted sadly. “I know that, Uncle Jonah, but I am in love with this. This is what I’ve always wanted to do and now I’m doing it.”

They stared at one another and in that instant they knew that they were both too stubborn to quit. One of them had to back down if this argument was going to get anywhere and Jonah of all people decided in that instant that he would be the one to do it. As a reporter, Jonah understood the value of the truth, of honesty and integrity. Even though it galled him to watch Mattie parade around while hiding her face under a mask, he could tell that she was truthfully and honestly passionate about what she was doing.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this,” he muttered, the resignation obvious in his tone. “If you really wanna do this, Mattie, and I mean seriously want to do this then alright. You go be the best spider girl . . . woman . . . person . . . thing . . . whatever that you can be.”

“You seriously mean that?” asked Mattie hopefully.

“Yes,” admitted Jonah. “Now I need to go wash my mouth out with soap or something. Make sure you finish your homework before you go out trying to kill yourself.”

“Thanks, Uncle Jonah,” said Mattie, kissing him on the cheek before almost running back to her room.

She looked at her costume and moved to put it on. Her cell phone suddenly rang and for a second she almost hoped that it was Greg. In all the excitement, she had almost forgotten about him. She felt guilty for making her choice without consulting him first but it was her choice, not his. Still, she missed him.

“I’m pregnant,” explained Lily the second Mattie answered the phone. “I wanted to tell you but I just . . . I couldn’t. I think I wanna keep it, Mattie.”

“Then keep it,” assured Mattie quietly. “You’re my best friend, Lily, and I support you no matter what. I’ll come over right now and we can talk about it, okay?”

“Okay,” agreed Lily and Mattie could tell she had been crying.

Mattie hung up the phone and put her costume on before putting her normal clothes on over it. She looked at her phone one more time and scrolled down the contact list until she stopped on Greg’s name. Their relationship was over and she couldn’t keep living in the past anymore. Like it or not, it was time to move forward and it was time to let him go. She breathed a sigh of relief as she deleted his number and then left her phone on the desk.

“I’m going over to Lily’s house, Uncle Jonah,” explained Mattie as she headed out the door.

“Be back by curfew,” ordered Jonah.

Mattie Franklin smiled and nodded before heading out into the night to be with her best friend. Had she taken her phone with her, she would’ve realized that someone was trying to call her. Though the phone number was unfamiliar, Mattie would’ve recognized the voice on the other end of the line. Greg Willis waited patiently until the phone went to voicemail but he hung up without leaving a message. When Mattie got home, she would give the phone number a perplexed look before absently deleting it from her list of missed calls.