Summary:Immediately following the events of 'To Heal and To Kill', Two Spider-Ladies and an Angel regroup and recoup. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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The fight is, at present, over. Or, perhaps a better term would be 'postponed', probably not for very long. Truthfully, she has no idea how long it will be before Morlun makes a reappearance, and probably neither does anybody else. For the moment, she's just kind of left on her own; and so, with one hand over her side where she has a broken rib and a badly abused kidney, she trudges across the street towards Anya's appartment building.
She knows Anya's up there… and she knows what happened. What do you even say to that, right now? Gwen the Introvert has absolutely no idea. but up there is her friend, and she's hurting, and she's gotta get up there.
Easier said then done. By the time Gwen reaches the front of the building, she's feeling entirely winded. Probably for the best that she was warned off from fighting Morlun in this condition. So for the moment, she just puts her free hand on the side of the building, and takes a moment to catch her breath, and grit her teeth until the pain subsides.
Meanwhile, in the apartment building's eighth floor, Anya Corazon is still dressed up as Spider-Girl, but she's not in her shredded apartment. Police and EMT's have arrived, and are working through the situation, talking with residents and witnesses, helping those who are suffering from everything from severe anxiety attacks to shock.
Anya, her grandmother, and her two cousins (now fatherless) are in a neighbor's apartment on the opposite end of the floor from where the incident took place. The cousins now know who she really is, and it won't take long for some of the police to put it together.
Crouched down, she's already neck deep in a conversation with Miguel and Arturo, teenage twins. However, she isn't consoling them.
"«So, you can't tell anyone. Do you understand? You're gonna take your cell phone, you're gonna call my cell phone, and I won't answer. Leave a voicemail, say what happened, and when the cops ask you where I am, tell them you have no idea.»"
"«But, Anya,»" Miguel asks, his eyes tear stained.
"«Spider-Girl,»" Anya corrects him. Using Spanish, she is speaking with the authority of an older sister, doing everything she can to hide the grief and tremors from her voice. "«Grandma will be fine. You don't let them take you anywhere. I have powerful friends. I will call them, and they will take you all somewhere safe. Do you understand what I am saying?»"
Nothing.
"«Boys.»" Her voice becomes stern, almost parental. "«Do you understand me?»"
The two boys nod their heads vigorously.
Yes, Anya's abuela will be fine. She would have been eventually, but now she just needs to eat and drink, and she will be right physically. Emotionally, Thea feels for the little family in their neighbor's apartment, still trying to process. She's on the phone, trying to reach one of her higher ups at SHIELD "Agent Harman. I know of a super that is attacking people, and I have some people that need to be placed in protection. Get back to me." Her tone is absolutely no-nonsense.
She's breezing out the door, putting her phone into her pocket as she shakes her hair loose from her braid. She will start to head for her motorcycle before pausing. She turns swiftly, a look on her face that is hard and angry… but she sees the woman Peter had called Gwen, his friend that's new to this whole thing. She will slide over to her, a hand out. "I'm Spidey's Angel. Let me help you get inside." And before Thea can even touch her, there is a surging feeling of heat and tingling around her kidney area. "We should get you to Spider-Girl, get you laying down so I can fix that rib up." She will murmur.
Gwen gasps out loud as the warm tingling suffuses her kidney, and she goes all weak in the knees for a moment. She pauses a moment, gathering some scattered thoughts, before she nods. "Okay," she replies. "Please. Morlun took the stuffing out of me and I've been doing my best… to save people…" She unceremoniously throws an arm over Thea's shoulder; fortunately, Gwen is a short spider-person and doesn't pack a lot of weight. "Thanks," she mumbles, letting Thea set the pace.
"I… This is all my fault," she admits, suddenly. "Morlun beat me senseless, then threatened my Dad, then used me as bait… he even made me call Spider-Man to tell him." She gulps softly. "I told him… I told Spider-Man not to come, but he did. And then it was all just… just so Morlun could get to Spider-Girl's family first." She sucks in a breath. "I'm the worst superhero ever."
Spider-Girl rises and joins Angelica Renardo, the neighboring tenant in whose apartment she and the family fled. The two have a brief conversation, and after nodding, Angelica pulls reheated carne asada from the microwave, and heads over to speak with Anya's grandmother, carrying the food and a glass of juice.
As for Spider-Girl, she's been intercepted by a police officer in the hallway upon leaving the apartment. The two are having a conversation in Spanish; most of the beat cops in East Harlem are fluent. It's part of the job description.
"«Spider-Girl? What on earth happened here?»"
Thea will steady Gwen, and work Gwen's chemicals to help her relax, to reduce pain. Thea is not super strong, but she's strong enough, especially with boosting her own adrenaline to reinforce her body's ability to near carry Gwen into the building. "You're still figuring everything out. It will be okay."
Thea pauses at this dramatic confession, pulling away to look at Gwen. "No, it is /not/ your fault." That tone is stone, there is no arguing with Thea on this, clearly. "This is no one's fault but Morlun's. He is the only one to blame for any of this. I am going to kill him." Oh, she is so going to kill him and enjoy it. "Superheroes are just people, some with extra abilities or talents. No one is perfect. You had people you had to protect, and you didn't know what he was going to do. This is not on you. Do you hear me?" The tone is a little more gentle at the end, before Thea is moving to help Gwen and find the best way to the 8th floor.
Gwen hangs her head as she listens to the rebuke, and a soft sniffling can be heard from behind the mask. "Yeah," she replies, sullenly. "I just… tonight I thought I was going to die, and… and I thought I was ready to face that, if Morlun came back and killed me like he said he was going to, if Spider-Man didn't show up. I'd have fought, but I know I would've lost, in this condition."
She shakes her head, "I was not ready to lose my best friend, or lose my Dad, or lose any other heroes, or lose any innocent people, all of which almost happened tonight." She pauses. "Except for the last one. That did happen tonight. Spider-Girl lost her Uncle and… and I just want to hug her and make it better but I can't."
"«We've been hunting a very dangerous man named Morlun,»" Spider-Girl explains to the police officer. "«We tracked him here, but we were too late to prevent…»" She pauses, coming apart at the seams in a split second. The mask prevents the officer from seeing it in her eyes, but it's visible in the way her lips contort. "«to prevent…>"
The police officer reaches forward and puts his hand on the young woman's shoulder. "«Listen to me,»" he tells her quietly. "«Everything you have done for this neighborhood… I am not going to tell anyone. But if you want to keep this thing a secret, you've got to pull it together. I'm… sorry to have to tell you that, but if you can't…»"
Spider-Girl looks at the police officer, feeling the sudden burst of courage coming from the most unexpected of places, at least to her. The slump of her shoulders rises, and she draws in a deep breath. "«… to prevent what happened.»"
"«At least you tried,»" the police officer says. "«What do you need from us?»"
"«Take care of the people here,»" she tells him, "«and don't take the victim's two sons into custody. Whatever you do, you have to hold that off.»"
"«I'll do what I can,»" the officer assures her with a warm smile.
It is then when her mask HUD comes back online, following yet another brief malfunction, and reveals to her that Spider-Woman is downstairs. She gasps, and tears away from the officer. "«I have to go.»"
"You're a long, long way from dying. Morlun, on the other hand, is on borrowed time." Thea does not look like a healer, or an Angel. Her jaw is clenched, and her eyes burn. "I saw what he did to Spidey before, when the chick with the winged horse brought him to me. I've seen some of what he's done. I am going to enjoy tearing him apart." She's not speaking loudly, or with any heat in her voice. No, her voice has gone calm, cool, and casual.
"I know she did. I couldn't help her with that." She was asked, but she can not bring the dead back to life. At least she has never done it, yet. "But she could use the hugging. She was hugging me, and I know you to have had more interaction than she and I." Thea doesn't think people generally want to hug her.
"I hope I'm a long way from dieing," Gwen replies, "I'm only nineteen, I'm in my first year of University and I really shouldn't be thinking about anything other than grades, parties, and boys." Gwen shrugs her shoulders, "But then I got bitten by a spider and now I'm a superhero. So that's fine… but when I was in front of the Windermere and Morlun told me to call Spider-Man and tell him to be there in 20 minutes or he'd kill everyone inside a block starting with me, I just…" She shrugs, "I started trying to get everyone out. What else could I do? But all I was thinking about was that I needed Spider-Man to stay away, and worry about what it would do to him if Morlun made good on his threat."
As it turns out, there's probably only one way to get up the stairs, and that's to walk… up the stairs. Gwen is still shakey to be sure; broken bones, torn muscles and ligaments, and internal bleeding from your kidney will do that to you. But with Thea's help and some rests, she's managing it. "You've been doing this for a while? What should I have done different?"
"The Spiders all have me. So none of you is dying any time soon, if I have any say." Thea explains, as she starts spreading that healing to the muscles, the bones. She needs Gwen to be able to ambulate better, before the girl starts to think she's a burden. "Only nineteen. What, do you think I'm some sort of soccer mom?" Thea teases. She lets Gwen rest against the wall, and blinks to look over the girl with her powers more clearly to boost the healing faster. "You did exactly what you could have done. Spidey had the choice what to do, even if he felt there wasn't one. IT's not on you."
"I was sent away to train my powers at fifteen. But I wasn't trained to do this. To heal heroes." Thea's voice is quiet, her expression almost remote. "I was trained to assassinate and torture people. That was what they wanted to use me for. Once I got away from them, I did. I killed and tortured people.. well, I only took cases for good causes." There's a chuff of a laugh. "Then I met Peter." She says so quietly, Gwen is the only one likely to hear, super senses or not.
Gwen nods her head once. "I guess we all have an 'origin story'," she replies. "I don't judge anyone for—" she stops mid-sentence, and snaps her head sideways to look at Angel. "You know?" she asks. Smooth, Gwen; of course she knows, she just said as much. She rests there against the wall for a moment; at least things in her body are starting to knit with Thea's help. Having a spider's penchant for healing really fast anyway certainly doesn't hurt, but she can't afford to wait a day or two for her bones to get put back together. Morlun could come back in five minutes.
"Did he tell you we've been best friends since we counted our age in single digits? I can't… I can't imagine losing him. He's so important to me, I'd follow him anywhere." She smiles then, wistfully, "And to think for the last couple years I thought I was doing things to protect him. Turns out he's been Spider-Man all this time… he's probably protected me and I haven't even known it." She sighs softly. "I can finally return the favor… or at least I thought I could. I couldn't do anything today. I had to sit it out because I was thrashed. …I can't… I can't do that again, Angel, I can't."
By now, Spider-Girl is absolutely racing down the stairwell. There is an elevator, of course, but it's slower than slow, and now that Thea has boosted her own healing, she's faster than that.
This is precisely when the stairwell door bursts open, and Spider-Girl emerges. "Spider-Woman!" she cries, and rushes over, about to grab her into a hug before she pulls up short, remembering just how beaten up the woman was. Her masked head spins to Thea, and she says, "Angel!" Then she's just looking between the two, feeling so many emotions that she goes completely still and silent.
There's a faint smile. "Of course I do. Just like he knows my real name, where I live.. all about me. And no, he hadn't told me that. He is very protective and doesn't tell all of us all about each other. That's why you know me as Angel." Thea shrugs. "Of course, if I ever saw someone in costume and then out.. I'd know it was them. Without them telling me. It's happened. " There's a tug of her lips upwards. "I can't lose him, either. He's more my family than most of the people that are blood related to me."
Her head turns to look at Anya. "Well hey there. I saw someone loitering on outside, thought I would see her upstairs. " She jokes at Anya, a tip of her head. "I'm working on her, but we need to rest now and then."
Thea might need to be working on Gwen, but with Spider-Girl in front of her, there's things that Gwen needs to do. So she steps forwards, pushing off from the wall and throwing her arms around Anya, wincing and hissing as the movement sends fire up and down her side, but doing it anyway.
"I'm sorry," she practically blubbers. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."
Well, she wanted to hug Anya and make it better. She can at least manage the former, even if there's nothing to do for the latter.
Don't cry, Gwen, flashes through her mind. She's totally going to, but she blinks it back; successfully, at least for now. She focuses on trying to figure out what to say, but there… there really isn't anything. What do you say in a situation like this? So she just hugs Spider-Girl, doing her best to try and shoulder just a little bit of the load, if only for a moment.
Anya doens't back away, but there is a brief moment's hesitation before her arms wrap around her new friend. Maybe it was because she doesn't want to cause any more pain, or maybe it's because her mind is swirling left and right. So for a while, she just stands there, embracing her counterpart with eyes closed behind the mask. She doesn't say a word, not until she pulls her arms away and takes a step back, fixing Gwen with the same parental expression she'd given to her younger cousins.
"We need to rest," she says, echoing Thea. "Or else we are worthless. This isn't over."
The tone of her voice isn't what it used to be. There is grim determination in her words, and a certain numbness that is setting in. There isn't an ideal situation here, a positive outlook for her. There simply is… what must be done.
There is the faintest sigh from the biokinetic. She feels so old, all of a sudden. She shouldn't feel old at twenty-one. "Come on. Let's get her upstairs, so I can finish her up somewhere other than a stairwell. Then I'm giving you money, and you can order food for everyone. Protein and comfort food, not-a-doctor's orders." Her hand reaches to touch Gwen's shoulder gently, as that heat increases, and the tingling is more intense. The kidney is done, so now her focus is on those hurt muscles and bones.
Gwen nods, as she backs off reluctantly from hugging Anya. "Right," she agrees. "Rest, food, and… Angel, thank you for putting me back together. I don't think I could go a round with a six year old in current condition… trying to manage with a broken rib is just… awful." Not to mention everything else she had, but the rib was kind of attention-grabbing, so she probably hasn't even figured the rest out. She puts a hand on Spider-Girl's shoulder, and nods her head once.
"We won't let him get away with it," she replies. "He'll pay. He'll pay. I promise. I'll be there with you to make sure he pays." And hopefully, to make sure he doesn't continue going from world to world, hurting people, destroying families, and hunting spiders. "He said our Spider-Man was the center of the web, and that's why he's here. That all the rest of us are connected to him. Well, then he screwed up. The center of the web is the strongest part. It's where a spider hunts. He's just a fly now and he doesn't even know it."
Big talk, Gwen Stacy. Hope you can back that up.